Control And Autonomy: The United States Government And University Relations Research

The relationship between government and university is a core question during the development of higher education of a nation. It is the paradigm between the government and university that determines the validity of the system of higher education. The dissertation mainly issues the political control and university autonomy in the government-university relationship. And discuss three questions in detail. The first is whether the government should control the university. The second is in which way the government controls the university. The third is how to define the borderline between the political control and university autonomy. On the basis of the conclusion of the questions, the dissertation tries to find the universal law of the government-university relation.The core issue of the government-university relation is the controversy between the political control and university autonomy. To achieve the public and its own interest, the governemt has the intention to control university. On the contrast, the university tends to pursue the freedom and independence during its development as an academic organization. The conflict between the two is inevitable. Besides controversy, the government and university are interdependent. From the view of the government, university plays an important role in the realization of the public interest so that the government should make good use of university. During the process the government should protect the basic feature of the university as an academic organization in order to prevent the university from plunging into a vocational training ground. From the view of the university, though it has a natural willing to get rid of the control of the government, the university has to rely on the resource support from the government. And the reliability is strengthened as the development of the higher education and the resource allocation ability of the government so that the university has to accept the control from the government. The contradictions between the government and universities make the relationship between the two complicated and contradictory, which makes the government-university relationship face difficulty. Overlly speaking, there is confrontation and also interdependence between the political control and the university autonomy. This paper dispels these views in detail in Chapter I and II.American University is considered to be high degree of autonomy. The private colleges founded in the the colonial period obtain an independent legal person status by the charter from the government, and strengthen the aunotomy rights through the Darmouth College Case' s protection for the charter that it is a contract which under the protection of the constitution. Even the state universities created by the states also also have their legal status and have varying degrees of autonomy. The government has no right to control the university directly. At the same time, the U.S. government' s intervention in the field of higher education is substantial and comprehensive. In the colonial governmet period, the government put its hand on the university by being a member of the board or oversees. After the independence of the U. S, the falure of the foundation of national university ushered in the creation of the state university, while the government promotoes the universities through various measures actively to be secularization, decentralization and diversification. After the American Civil War, with the rapid expansion of the functions of the government, the political control is gradually strengthened. Various kinds of education bills have been proposed, which makes the university gradually become practical and meet the needs of the national development. After the Second World War, along with the university becoming the axis institution of the society, the government begins to intervent in the university at a large scale through the enactment of administrative regulations, implementation of tax control and disbursement of financial assistance, etc. The university is not only becoming the engine of economic development, but also an important political tool to realize the national goals. As the strengthening process of the political control, the university tries to protect its autonomy rights through various kinds of ways. Firstly, there are relevant organizations dealing with governmental affairs in the university. Secondly, there are alliances of the universities which aim to influence the policy making process in the form of interest groups. Thirdly, the university develops diversified financing channels winning private capitals to reduce the reliability and dependence on government funds. This paper dispels these views in detail in Chapter V.The relationship mode of government and university must be the result of the balance between political control and university autonomy, which will be affected by many factors. During the development process of the relationship between government and universities in the United States, state and society will have an impact on the both of them. Under different society patterns, the relationship between state and society is not the same, leading to various degrees of intervention social fields by the political power, which directly affects the degree of political forces on the universities as well as and the role of university in the whole process of nation-building. Political would also influence the relationship between government and universities, including the decentralization of federal and states and the separation in the executive, legislative and judicial. The decentralized mode between Federal and states determines their relationship with university while the separation in the executive, legislative and judicial makes constraints on political power, providing space and channels to enable university autonomy. In addition to the impact of external factors, the universities' own political process continues to make the university and the political system closer and make them evolved in social affairs deeper and deeper. They standby a certain powerful force unconsciously to get and have more resources. This paper dispels these views in detail in Chapter IV, and further discusses the relationship of university with federal and state government.In conclusion, this paper proposes four viewpoints: To begin with, political control is the dominant factor on the relationship between government and universities. University autonomy reflected a compromise between the various forces, of which the most important power is the government. Second, the degree of political control over the university is impacted by three factors, namely the degree of expansion of government functions, economic condition and the social dependence on high technology. More versatile the government, better economic development greater dependence on high technology will lead to the stronger the control over the university. Third, although the political control over the University trend to be strengthening, there is an insurmountable boundary that cannot be overcome, which is called "the University Chartered autonomy". Finally, the political control over the university clearly with indirect characteristic, is realized mainly through the legislative control, contract control, quality management and participation in board decision-making.