Abstract: Transforming the local university into applied university is not only the urgent requirement of the economic development, but also the necessarity of self-development. By analyzing the internal and external conditions of transforming the local university into the applied university, we can find that the local university has the advantages on basic conditions, rich managerial experiences and potential development. Meanwhile, there are also such problems as the low power and enthusiasm of transformation and shortage of applied teaching group. In terms of the external environment, the economic transformation and structure upgrade, the technology for industry demand and building modern vocational education system also create a good opportunity for the development of transformation. We can effectively promote the development of transformation through refactoring the decision-making mechanism of transformation, the construction of organizational mechanism, evaluation mechanism and operating mechanism.

Key words: local university, development of transformation, SWOT analysis, applied university