中文摘要：

从客观公正的视角,以统计数据为依据,揭示了独立学院诞生的原因是在高等教育大众化和企业不景气的环境下高等教育供需不均衡,指出了独立学院在地域分布上的基本均衡性及其与地区经济和高校规模的显著相关性。通过与普通高校对比发现,独立学院的学科结构具有相似性,对应用性工科人才和财经类人才的大力培养符合社会的需求。通过与教育部直属高校和普通民办高校对比发现,独立学院与民办高校都缺乏较高水平专任师资,但管理人员所占比例显著少于教育部直属高校。结合母体高校办学水平和校友会网的评价还发现,211工程大学申办的独立学院办学水平普遍好于其他独立学院。

英文摘要：

This paper addresses this issue based on much statistical data. The birth of independent colleges is due to the dramatic imbalance between the supply and demand of higher education under the popularization of higher educa- tion and the recession environment of enterprises. The geographical distribution of independent colleges is basically balanced and significantly related with the regional economic and the scale of regular higher-education institutions, The disciplinary structure of independent colleges is similar to that of the ordinary universities and adapted to the so- cial demand for senior engineering and financial talents. The independent colleges as well as other private colleges lack a high-level full-time faculty, but the proportion of their staff is significantly less than that of universities under the ministry of education. The performances of these independent colleges held by the 211-engineering universities are generally better than that of others based on the performances of their supervisors and the assessments from the alumni website.