Public Opinion, Educational Equity, and Governance in an Era of Mass Higher Education: Lessons from "Shanhe University

Qianyi Xu; Yufei Song; Yongcai Li

doi:10.56868/jadhur.v4i3.264

Authors

Qianyi Xu Capital Normal University, Beijing, China
Yufei Song NO.12 Middle School of Linyi,Shandong, China
Yongcai Li Guizhou Vocational and Technical College of Water Resources and Hydropower,Guizhou, China

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.56868/jadhur.v4i3.264

Keywords:

Popularization, Equity in higher education, High-quality development, Public opinion analysis, Massification

Abstract

The massification of higher education in China has shifted public discourse from quantitative access to the qualitative and equitable distribution of elite educational resources. This study investigates the viral "Shanhe University" phenomenon as a critical case of bottom-up public sentiment regarding educational equity. Employing a structured thematic analysis, we collected and analyzed 494 user comments from two official media videos on the Bilibili platform using NVivo 12 software. The results reveal a sophisticated public understanding of equity, structured around three interconnected dimensions: opportunity (54.1% of coded references, highlighting severe regional disparities in elite university access and admission quotas), process (36.8% of references, focusing on perceived inferior teaching conditions and resource deprivation in local institutions), and outcome (9.2% of references, expressing anxiety over employment discrimination and limited further education pathways). The discourse underscores a systemic public critique of geographical resource stratification and credential devaluation. In response to this public agenda, we recommend governance pathways focused on structural reforms to rebalance opportunity, targeted resource compensation for non-elite universities, and policy measures to mitigate labor market discrimination. The findings highlight the imperative of integrating public voice into higher education governance during the massification era.

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