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One Hundred Years in Pursuit: The Idea of University Autonomy in China

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Education and Global Cultural Dialogue

Part of the book series: International and Development Education ((INTDE))

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Abstract

The idea of university autonomy, as understood in the West, appeared in China with the emergence of modern universities in the late nineteenth century. However, only in 1985 did socialist China begin a dramatic reform of higher education to serve the needs of modernization. Since then, the theme of university autonomy has dominated the discourse of higher education. One focus has been on the delegation of power from the government to universities, leading to the enactment of the Higher Education Law of the People’s Republic of China in 1998. Another has been on the universities’ self-initiated activities related to institutional development and expansion. The campus revolutions that took place much earlier in the West have now swept over China—the transition from elite to mass higher education, equality in women’s enrollment, and technological innovations leading to the modernization of programs and resources (Wildavsky 2010). Today, China has built the largest higher-education system in the world. Its next goal is to achieve academic excellence throughout the system.

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Authors
  1. Ningsha Zhong
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. OISE/UT, Canada

    Karen Mundy (Professor and Canada Research Chair) (Professor and Canada Research Chair)

  2. Faculty of Education, York University, Canada

    Qiang Zha (Associate Professor) (Associate Professor)

Copyright information

© 2012 Karen Mundy and Qiang Zha

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Zhong, N. (2012). One Hundred Years in Pursuit: The Idea of University Autonomy in China. In: Mundy, K., Zha, Q. (eds) Education and Global Cultural Dialogue. International and Development Education. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137045591_11

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