Implications of China’s Higher Education Development: From the Perspective of Comparative Culture

Abstract

Contemporary comparative and international studies of higher education have portrayed the powerful influence of economic and political realities.Cultural dimensions,especially those of traditional ways of thinking,have often been ignored.As universities are culturally embedded,it is erroneous to treat them as the same entity in various cultural contexts.Chinese traditional culture cannot coexist easily with the globally dominant European-American university model,and it is a unfinished business of integrating Chinese and Western ideas of a university.With a strong catch-up mentality,universities in China are often uncritical towards the European-American model.Without an infusion of traditional education values,universities in China risk losing touch with their cultural roots in their quest for world-class status. 當代比較高等教育研究過于強調政治和經濟的影響,文化的維度,特別是思維方式的影響往往被忽視。大學植根于文化,不同文化語境中的大學不應等同視之。中國傳統文化與歐美大學模式無法輕而易舉地相容共生,中西方大學理念的整合仍是一項未竟的事業。但出于強烈的追趕心態,中國往往不加批判地移植歐美大學模式。在創建世界一流大學的過程中,如果缺乏傳統文化價值的注入,中國大學將面臨文化無根的危險。