Research on the Mechanism and Path for Realizing the Practical‑Education Function of Municipal Industry‑Education Consortiums

Abstract

The municipal industry‑education consortium serves as a strategic institutional carrier for the reform of China’s modern vocational education system. Its core value lies in promoting the transformation of vocational‑education practical education from shallow and loose university‑enterprise collaboration to a paradigm of multi‑agent substantive symbiosis through organizational‑system innovation. Integrating the organizational boundary theory and symbiosis theory, this paper constructs an integrated analytical framework of “organizational form‑operational contradictions‑resolution paths”, and systematically analyzes the internal realization mechanism of the practical‑education function of municipal industry‑education consortiums. The study shows that mature municipal industry‑education consortiums have generally established a three‑level governance structure of “council‑specialized committee‑operation and management center”, and carry out collaborative education relying on platform‑based organizational carriers and project‑oriented operation modes. In the operation of consortiums, there persist three structural tensions of organizational boundaries: the solidified physical boundaries hinder the overall planning and integration of cross‑domain resources; blurred social boundaries weaken the resultant force of multi‑agent collaborative education; conflicts in psychological boundaries erode the foundational value consensus among participants. The endogenous root of the above‑mentioned contradictions lies in the heterogeneous‑logic game among government, industrial parks, industry associations, enterprises and vocational colleges. To resolve the dilemma of “formal integration without substantive convergence” in industry‑education integration, it is necessary to build a symbiotic collaborative governance system, break physical barriers through substantive operation, straighten out agent relations via benefit coupling, bridge cognitive gaps with digital technologies, and accomplish the governance transition of consortiums from external administrative‑driven forces to endogenous empowerment of the industry‑education ecosystem. This research enriches the theoretical interpretation system for industry‑education integrated collaborative governance, and provides practical policy references for the high‑quality implementation of municipal industry‑education consortiums and full release of practical‑education effectiveness.