Higher Education Development, Regional Economic Growth and Opening to the Outside World

Abstract

The development of higher education and opening to the outside world are important factors in promoting China's economic growth. On the basis of clarifying the relationship between the three, based on the economic and social statistics of 290 prefecture-level and above cities in China from 2003 to 2018, this paper constructs a panel model to test the role of higher education development on regional economic growth and the mediating role of urban opening up between the two. The study found that: in the past 15 years, the improvement of the development level of higher education can not only directly promote the growth of the regional economy, but also indirectly promote the growth of the regional economy by improving the level of urban opening to the outside world. It is suggested that the high-quality development of higher education should be continuously promoted, and the opening-up efforts should be increased in order to achieve the strategic goal of high-quality economic and social development.