华东师范大学学报(教育科学版) ›› 2025, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (12): 1-15.doi: 10.16382/j.cnki.1000-5560.2025.12.001

• 高等教育 •    

从“世界工厂”到“全球研发实验室”——高等教育规模结构质量在创新发展中的重要性与次序变化

田浩然1, 李立国2   

  1. 1. 中国人民大学教育学院,北京 100872
    2. 清华大学教育学院,北京 100084
  • 出版日期:2025-12-01 发布日期:2025-11-27
  • 基金资助:
    中国人民大学2023年度拔尖创新人才培育计划;国家社科基金一般项目“高等教育资源区域优化配置路径研究”(24SGC035)。

From the “World's Factory” to the “Global R&D Lab”: The Importance and Changing Sequence of the Quality of Higher Education Scale Structure in Innovative Development

Haoran Tian1, Liguo Li2   

  1. 1. School of Education, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China
    2. School of Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
  • Online:2025-12-01 Published:2025-11-27

摘要:

我国发展由过去的“世界工厂”到今天作为“全球研发实验室”的作用日益突出,再到未来的世界重要创新高地,高等教育的地位与作用不断发生变革,高等教育规模结构质量在创新发展中的重要性与次序亦随之变化。基于高等教育规模、结构与质量影响创新的效应分解框架和省级面板数据,运用混合回归、夏普利值分解、双固定效应模型和系统广义矩估计进行实证分析发现:(1)高等教育规模、结构与质量均显著影响区域创新,随着创新发展阶段升级,高等教育的地位和作用不断增强,其中,结构优化与质量提升的重要性日益提升,而规模扩张的重要性相对下降;(2)高等教育规模扩张对区域创新增量(专利产出)的贡献度约为14%,占到高等教育总贡献度的一半左右,体现规模效应的基础性地位;(3)质量具有较为一致的显著正向效应,生均质量水平每提高1%,专利产出平均增长0.7%~1.1%;(4)层次结构具有非线性效应,且与规模之间存在协同交互效应:创新总量增长可以由研究生教育规模驱动,而发明创新增长需依靠总规模扩张与研究生占比提升的协同作用。为此,我国依赖规模增量的高等教育发展模式需转向以结构优化、质量提升为主的“存量优化”模式,提出“分类定位、分层扩张、全面提质”的区域差异化发展策略:原始创新引领区需强化高层次教育协同布局,技术扩散承载区应夯实本专科教育基础,各地须以质量跃升为核心,构建适配创新阶段的布局体系。

关键词: 高等教育, 规模, 质量, 层次结构, 创新发展

Abstract:

With China’s development from the “world’s factory” in the past to today’s increasingly prominent role as the “world’s R & D laboratory”, to the world’s important innovation plateau in the future, the status and role of its higher education have been changing, and the importance and order of the scale, structure and quality of higher education in the development of innovation have also changed. Based on the decomposition framework of the effects of higher education scale, structure and quality on innovation and provincial panel data, the empirical analysis using mixed regression, Shapley value decomposition, double fixed-effects model and systematic generalized moments estimation found that: (1) the scale, structure and quality of higher education significantly affect regional innovation, and with the upgrading of the stage of innovation development, the status and role of higher education have been increasing, in which the importance of structural optimization and quality improvement is increasing, while the importance of scale expansion is relatively declining; (2) the contribution of higher education scale expansion to regional innovation increment (patent output) is about 14%, accounting for about half of the total contribution of higher education, reflecting the fundamental status of the scale effect; (3) the quality has a more consistent and significant positive effect, for every 1% increase in the quality level of the per capita student population, the patent output grows by an average of 0.7%~1.1%; (4) the hierarchy has a non-linear effect, and there is a synergistic interaction effect with the scale. The growth of total innovation can be driven by the scale of postgraduate education, and the growth of invention and innovation needs to rely on the synergistic effect of the expansion of the total scale and the increase in the proportion of postgraduate students. For this reason, China’s higher education development mode relying on the incremental scale needs to be shifted to the “stock optimization” mode mainly focusing on structural optimization and quality enhancement, and implement the regional differentiated development strategy of “classified positioning, layered expansion, and comprehensive quality enhancement”. In addition, the leading original innovation zones need to strengthen the synergistic layout of high-level education, and technology diffusion carrying zones should consolidate the foundation of undergraduate education. Also, localities should build a layout system that fits the stage of innovation with the core of quality leap.

Key words: higher education, scale, quality, hierarchy, regional innovation