Abstract
Modern universities are uniquely European in origin and characteristics. With the diffusion of the European model into the university throughout the world, the heritage of colonialism and the fact that contemporary universities are Western institutions without much linkage to their indigenous intellectual traditions are the fundamental reasons for the failure of non-Western societies to effectively establish their modern higher education systems. In China, the integration between the Chinese and Western ideas of a university remains unfinished despite many efforts to indigenize the Western concept since the nineteenth century. This article examines and compares the characteristics and development of medieval European universities and traditional Chinese higher learning institutions. In contrast to most existing studies on higher education, which have overwhelmingly portrayed the powerful influence of economic and political realities, this article adopts a cultural perspective on the development of Chinese higher education, calling for the return of culture in the analyses of higher education development and arguing that Chinese universities have considerably improved their hardware but not their software. In the current great leap forward of the Chinese higher education, attention to institutions and cultural establishments is usually absent.
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Notes
For instance, 430 university rectors signed the Magna Charta Universitatum on September 18, 1988, marking the 900th anniversary of Bologna’s foundation. The number of universities signing the Magna Charta Universitatum continues to grow, drawn from all parts of the world.
The imperial examination system began to take form around 400 CE and reached its full institutional development in the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE). During the Song Dynasty (960–1279 CE), it formed into patterns that lasted until 1911. The academies or shuyuan took their definitive forms in the Song Dynasty, as what had been originally libraries or centers for scholarly discussion developed into academies that provided a structured learning environment separate from, yet interacting with, state institutions associated with the civil service examination system. For more information, see Hayhoe (1996) China’s Universities 1895–1995, especially pages 10–11.
Shang means higher and Yang means school. Shangyang is no longer extant.
Again, this is no longer extant.
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Yang, R. Indigenizing the Western concept of university: the Chinese experience. Asia Pacific Educ. Rev. 14, 85–92 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-013-9254-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-013-9254-0