Identification and Evaluation for Key Factors of Innovative Education in Universities Based on Grey Relational Model

The development of innovative education in universities is influenced by many factors inside and outside the system. It is important to identify the key factors of innovative education in universities, and it is helpful to promote the practice of innovative education and the development of entrepreneurship education. This paper takes Jiangsu Province as an example to study innovative education in universities. Based on research ideas of data envelopment analysis, fifteen factors from two angles of input and output are designed. According to the relevant statistics of Jiangsu Province from 2006 to 2015, the grey relational model is used to analyze the factors that affect the development level of the innovative education in universities, and the key factors are identified and evaluated. Based on quantitative results, countermeasures are put forward from the aspects of educational concept, management system, teaching practice and so on.


INTRODUCTION
As a modern educational concept, innovative education is essentially to reform and discard the traditional ideas of education, so as to cultivate the students' innovative spirit and practical ability.Innovative education is the basic value orientation to cultivate innovative ability and innovative spirit, not only reform the educational methods, but also redefine the educational function.It is a systematic and structural reform in education.Innovative education mainly includes the following four aspects: to arouse students' critical awareness; to encourage students to participate in innovative activities; to train students' creative thinking; to cultivate students' creative practical ability.
As a strong province of education, Jiangsu attaches great importance to the education of innovation and entrepreneurship in universities, and has issued a series of reform programs, and achieved good policy results.However, innovative education is characterized by openness, transcendence and specificity, innovative education is facing some bottlenecks in the implementation of Jiangsu Province: innovative education effect is difficult to measure; teachers' innovation awareness is not high; innovative education output has uncertainty and hysteresis; lack of innovative practice of extra-curricular activities.
Through literature review found that although a lot of research on the innovative education of domestic and foreign scholars, but the research mostly focused on innovative education concept definition (Cook et al, 2014;Hsiao et al., 2017), innovative education development predicament (Roberts and Owen, 2012), innovative education improvement strategy (Yueh et al, 2012;Chou, 2017) and so on.The related research lacks the study of key influencing factors based on the data analysis.For instance, Francis et al (2011) studied innovative education in the field of agricultural ecology and emphasized that teachers should combine theory teaching with practice teaching to develop their potential.Vorontsov (2015) analyzed the development trend of Russian higher education, and emphasized that innovative education is not only a new mode of education, but also includes innovation objectives and educational programs.Aithal (2016) proposed an ideal educational system model, and explored the possibility of implementing the system model through online education.In view of this, according to the statistical data of the development of innovative education in universities in Jiangsu Province from 2006 to 2015, grey relational analysis is used in this paper to determine the key influencing factors.

FACTORS OF INNOVATIVE EDUCATION
The development of innovative education in universities is a complex systematic project, which is affected by both internal and external factors (Bedford, 2015).Using the basic idea of data envelopment analysis (DEA), this paper analyzes the influencing factors of innovative education in universities from two perspectives of input and output (Tsou, 2010).In the selection of specific factors, on the one hand, referring to the latest research results in the field of innovative education, we can select the factors that reflect the development level of innovative education in universities; On the other hand, referring to the index selection of Jiangsu Statistical Yearbook, the paper sets specific influence factors from six aspects, such as human resources, material resources, financial resources, personnel training level and so on.The specific content is shown in Table 1.

Methods
Gray relational analysis is used to quantitatively describe and compare the development trend of the system.The method measures the degree of correlation between the factors according to the similarity or dissimilarity of the development trends among the factors (Ho, 2006).Its basic idea is to analyze and determine the degree of influence among factors or the contribution measure of the characteristic sequence of the system according to the similarity degree of the geometric shapes of the sequence curves (Wang et al, 2013).Gray relational analysis includes gray absolute relational degree, gray relative relational degree and gray comprehensive relational degree.General steps for gray relational analysis as follows.
Step one: Determine the system characteristic sequence and correlative factor sequence.The system characteristic sequence is a comparison of the reference system, denote by  0 ,  0 = { 0 (),  = 1,2, . . ., }, t is the time series.The correlative factor sequence is a collection of various factors related to the system characteristic

Contribution of this paper to the literature
• This paper determines the evaluation index from the perspectives of input and output, which comprehensively reflects the current situation of innovative education in Jiangsu province.This research provides a theoretical reference for subsequent research.
• Grey relational model is often used to measure the degree of association between factors.Our study contributes to current research by introducing grey relational model into the identification of key factors.It expands the scope of quantitative analysis of innovative education.
• Based on the result analysis, this study puts forward some countermeasures from the aspects of education concept, management system and practice teaching, which has strong pertinence and operability, and can provide theoretical reference for government decision-making.sequence.Assuming that there are ( = 1,2, . . ., ) factors, the factor i is recorded as   = {  (),  = 1,2, . . ., } (Samvedi et al, 2012).
Step two: Gray absolute relational degree.Let  0 and  i have the same sequence length and belong to the 1-AGO sequence, the difference sequences of the system characteristic sequence and the correlative factor sequence are  0 0 and i 0 ,  0 0 =  0 () −  0 (1),   0 =   () −   (1).
Gray absolute relational degree between  0 and  i as follows.
Step three: Gray relative relational degree. 0 ′ and  i ′ are the initial values of  0 and  i respectively, the grey absolute relational degree of  0 ′ is the grey relative relational degree of  0 , and the grey absolute relational degree of  i ′ is the grey relative relational degree of  i , denote by  0 .
, calculate the sequence difference between  0 ′ and  i ′ , then the grey absolute relational degree is obtained, that is, the grey relative relational degree between  0 and  i as follows.
Step four: Gray comprehensive relational degree.The grey comprehensive relational degree between  0 and  i is  0 , and the formula as follows.
Among them,  = 0.5.The gray relational degree reflects the degree of similarity of curves  0 and  i , reflecting the degree of proximity of the rate of change relative to the starting point.It is a quantitative index that comprehensively describes the degree of closeness between sequences (Malekpoor et al, 2017).
Step five: Comparison of relational degree and calculation results.According to the relative degree, the results are compared and analyzed.

Data Collection and Processing
According to the results above, refer to Jiangsu Statistical Yearbook, China Statistical Yearbook, National Education Development Statistics Bulletin and other statistical information, we can get the statistical data of the influencing factors of innovative education in universities in Jiangsu province from 2006 to 2015.The results are summarized in Table 2.
According to the basic idea of gray relational analysis, it is necessary to determine the systematic characteristic sequence of innovative education in universities in Jiangsu Province as a comparative reference system.Due to the lack of research on the key influencing factors of innovative education in universities, it is determined that the system characteristic sequence lacks academic basis.In this paper, the influencing factors of logistics development are used for reference, and turnover of output technology of Jiangsu technology market is selected as the system characteristic sequence.The reason is as follows.First, turnover of output technology represents the level of innovative education development in universities, and the operation is simple and convenient, covering the social effects of innovation achievements in universities and enterprises.Second, the economic profits reflect the ultimate goal of the development of innovative education in universities, and echo the basic thinking of selecting the influencing factors from the two angles of input and output.Therefore, this paper takes turnover of output technology of technology market in Jiangsu from 2006 to 2015 (as shown in Figure 1) as the systematic characteristic sequence of grey comprehensive correlation analysis.

Identification and Evaluation of Key Factors
Based on the statistical data of Table 2, according to the calculation procedure of grey comprehensive relational degree, the gray comprehensive relational degree (Poi) of the system characteristic sequence and correlative factor sequence of the innovative education in Jiangsu province is calculated.In terms of the length of the article, the concrete calculation procedure of the grey comprehensive relational degree is omitted, and the results are shown in the last column of Table 2.

Years
The results show that the factors of innovative education in universities in Jiangsu Province are as follows: number of patents applications granted, transfer of scientific and technological achievements, number of institutions for R&D, number of award achievements, public education funds for students, scientific and technological books published, funds income on R&D, education industry cost for students, number of R&D projects, number of graduate students, number of persons for R&D, scientific and technological treatise published and so on.

Results
From the results of gray comprehensive relational degree, number of patents applications granted and transfer of scientific and technological achievements are a very important factor in the development of innovative education in universities in Jiangsu Province, ranking first and second respectively among the various factors.They reflect the market acceptance of innovative results, indicating the long-term positive impact of innovative education.
The number of institutions for R&D play an important role in the development of innovative education in universities.The ultimate goal of innovative education is to rely on innovative talents to produce innovative results, resulting in social and economic benefits.R&D institutions are the carrier of innovative talents engaged in innovative activities, the number of R&D institutions shows the results of innovative education, and counterproductive to innovative education.
Funds income on R&D, public education funds for students, education industry cost for students and other factors become more and more important.The development of higher education cannot be separated from the financial support of the government, and it is necessary to provide adequate financial support for the cultivation of innovative talents.On the one hand, sufficient financial resources provide conditions for innovative education in universities; On the other hand, the improvement of public budget is conducive to solving the worries of researchers, and the purpose and direction of innovative education in universities are clearly defined.
The number of R&D projects has great influence on the development of innovative education in universities in Jiangsu province.It reflects the market demand for scientific and technological innovation, reverse the promotion of universities to improve the quality of personnel training, and strengthen the output of innovative talents to have the ability to undertake research and development issues.Through the analysis, it is proved that the results obtained by gray comprehensive correlation analysis are in good agreement with the actual situation of innovative education development in universities in Jiangsu province.

Analysis of influencing factors of input level
The number of institutions for R&D, funds income on R&D, education industry cost for students and public education funds for students are the main factor influencing the development of innovative education in universities in Jiangsu Province, and influence of the ratio of students to teachers of colleges, number of persons for science and technology activities, number of persons for R&D and number of postgraduates in school are relatively weak.This shows that public financial funds are the main driving force for the development of innovative education in universities, and they provide material resources and financial resources for innovative education in universities.Therefore, the government must strengthen the education support, continue to tilt the public budget to the education field, and then strengthen the teaching staff and infrastructure construction, promote foreign exchange, update the concept of education, and change the teaching model (Kaufman et al, 2016).The correlation between the influencing factors of human resources and the development of innovative education in universities is small, which does not mean that teachers, researchers and graduate students have low contribution to creative education, but in the short term, these factors tend to be stable in quantity, and the improvement in quality is reflected in the influencing factors of output level (Brenna, 2016;Hamada and Hassan, 2017).

Analysis of influencing factors of output level
On the whole, the grey relational degree between the influencing factors of output level and the development of innovative education in universities is higher.The transfer of scientific and technological achievements, number of award achievements, number of patents applications granted and number of R&D projects have a greater impact on the development of innovative education in universities in Jiangsu province, influence of scientific and technological treatise published, number of graduate students are relatively weak.Therefore, the focus of the development of innovative education is to increase the number of scientific and technological achievements transferred and the amount of patents applications granted, and to obtain as much R&D projects as possible so as to enhance the level of scientific research and social service in universities.Among the factors that reflect the level of scientific research, the importance of scientific and technological treatise published is low.The reason is that academic research has not been further translated into innovative results due to lack of practice.Therefore, in order to speed up the development of innovative education in universities, Jiangsu should speed up the output of innovative achievements under the guidance of innovative educational goals and innovative educational programs (Klement, 2017).Meanwhile, Jiangsu must optimize the process of innovative education, pay attention to the quality of graduate education, adhere to both theoretical innovation and practice innovation, enhance the concentration of academic atmosphere, promote academic output (Heinis et al, 2016).

Countermeasures
In order to promote the sustainable development of innovative education in universities in Jiangsu province, it is necessary to make suggestions on educational ideas, academic environment and innovative practice on the basis of grasping the key influential factors.

Change educational concept
The implementation of innovative education needs to change the traditional way of education, create an active and innovative cultural environment, and enhance students' awareness of innovation.Under the shackles of traditional educational ideas, higher education in Jiangsu has continued the inculcation education model.The dependence of modern education on authority leads to the difficulty of innovative education in universities, and innovative education becomes a mere formality.On the one hand, college students should break the shackles of the inherent ideas, consciously cultivate awareness of innovation, discuss and exchange academic frontiers with their teachers, and offer independent opinions on academic issues (Du et al, 2014;Lee, 2017).On the other hand, teachers should strengthen the inculcation of students' innovative spirit, help students realize the difficulties of innovative activities, and strengthen professional knowledge accumulation.

Perfect the educational management system
Jiangsu Province, the overall level of education ranks the forefront of China, innovative education has made certain achievements, but the relevant management system is to be perfected.First, universities in Jiangsu should modify regulations to give students greater freedom, encourage students to participate actively in innovative activities, and adjust their learning plans according to their own needs (Kim et al, 2012).Second, universities in Jiangsu should adjust the existing degree evaluation system, and put innovative practice and innovative ability evaluation into students' quality assessment, and pay attention to the innovative performance of students during their studies.Third, according to the principle of fairness, universities should establish innovative rewards and punishments mechanism, reward students with innovative ability, and give appropriate punishment to students who do not actively participate in the school's innovative activities (Castro, 2015).

Create a free and active academic atmosphere
Constructing innovative culture atmosphere is helpful to train creative talents (Clothey, 2011).First of all, universities should organize cultural activities to promote student communication.Universities in Jiangsu should take mass organizations and student associations as the carrier, organize cultural activities actively, set up cross disciplinary communication platform, promote the learning of each subject, and guide the students to form an innovative thinking mode.Secondly, universities should optimize the curriculum system, encourage students to participate in practical activities, enhance the proportion of innovative courses, pay attention to the content of practical courses, and consciously enhance the practical ability of college students (Ferreras-Méndez et al, 2016).Finally, Jiangsu should optimize the teaching methods, use heuristic teaching methods, try to carry out open teaching, stimulate students' creative inspiration, and enhance students' divergent thinking ability.

Strengthen the practice of innovative teaching
Practical teaching can test the mastery of students' knowledge, test students' ability of problem analysis and knowledge use, and discover the deficiencies of curriculum system and teaching methods in time.On the one hand, Jiangsu Province should make full use of social resources, and exchanges and cooperation with enterprises to build innovative educational practice platform, encourage students to enter the enterprise practice, transform the scientific research achievements into the social productive forces, and expand the ways to cultivate students' creative ability in universities (Cheng et al, 2016).On the other hand, the practice teaching takes the enterprise as the platform, and the teaching process and the teaching quality are lack of controllability.Therefore, we must strengthen the supervision and management of practice teaching.In order to ensure the controllability and feasibility of practical teaching, Jiangsu should comprehensively review the operation mechanism of practical teaching and evaluate the quality of teaching with multi index comprehensive evaluation method.

Improve the educational quality evaluation methods
Firstly, the traditional evaluation method, which takes the final examination as the main part, cannot effectively check the students' innovative ability.It is easy for students to pay more attention to examination results, but neglect the cultivation of innovative consciousness (Chhokar, 2010).Jiangsu should build up a quality evaluation mechanism with equal emphasis on academic performance and practical ability, and treat different types of students differently so as to ensure their respective lengths.Secondly, universities should often go to the top universities in foreign countries to learn from their useful experience in management, teaching and other aspects, and establish a quality evaluation system which is conducive to the cultivation of students' innovative ability.Finally, universities in Jiangsu province should revise the assessment standards and build an evaluation mechanism with teachers, employers and educational institutions as the evaluation subjects (Hofman et al, 2013).The quality evaluation of innovative education should gradually highlight the employing requirements of employers, and objectively evaluate students through innovative achievements, practical reports, evaluation of employers and research reports.

Building an innovative teacher team
The teacher's creative consciousness has an enlightening effect on students.Jiangsu should build an innovative teacher team through training, visits and exchanges.On the one hand, Jiangsu Province should adjust the standard of talent introduction, change the talent selection mechanism which is too concerned with academic ability, pay attention to cultivate the innovation consciousness and personality charm of teachers, establish a good teacher image and guide students to establish good learning concept (Nazarov et al, 2013).On the other hand, universities should often organize teachers to participate in exchange activities, invite well-known scholars held academic lectures to improve the academic sensitivity of teachers.Meanwhile, teachers should get rid of the traditional knowledge-based teaching model, adopt the teaching method of guiding supervision and establish equal teacherstudent relationship.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
Innovative education in universities is the basic value orientation in cultivating innovative ability and innovative spirit.According to the relevant statistics of Jiangsu Province from 2006 to 2015, the grey relational analysis is used to analyze the factors that affect the development level of the innovative education in universities, and the key influencing factors are determined.
Similar to most empirical studies, we must note several limitations.On the one hand, the empirical research based on a single province is not enough to fully explain the key factors of innovation education.There are obvious regional differences in China's education.The key factors of higher education in different regions are slightly different, and cross regional comparative research is more convincing.Based on an analysis of ten institutional cases from five European countries, a comprehensive description and classification of barriers and drivers of innovation are provided by Lašáková et al (2017).On the other hand, the data in this study are not rich enough.The statistical data of 10 years can not fully reflect the changing course of higher education in Jiangsu Province.Due to the change of statistical data caliber, this paper is limited by the set of evaluation indexes, and the data of the longer span have incommensurability.Furthermore, our study contributes to current research by introducing grey relational analysis into the identification of key factors.Grey relational model is often used to measure the degree of association between factors.This paper uses it to determine the key factors, and extends the model of factor identification.
In conclusion, this paper demonstrates that in our sample, the improvement of innovative education in universities in Jiangsu has benefited from the increase in the number of R&D institutions, the number of scientific and technological achievements transferred and the amount of patents applications granted.An important insight we can draw is that the government financial input has an important impact on the development of innovative education in universities, the continuing increase in R&D funds income provides impetus for innovative activities.Finally, the importance of human resources to the development of innovative education in universities is selfevident, but the correlation between human resources and innovative education in universities is relatively low.

Table 1 .
The influencing factors of innovative education in universities

Table 2 .
The statistical data of the factors of innovative education in Jiangsu Province from 2006 to 2015 and the results of grey relational grade