Research on the Path of Comprehensively Promoting the Rule of Law in Vocational Universities in the New Era ()
1. Introduction
Comprehensively promoting the rule of law in universities as a specific practice of comprehensively promoting the rule of law in the field of education, is the essential requirement of the construction of socialist rule of law, an important guarantee of education under the rule of law, but also a profound revolution in the modernization of education governance. From the issuance by the Ministry of Education of the Implementation Outline for Comprehensively Promoting the Rule of Law in Universities in 2012 to the Vocational Education Law of the People’s Republic of China in 2022, the promulgation of a series of important documents underscores China’s determination to rule of law in universities. This paper takes the theoretical connotation of comprehensively promoting the rule of law in vocational colleges and universities as the starting point, combs the logical reasoning, cracks the governance problems, and builds a scientific and reasonable path for the rule of law in schools.
2. Theoretical Connotation of Comprehensively Promoting the Rule of Law in Vocational Universities
Comprehensively promoting the rule of law in vocational universities is to meet the new requirements on comprehensively promoting the rule of law in the new era, and it is to penetrate the thinking of the rule of law and the rule of law into all aspects of the vocational universities, to continuously improve the level of the rule of law in vocational universities, and to fully utilize the great energy of vocational universities to serve the new pattern of development, and to serve the construction of the socialist country with the rule of law.
2.1. Rule of Law in Vocational Universities Is an Important Manifestation of the Layout of the Rule of Law in the Country
In the new era, China insists on comprehensively promoting the rule of law and opening up a new realm of “China’s rule”, which not only shows the great achievement of China’s modernization of governance, but also injects more stability into the world’s great change that has not been seen in a century. The rule of law in vocational universities is a long-term, complex and systematic project, is based on the laws, regulations, rules and regulations and school system norms, through due process of school governance, is an important guarantee that the school adhere to the socialist rule of law school.
The role of vocational universities to comprehensively promote the rule of law is not only to provide talent protection and intellectual support for our country’s policy of ruling the country according to law, but also to provide a fundamental guarantee for the rooting of China’s land to run a good socialist vocational university with Chinese characteristics (Gao, 2015). The rule of law in vocational universities should be strongly promoted in the overall advancement of the rule of law, but also in the planning and layout of the rule of law to stimulate momentum, and become an important fulcrum for creating a new situation of Chinese-style modernization coordinated with the construction of a society governed by the rule of law and a strong educational state.
2.2. Comprehensive Promotion Is a Key Task of the Strategic Plan for the Rule of Law in Vocational Universities
The rule of law in vocational universities is a necessary way to achieve the high-quality development of vocational education and an important symbol of the modernization of educational governance. Comprehensively promoting the rule of law in vocational universities has a bearing on the overall situation of the construction of China’s educational power, and is a new requirement for vocational universities put forward by the modernization of the country’s governance system and governance capacity (Wang, 2020).
Rule of law in universities is a comprehensive and integrated work, not only to serve the overall situation of the reform and development of the education cause, but also through the whole process of running and governing the school and all aspects of the school. Understanding and grasping the comprehensive promotion of this fundamental and prerequisite work is a key task to deeply comprehend the strategic plan of governing schools according to law. On the one hand, vocational universities comprehensively promote the rule of law is a global and holistic requirement for the all-round reform and development of schools, and it is a comprehensive way to strengthen the leadership of the Party in universities, effectively implement the system of responsibility of the president under the leadership of the Party committee, promote, serve and safeguard the reform and development of the universities, safeguard the lawful rights and interests of teachers and students, implement the main position of teachers and students, and effectively resolve the legal risks of the school to play a comprehensive role (Liu, 2022). On the other hand, the comprehensive promotion of the rule of law in vocational universities is a joint effort from the top down and from the bottom up, that is to say, the rule of law is by no means dependent on the leader to complete alone, but must be achieved through the leaders, staff and students of the multiple forces of the joint promotion and mutual support.
3. The Logical Reasoning of Vocational Universities to Promote the Rule of Law in a Comprehensive Manner
Vocational universities should deeply grasp the logic of comprehensively promoting rule of law in universities, and give full play to the significant role of vocational universities in promoting the construction of the rule of law in vocational education.
3.1. Bottom Logic
The underlying logic of the comprehensive promotion of the rule of law in vocational universities needs to ensure two intrinsic requirements, one is to ensure the rule of law and the other is to ensure democracy. The rule of law is to campus safety as an insurmountable bottom line, is the rule of law throughout the entire process of the rule of law in vocational universities, but also vocational universities of high-quality development of the meaning of the title (Ma, 2017). The underlying logic of vocational universities to comprehensively promote the rule of law is not only to rely on staff and students to consolidate the rule of law, but also to create a rule of law environment conducive to safeguarding the democracy of staff and students, it is a scientific response to what is to comprehensively promote the rule of law in universities.
The two intrinsic requirements of the rule of law and democracy interact with each other, influence each other and develop in a unified manner; they cannot be separated or opposed. On the one hand, the rule of law is the goal of governing schools in accordance with the law. The value of comprehensively promoting the rule of law in vocational universities is to realize the broadest and most lasting rule of law on campus, and to infiltrate the rule of law into all aspects of the rule of law. Enhance the systematic, timely and effective implementation of school laws and regulations, and endeavor to make every staff member and student feel safe and fair, so that all staff members and students can become faithful advocates, conscientious abiders and firm defenders of the rule of law in universities. On the other hand, democracy is the basis for the rule of law in universities. Vocational universities to promote the rule of law in all aspects of the deepest foundation is all staff and students, should be all staff and students as the main body of the comprehensive promotion of the rule of law and the source of strength, must adhere to all for the sake of staff and students, all rely on staff and students. The high-level strategic planning of vocational universities to comprehensively promote the rule of law is to correctly understand and reasonably coordinate the relationship between the rule of law and democracy in vocational universities, and to realize the benign interaction between the rule of law and democracy (Duan, 2021).
3.2. Theoretical Logic
From the theoretical and logical level, comprehensively promoting the rule of law in universities is an important strategic choice for the transformation of China’s vocational education under the new development pattern.
First of all, comprehensively promoting the rule of law in universities is the primary breakthrough in the high-quality development of China’s vocational universities. The rule of law in universities is the strategy for governing vocational universities, as well as the overall requirement for the high-quality development of vocational universities. Vocational universities rule by law is an important aspect of the overall work of the school, the rule of law in universities has a leading role in grasping the direction of the development of the school, as well as providing the basic function of the rule of law guarantee (Luo & Tan, 2020). Secondly, comprehensively promoting the rule of law in universities helps to promote the construction of China’s modern vocational education system. Vocational universities, as a “special force” in the field of education in China, have cultivated a large number of high-quality talents for China and revitalized the real economy. Vocational universities have insisted on implementing the new concept and strategy of comprehensively promoting the rule of law into the cause of vocational education, striving to practice the policy of ruling schools according to law, strengthening the construction of the rule of law on campuses, and contributing to the construction of a modernized vocational education system in China. Finally, comprehensively promoting the rule of law helps to build a new force for international competition in China’s vocational education (Wang, Li, & Li, 2022). The new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial revolution in today’s world has accelerated the reconstruction of the international competition pattern, and vocational education, which is more closely connected with scientific and technological innovation and industrial development, has become the main position to change the competition pattern in the field of global education. Comprehensively promoting the rule of law can provide an important guarantee for China’s vocational colleges and universities to grow bigger and stronger, build a stable, fair and innovative development foundation for the education system, and then lay a solid foundation for the enhancement of China’s vocational education’s international competitiveness in terms of the quality of talent cultivation, efficiency of scientific research and transformation, and international education cooperation.
4. The Reality of the Dilemma of the Comprehensive Promotion of the Rule of Law in Vocational Colleges and Universities
4.1. Inadequate Management Systems
In recent years, China’s vocational education laws and regulations have become increasingly mature, providing a basic institutional basis for vocational colleges and universities to govern themselves according to the law, but at this stage, China’s vocational colleges and universities still have incomplete rules and regulations. The state promotes the reform of vocational education to develop continuously by leaps and bounds, and the existing management system of vocational colleges and universities is relatively old, and it is difficult to meet the needs of the rapid development of vocational education. At the same time, the relevant supporting systems and measures are still not adjusted in a timely manner in accordance with the policy, and there are still many loopholes in the rule of law, which may lead to the phenomenon of not having a “law” to follow.
4.2. Inadequate Security Management
Compared with general education institutions, vocational colleges and universities advocate school-enterprise cooperation, industry-teaching integration and other development modes, which also pose challenges to school safety risk management. The existing safety management of vocational colleges and universities is still dominated by the management of events after the event, with a weak preventive mechanism beforehand and insufficient work in safety emergency response, resulting in the lack of holistic and systematic nature of vocational colleges and universities in carrying out the process of safety management (Sun, 2019).
5. Vocational Universities to Comprehensively Promote the Construction of the Path of the Rule of Law in Universities
At present, the level of the rule of law in China’s vocational universities has still not reached the ideal state, comprehensively promoting the rule of law in universities is still an important work that vocational universities can hardly avoid, and it is an inevitable requirement to cultivate socialist builders and successors, and our country should actively build a comprehensive rule of law in vocational universities to lay a foundation for the high-quality development of vocational universities in the new era.
5.1. Investing in the Development of a Rule of Law Mindset and Approach
The rule of law is the greatest common denominator in the comprehensive promotion of the rule of law in vocational universities. Cultivating the rule of law mindset and approach is the core competence of vocational universities to comprehensively promote the rule of law. Schools should take the rule of law as the basic way of management, and improve the ability to use the rule of law to deepen reform, promote development, resolve conflicts and maintain stability.
Comprehensively promote the rule of law requires that the main body involved in the management of vocational universities is good at applying the rule of law thinking, not only to have the awareness of the rule of law compatible with the in-depth advancement of the strategy of ruling the country according to the law, but also to have a knowledge system of the rule of law compatible with ruling the schools according to the law (Chen, 2019). First, the leadership team should strengthen the awareness of the rule of law, improve the rule of law literacy, so that the concept of governing schools according to the law is internalized into the conscious action of the leading cadres of vocational universities, and to run a good vocational college and university that is satisfactory to the people in the new era. Secondly, administrators and managers should enhance their awareness of the rule of law, improve their legal literacy, cultivate the rule of law thinking to analyze and solve problems, and enhance their ability to apply the rule of law to solve outstanding conflicts in school reform and development as well as outstanding problems in students’ daily lives. Thirdly, we should cultivate the rule of law thinking of teachers and students, increase the penetration of legal awareness, and be good at using legal thinking to deal with daily work and participate in campus activities in accordance with the law.
5.2. Strengthening the Management System of Vocational Universities
Strengthening the management system of vocational universities can accurately respond to the overall requirements of vocational universities in accordance with the law, which is not only the basic guarantee for the effective implementation of the rule of law, but also the institutional support for the high-quality development of vocational education. Vocational universities should adhere to the management system throughout the entire process of governing schools according to law, in order to consolidate the foundation for the comprehensive promotion of governing schools according to law. Due to the unique teaching and learning characteristics of vocational universities, there is a high level of on-campus student and faculty involvement in the community, resulting in vocational universities being exposed to a wide range of sources of risk and strong impacts. The management system of vocational universities should not only adhere to the unified management of the government at the national level, but also give full play to the autonomous management of vocational universities and social enterprises, and encourage and advocate the active participation and self-management of individual teachers and students.
Therefore, our country should promote the system improvement and effectiveness of the management system of vocational universities as a whole, establish a four-in-one organization and management system combining the government, schools, enterprises and individuals, and promote the management pattern in which multiple subjects of vocational universities participate in the management system together and work together to achieve common governance. The government serves as the main body of policy guidance and macro-control, the school serves as the main body of education implementation and resource integration, the enterprise serves as the main body of industrial demand conduction and practice support, and the individual serves as the main body of demand feedback and rights participation (Ye, 2024).
5.3. Optimizing the Security Risk Prevention System in Vocational Universities
Improving the security risk prevention system of vocational universities is an important guarantee for comprehensively promoting the rule of law, and is a key opportunity to realize the level of modernization of the governance capacity of vocational education. Our vocational universities prioritize safety in the context of integrating safety and development, highlighting the importance of safety risk prevention in vocational universities. School safety is related to the personal interests of teachers and students, social harmony and stability is the bottom line and red line of school work. Vocational universities should adhere to the overall national security concept, coordinate school reform and development with security and stability, and continuously improve the level of school security risk prevention and control.
In the face of security risks, vocational universities should build a security risk prevention and control system, accurately identify risks, scientifically respond to risks, and take the initiative to prevent risks. Accurate identification of risks requires vocational universities to unify their thoughts to the decision-making judgment of governing schools according to law, scientific response to risks requires vocational universities to unify their actions to the decision-making deployment of governing schools according to law, and proactive prevention of risks requires vocational universities to unify their methodology to the work requirements of governing schools according to law, to gradually improve the modernization of the governance system and the governance ability of vocational universities, and to make the prevention of security risks of vocational universities as a key focus always pay close attention to it (Chen & Li, 2025). Vocational universities have made safety risk management an important part of the school’s legal governance, strengthened the legal risk assessment of daily management work, raised the awareness of teachers and students of safety precautions, and focused on forward movement and active prevention to avoid subjective decisions and violations of students’ rights and interests. At the same time, it is recommended that vocational universities introduce the “School Safety Risk Prevention and Control Management Measures” in the light of the actual situation of their schools, improve the safety responsibility system, formulate a safety responsibility grid, build a hierarchical and classified safety education and training mechanism, set up a safety hazard investigation, education and training accounts, and implement a list of safety hazards remediation and closed-loop management.
Project
2024 Beijing Science and Technology Vocational University School-level Project: “Research on the Path of Implementing the ‘New Man of the Times Soul Building Project’ in Higher Vocational Colleges and Universities” (Project No.: 2024X101-SXZZ).