The economic function of education refers to the role that education plays in a certain social and economic development.
Mainly in the following aspects:
(1) Educate fertility workers and train qualified workers and professionals for social and economic development.
(2) Education and reproduction of science and technology to promote the renewal of labor means and labor objects.
(3) Education investment as a direct economic means.
The development of educational economic function;
On the research of economic function, in 1960s, American scholar Schultz and others put forward the theory of human capital, which holds that education is the main factor of economic development, education development is the cause and economic development is the result. After the 1970s, these views were increasingly questioned and challenged.
The research of Collins and other scholars in the United States shows that the contribution of education to economy is not as much and direct as asserted by human capital theory, and the correlation between education and economy cannot be simplified; Using "international comparison method", it is found that the average education level of people in economically developed countries is high, but this does not prove that there is a causal relationship between them.
The contribution of education to economic productivity mainly appears in the period of popularization of education, and beyond this period, the contribution is not significant; In the case of unbalanced educational structure, education may become an obstacle to achieving the goal.
The structure of higher education
Higher education promotes the adjustment and improvement of economic structure. The influence of higher education structure on economic structure is mainly realized through the structure of some specialized talents. A certain higher education structure is the basis of forming a certain specialized talent structure. The structure of specialized talents refers to the proportional relationship between the quantity, quality and distribution of senior talents in various departments and industries of the national economy.
Senior specialized personnel come from the cultivation of higher education, so the structure of higher education will inevitably directly affect the formation of specialized personnel structure and ultimately affect the economic structure.
The hierarchical structure of higher education affects the formation of technical hierarchical structure of specialized personnel, and the disciplinary structure of higher education affects the formation of post types and professional structure of specialized personnel. In addition, the regional structure of higher education affects the regional distribution of specialized talents.