Research on the High-Quality Development of Private Universities in
Guangdong Province Based on TOPSIS Model and Coupling
Coefficient Model
Jia Zhou, Kehua Lin
*
, Ruijun Lin and Xinjian He
Guangzhou Hali College Guangzhou, China
Keywords: Private University, Higher Education, High-Quality Development, TOPSIS Model, Coupling Coefficient
Model, Guangdong Province.
Abstract: The high-quality development of higher education is a significant theme for future development in the new
era. Private universities have become a force that plays an essential role in constructing modernization and
popularizing higher education. It’s necessary to analyze whether higher education provided by private uni-
versities has achieved high-quality development under the new requirements and what shortcomings and
problems it has encountered. We collect the data of twenty-five privately-run universities from the official
documents of Guangdong Provincial Department of Education, Guangdong Student Employment and En-
trepreneurship Network, CNKI, and the official website of each sample. We use the entropy weight method
TOPSIS model and coupling coefficient model by SPSS software to construct a comprehensive index of
high-quality development of higher education and analyze the coupling degree from five dimensions of in-
novation, greenness, openness, coordination and sharing. We find that the innovation and openness indica-
tors have contributed significantly to the high-quality development of higher education. The gap in the
comprehensive index is relatively large. The coupling degree of the sub-index of most schools isn’t at a
suitable level. So private universities in Guangdong Province should not only focus on reducing the devel-
opment gap, especially in innovative and open development, but also improve the coordination of the five
indicators.
thor(2297482194@qq.com), Ruijun Lin(473444293@qq.com) and Xinjian He(1171193486@qq.com) are the second and
third author respectively.
1 INTRODUCTION
China's private education has positively contributed
to cultivating higher education talents. Seven hun-
dred seventy-one private universities in 2020 ac-
counted for 22.7% of the available colleges and
universities in the country, according to the 2020
National Education Development Statistical Bulle-
tin. Private higher education has become an essential
part of higher education in China. Based on location
advantage, private higher education in Guangdong
Province, which is at the forefront of reform and
opening up as a central education province, started
early and developed rapidly and has a large scale in
the country. The quality of privately-run universities
is directly related to the high-quality development of
higher education in Guangdong Province. Scholars
mostly conduct qualitative research on the high-
quality development of higher education, and few
scholars have quantitatively measured the high-
quality development of higher education. This thesis
aims to calculate the high-quality development index
of twenty-five private universities in Guangdong
Province and obtain some conclusions which pro-
vide a basis for the decision-making of private uni-
versities in Guangdong Province in the future devel-
opment.
2 LITERATURE REVIEW
Regarding the research on high-quality development
of higher education, some scholars have researched
connotation, development indicators and driving
382
Zhou, J., Lin, K., Lin, R. and He, X.
Research on the High-Quality Development of Private Universities in Guangdong Province Based on TOPSIS Model and Coupling Coefficient Model.
DOI: 10.5220/0011912400003613
In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on New Media Development and Modernized Education (NMDME 2022), pages 382-387
ISBN: 978-989-758-630-9
Copyright
c
2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
factors of high-quality development of higher educa-
tion.
2.1 About the Connotation of High-
Quality Development of Higher
Education
Wang Jianhua (2021) believes that the core connota-
tion of high-quality development of higher education
is expanding people's substantial freedom (Wang
2021). He emphasizes that high-quality development
of higher education should be based on human de-
velopment, and evaluating high-quality development
requires a more comprehensive perspective. Zhang
Jin and Wang Jiayi (2021) believe that the high-
quality development of higher education is "com-
prehensive", "sufficient", and "long-term" develop-
ment (Zhang, Wang, 2021). Zhong Xiaomin (2020)
believes that high-quality development should focus
on answering the question of "excellent or not".
High-quality development in the new era is mainly
characterized by solid characteristics, excellent qual-
ity, and a strong ability to meet demand (Zhong
2020). Chen Liang and Yang Juan (2021) believe
that the logical framework for the high-quality de-
velopment of higher education needs to be con-
densed into three aspects: the spiritual, institutional,
and economic dimensions (Chen, Yang, 2021).
2.2 About the Evaluation Indicators
and Driving Factors of High-
Quality Development of Higher
Education
Yang Haochang (2020) constructs a high-quality
development evaluation index system from five
aspects: innovation, collaboration, greenness, open-
ness, and sharing (Yang 2020). Zhang Li (2021)
believes that innovation-driven high-quality devel-
opment is the future of higher education develop-
ment and builds a "double first-class" as the quality
key indicator system (KPI) (Zhang 2021). Liu
Guorui (2021) proposes that we should focus on
deepening the supply-side reform of higher educa-
tion and expanding the opening of higher education
(Liu 2021). Wang Zhichao (2021) points out that the
high degree of coupling of the development of high-
er education itself and social development between
the overall development of people is an effective
way to accomplish the high-quality development of
higher education (Wang 2021). Li Decai (2021)
believes that the core of high-quality development of
higher education lies in the integration of production
and education and the cooperation between schools
and enterprises to cultivate people (Li 2021). Liu
Yao and Fu Baoying (2019) point out that high-
quality development of higher education should
promote from six aspects: talent training, teaching
reform, subject research, teaching staff and teacher
evaluation (Liu, Fu, 2019). Zhao Ji and Xie Yinbo
(2019) believe that we should focus on diversity,
innovation, openness, clustering and intelligence
(Zhao, Xie, 2019). Du Yubo (2020) believes that the
high-quality development of higher education needs
to enhance the core competitiveness of higher educa-
tion globalization (Du 2020).
The above scholars mainly focus on qualitative
research in education, and few scholars have quanti-
tatively measured the level of high-quality develop-
ment of higher education. We want to construct an
evaluation index which obtains the entropy weight
TOSIS and the thermodynamic coupling model to
research the high-quality product of private universi-
ties and universities in Guangdong province to ana-
lyze their progress and problems in higher-quality
development.
3 INDICATORS, DATA AND
METHODS
3.1 Indicators and Data
Drawing on the method of Yang Haochang (2020),
this paper constructs high-quality development indi-
cators of higher education from the five dimensions
of innovation, coordination, greenness, openness and
sharing. It sets up a hierarchical structure of "1-5-
15", one first-level indicator, five secondary and
fifteen tertiary indicators. In terms of data collection,
this paper collects the three-year cumulative
achievements of twenty-five private universities in
Guangdong Province from 2019 to 2021. The con-
structed indicator system and data are shown in Ta-
ble 1.
Research on the High-Quality Development of Private Universities in Guangdong Province Based on TOPSIS Model and Coupling
Coefficient Model
383
Table 1. Comprehensive index of high-quality development (first-level)
Secondary indi-
cator
Tertiary indicator Xij Data interpretation
Innovation
development
Student innovation X11
Guangdong University Student Science and Technology
Innovation Cultivation Fun
d
Faculty innovation X12
Guangdong Provincial Characteristic Innovation and
Young Innovative Talents Research Project
Student self-
em
p
lo
y
ment rate
X
13 Self-employment rate of graduates
Greenness de-
velopment
High-level talents X
21
Teachers with senior professional titles, doctors with
non-senior professional titles and PhD candidates
Key achievements X22
Key scientific research platform project of Guangdong
Province and core journal of the first author unit
(
CNKI
)
School scale X23 Cumulative Enrollment Plan
Openness de-
velopment
Interanion exchange X31 Overseas joint training program
Public class project X32 First-class Courses and Online Opening Courses
Admission rate for
master's de
g
ree
X
33 Domestic postgraduate enrollment rate
Coordination
development
Industrial education
Inte
g
ration Pro
j
ect
X
41 Experimental Practice Teaching Base
Features and Key
Professional Rates
X
42 The rate of specialty major and key major
Teaching Reform
Pro
j
ect
X43 Higher Education Reform Project
Sharing devel-
opment
Average salary X51 Average salary of graduates
Employment rate X52 The initial employment rate of graduates
Major Diversity X53 The number of majors
The data sources are as follows：
X11, X12, X32,
X41, X42 and X43 are derived from the official docu-
ments of Guangdong Provincial Department of Edu-
cation,
X13, X33, X51 and X52 are form Guangdong
Student Employment and Entrepreneurship Net-
work,
X21 is selected form CNKI to get the author
information,
X31 and X53 are from the official web-
site of each private college in our sample.
3.2 Measurement Method
We use the entropy weight method to measure the
comprehensive index of high-quality development of
higher education. The entropy value is a measure-
ment method of the disorder degree of the data. The
weight is determined according to the information of
the data itself. The greater the entropy value of the
index, the more orderly the index is. The less infor-
mation it contains, the smaller the contribution to the
evaluation to have less critical weight.
On the contrary, the smaller the entropy value,
the greater disordering of the index, and the more
information it contains. The more significant the role
it plays in the evaluation, the more influential the
weight has. Therefore, the weight calculated by the
entropy weight method is more objective, and the
result is more accurate and reasonable (Cai 2014).
The specific calculation process is as follows:
The first step is to standardize the variables
which are all positive indicators in our index.
xx
xx
BX
ijij
ijij
ij
minmax
min
−
−
=
(1)
The second step is to calculate the inf
o
rmation
entropy Hi, we assume
0)/ln(
1
=
=
m
j
BXijBXij
,
when BX
ij=0.
===
−=
m
j
m
j
m
j
BXijBXijBXijBXijmHi
111
)]/ln(·)/[()ln/1(
(2)
The third step is to calculate the weight of
indi-
cator Wi.
=
−−=
n
i
HiHiWi
1
)1(/)1(
(3)
The fourth step is to calculate the comprehensive
index of high-quality development of higher educa-
tion of the sample school of j.
=
=
n
i
WiBXijZj
1
*
(1)
NMDME 2022 - The International Conference on New Media Development and Modernized Education
384
4 MEASUREMENT RESULTS
AND ANALYSIS
4.1 Entropy and Weight Analysis
According to the collected data, the corresponding
entropy values and the corresponding weights of
indicators are obtained, as shown in Table 2. Among
the five secondary indicators, we conclude that the
entropy values of the sample schools in innovation
and openness are small with considerable weights.
The weight of innovation is 29.92% to have the most
significant proportion, and the weight of openness is
28.36%. However, the entropy values of coordina-
tion and sharing are more extensive, with more pe-
tite contributions to the comprehensive index. The
innovation and openness of private universities in
Guangdong Province have made a more outstanding
contribution to the high-quality development of
higher education because schools have a significant
difference gap in innovation and openness. Howev-
er, the weights of coordination and sharing are rela-
tively small, with more minor impacts on the high-
quality development of higher education.
Table 2. The Entropy and Weight of sub-index of high-quality development
Indicator Innovation Greenness Openness Coordination Sharing
Entropy 2.6277 2.7831 2.6471 2.8295 2.8683
Weight 29.92% 17.43% 28.36% 13.71% 10.6%
4.2 Calculation Results of the
Comprehensive Index of High-
Quality Development of Higher
Education
According to the calculation results of the compre-
hensive index (as shown in Table 3), there is a sig-
nificant gap in the high-quality development of the
twenty-five private universities. The top-ranked
school’s code is 11545, with a comprehensive index
of 720.74. The second is 13684, with a score of
540.96, while the last is only 81.99. The sample's
comprehensive index of high-quality development of
higher education fluctuates wildly, and there is an
enormous gap in the development of sample schools.
Table 3. Calculation of the comprehensive index and the degree of coupling coordination
Code R Z (‰) D(%) Level Code R Z (‰) D(%) Level
11545 1 720.74 82.30 Excellent 12620 14 322.17 56.71 Medium
13684 2 540.96 72.58 Suitable 13656 15 301.98 53.63 Medium
13675 3 488.20 67.43 Suitable 12622 16 289.14 53.03 Medium
13714 4 483.61 62.20 Suitable 12623 17 282.32 50.93 Medium
13177 5 482.52 61.85 Suitable 13720 18 275.41 49.81 Week
12617 6 416.36 63.36 Suitable 12621 19 265.03 48.72 Week
13902 7 386.76 61.74 Suitable 13720 20 250.00 49.36 Wee
k
12618 8 374.44 55.37 Medium 12574 21 239.89 46.74 Week
13844 9 366.78 58.77 Medium 12059 22 223.61 43.81 Week
10822 10 345.33 57.46 Medium 13657 23 153.24 37.0 Week
13667 11 339.84 56.65 Medium 13717 24 119.74 0.00 Poor
12619 12 336.59 57.31 Medium 13721 25 81.99 0.00 Poor
13719 13 336.05 52.31
Note: R presents the ranking of the comprehensive index, Z and D persent the comprehensive index and the degree of
coupling coordination respectively. The code is a number string composed of numbers organized by the Ministry of
Education for the school as follows: the code 11545 represents University of Electronic Science and Technology of
China Zhongshan College, 13684 represents Zhuhai College of Science College of Science and Technology, 13675
represents Beijing Technology University of Zhuhai College, 13714 represents Guangzhou Industrial and Commercial
Colle
g
e, 13177 re
p
resents Bei
j
in
g
Normal Universit
y
of Zhuhai Branch, 12617 re
p
resents Guan
g
zhou Cit
y
Colle
g
e of
Research on the High-Quality Development of Private Universities in Guangdong Province Based on TOPSIS Model and Coupling
Coefficient Model
385
Technology, 13902 represents Guangzhou Xinhua College, 12618 represents Guangzhou Software College, 13844 rep-
resents Dongguan City College, 10822 represents Guangdong Baiyun College, 13667 represents Guangzhou Business
College, 12619 represents Guangzhou Southern College, 13719 represents Guangdong College of Science and Technol-
ogy, 12620 represents Nanguo Business College, Guangdong University of Foreign Language and Trade, 13656 repre-
sents Guangzhou Huali College, 12622 represents Zhanjiang College of Science and Technology, 12623 represents
Zhujiang College of South China Agricultural University, 13720 represents Guangdong College of Technology, 12621
represents Guangzhou Huashang College, 13720 represents Guangzhou College of Technology, 12574 represents
Guangdong Dongruan College, 12059 represents Guangdong Peizheng College, 13657 represents Guangzhou College of
Applied Science and Technology, 13717 represents Guangzhou Vocational and Technical College of Science and Tech-
nolo
gy
, 13721 re
p
resents Guan
g
don
g
Industrial and Commercial Vocational and Technical Colle
g
e.
4.3 Coupling Analysis of Sub-Indices of
Private Higher Education in
Guangdong Province
This thesis introduces the capacity coupling coeffi-
cient model in physics to measure the degree of
coupling between five subsystems with high-quality
development. The indexes of the five subsystems are
calculated separately by the entropy weight method.
Firstly, we should calculate the C according to
formula (5).
K
K
K
C
Z
Z
Z
ZZZ
K
k
/
21
21
/1
*
*
）（
）（
+…
=
+
…
(5)
Z
K is the subsystem index of K，C represents
the degree of coupling degree, 0≤Ct≤1. The bigger
the coupling degree, the greater the interaction be-
tween the systems; we learn from Wang Yi's method
to divide the coupling degree into five levels (Wang
2018): excellent (0.8,1], suitable (0.6,0.8], medium
(0.4,0.6], weak (0.2,0.4], and poor [0,0.2].
Secondly, we need to calculate the D, the cou-
pling coordination degree of the five subsystems; we
set the same weight of α
K with 20% for each subsys-
tem, α
K indicates the importance of the subsystem
index.
*
D
CG=
(6)
12
12
k
k
G
zz z
αα α
=+ +…+ (7)
We calculate the degree of coordinated develop-
ment of the five indicators using the coupling analy-
sis model, as shown in Table 3. We find that only
the school of 11545 can reach the coupling degree of
excellent level. Six schools' coupling degrees are at a
suitable level, the coupling degree of most schools is
medium and week; the average value of the coupling
degree is 51.97% at the medium coordination level.
5 CONCLUSION
We find that the innovation and openness have made
an outstanding contribution to the high-quality de-
velopment of higher education in private universities
in Guangdong Province. Most private colleges and
universities have faced tremendous development
pressure regarding innovation and openness. There
is a massive gap among the twenty-five private uni-
versities. That means the samples have improved
and developed unbalanced because the private col-
leges have to consider financial benefits and the
achievement that need substantial funding and talent
research support. The coupling degree of most
schools are at a medium and weak level which isn't
an ideal coupling state.
Based on the above conclusions, the high-quality
development of private higher education in Guang-
dong Province should focus on reducing the gap,
especially in innovative growth and openness be-
tween private colleges with a reasonable balance
between short-term and long-term development to
achieve better coupling degree of higher develop-
ment.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The Youth Innovative Talents Project of Guangdong
Provincial Department of Education (Humanities
and Social Sciences) "Specialized Talent Cultivation
Practice Based on the ‘Internet Finance’ Model"
(No: 2015WQNCX175)
Guangzhou Huali College "Online/Offline
Mixed mode ‘First-class Curriculum’ Construction
Project: Finance"
Guangzhou Huali College's Higher Education
Teaching Research and Reform Project in 2022——
Reconstruction and Reconstruction of "Finance" and
Professional Extracurricular Reading under the
Background of New Liberal Arts
NMDME 2022 - The International Conference on New Media Development and Modernized Education
386
Guangdong Higher Education Association's
"14th Five-Year Plan" Higher Education Research
Project——Research on the Reform of Targeted
Education Evaluation of Non-profit Colleges in the
New Era (No: 2022GQN81)
The Youth Innovative Talents Project of Guang-
dong Provincial Department of Education (Humani-
ties and Social Sciences) "Practice and Exploration
of Interest-Oriented Group Teaching Method in the
Teaching of Macroeconomics for Non-economic
Majors" (No: 2015WQNCX176)
Guangdong Province Undergraduate Finance
Teaching Reform Project: "Financial Technology
Experimental Practice Teaching Reform"
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Research on the High-Quality Development of Private Universities in Guangdong Province Based on TOPSIS Model and Coupling
Coefficient Model
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