The Logical Motivation and Practical Path of Faculty-System Reform in Chinese Universities: A Perspective Based on Organizational Change Theory

As the trend of interdisciplinary integration intensifies, the traditional two-tier management model at the school and college levels has exposed its limitations, making faculty-system reform a crucial issue. Based on the analysis of organizational change theory, the logical drivers behind the faculty-system reform in Chinese universities encompass the internal needs for university internal management and disciplinary integration development, as well as external impetus from national policy guidance and socio-economic development. However, the reform is still in the exploratory stage and faces challenges in practice, such as resistance from traditional mindsets, imperfect functional positioning, and operational mechanisms. The faculty-system reform in Chinese universities can draw on the three-stage model of organizational change—unfreezing, changing, and refreezing—to explore its practical pathways. This involves unfreezing traditional mindsets, implementing structural and mechanistic changes, and then refreezing with supporting policies and systems, thereby optimizing internal management structures, fostering interdisciplinary integration, and enhancing universities’ academic level and innovation capacity.