Abstract

The expansion of postgraduate education has led to an increasingly prominent structural problem in China. Therefore, accelerating restructuring of postgraduate education has become a strategic focus in the development of higher education of China. Crucial to structural adjustment and optimization, however, is the change and innovation in academic degrees and graduate education system.

Based upon relevant organizational analysis theories in the new institutionalism, this paper highlights institutional analysis, and teases out the process of institutional change ofacademic degrees and graduate education of China, under the interaction frame of institutional change, system change, organizational development, and educational restructuring. Meanwhile, this paper, by analyzing the influence of institutional change on graduate educational restructuring from the perspective of organization, elucidates the adjustment mechanism of graduate education of China, and further explores the actively adaptive mechanism of graduate educational structure of China in the context of "polycentric and collaborative governance". The paper mainly falls into three sub-studies.

Firstly, it is on the study of historical institutional change. This substudy teases out in detailreform in management system of academic degrees and graduate education of China, change in authorized degree examination and verification system, specialty catalog of discipline and its reform, establishment and development of professional degree system；and analyzes that the change in academic degrees and graduate education system of China over the past 30 years has created a new institutional environment for structural adjustment of postgraduate education. This institutional environment has the following characteristics: adapts to thecomplexity of technological environment， the organizational fields of graduate education experiences a significant change, the newly formed organizational fields substantially empowers organizations at all levels, creates and develops the new type degree, and a change takes place in cultural-cognitive factor in the setting of degree programs.

Secondly, based upon the depiction of the structural features and evolution trend of graduate education of China, the sub-study, throughempitical organizational study, analyzes the actual effect of institutional change on restructuring by promoting organizational development and empowering. Influenced by institutional change, the graduate education of China has experienced a significant change in terms of its discipline structure, layout structure, and type structure. In essence, this institutional change builds a new liability subject structure for restructuring of graduate education, under which the Academic Degree Commission of the State Council, Academic Degree Commissions at provincial level, and higher education institutions can combine their efforts to optimize the structure of graduate education. In particular, the Academic Degree Commissions at provincial level, which are responsible for regionally orchestrating graduate education institutions， are characterized by a multitude of newly added degree programs, a wide range of disciplines, diversified structures in increment of degree programs, and by more emphasis on serving local economic and social development. Meanwhile, higher education institutions are optimizing the structure of graduate education, and are generating different development ideas and prioritizing either graduate programs or doctoral programs, by taking into full account the national macro environment and policies, knowledge production and innovation, their own characteristics, market demand, internationalization, and regional characteristics. On the other hand, however, the low level of collaborative governance by management organization at all levels after decentralization has posed a challenge to the further optimization of the structure of graduate education.

Thirdly, it is on theoretical study of institution improvement. With a view to promoting the graduate education of China, especially to further optimizing the structure of graduate education, theacademic degrees andgraduate education system of China should be improved by taking the path of polycentric and collaborative governance. The institutional improvements should be made primarily from speeding up function transformation of central competent departments, strengthening capacity building of local competent departments, creating a better institutional environment for the development of autonomous organizations， and boosting mechanism construction.

Key words: academic degrees and graduate education； structural adjustment；institutional change；polycentric and collaborative governance