Management Pattern Discussion and Practice of Graduate Students Vertical Research Group Based on Matrix Organization Structure

Abstract

The development of engineering universities in China has entered a “new normal” of great number of graduate students and large quantity of research activities. Doctoral students and graduate students trained by research university account for over 80% among all the ordinary universities in China, research laboratory and research group are the main places for their study and living. The traditional and single horizontal class management which divided according to students’ school year is still play a role, but its limitation is also obvious in moral education, teaching management and other aspects. This paper takes School of Material Science and Engineering of Harbin Institute of Technology as an example, presenting a “horizontal cultivation, vertical extension” research group management pattern based on matrix organization structure. In practical student work, we used and concluded a corresponding mechanism of system construction and management, which is a useful innovation of postgraduate education management. As a top-notch talent group, graduate students are full of energy, concerning about current affairs and have active thinking. The soundness of their thoughts exert a vital influence on today's social stability. Currently, the number of graduate students enrollment has increased year by year, which reached over 570,000 people, and most of them are from engineering universities include 36 research universities such as Tsinghua University, Harbin Institute of Technology. Doctoral students from these engineering universities account for 59.62% of all the ordinary universities and colleges in China, and graduate students and undergraduates account for 30.45% and 8.31%, respectively. The number of graduate students keeps growing, which brings a challenge to students’ moral education and affairs management. In the background of large quantity of research activities, graduate students scatter in multiple labs and difficult to have the common time and space, which becomes the restriction to carry out graduate student work. Therefore, through setting up departments, research institutes, research centers and other research institutes and basic teaching units, these vertical management organizations cover the shortage of original horizontal class and grade management. These two intertwined management modes comply with the teaching and research work, which provide powerful support and guarantee for universities’ teaching and research work, and gradually formed a new way which adapt to the development of graduate education [1]