Freedom, The University Of Return To The Idea And Reconstruction,

For universities, there is a variety of ideologies, and "freedom" is an important one among them. The essential meaning of "freedom" can be summed up as the power and right with the least influence from outside force. Many scholars, both in and outside of China, have conducted specific research on university ideologies. Different ideas were proposed by those studies, but one common idea, the ideology of "academic freedom" and "university autonomy", or "university freedom" as used in this thesis, has been consistently in people's mind throughout the history of university development. These two liberal ideologies, which were established in the process of university development La middle ages through persistent struggle, have been later accepted and protected by universities in most countries. As indicated by German philosopher Kail ?Yasbers, since the establishment of universities, academic freedom has been, and will continue to be the central value and condition facilitating the activity of innovation and creation. Academic freedom is the central and universal guideline in academic activities. Although there may be variation in the meaning of the freedom ideology according to variance in historical, political, economic, and cultural factors in different countries. The purpose of this thesis is to further understanding and explanation of the freedom ideology, based on earlier researches.Questions in this thesis are proposed due to both confusions in some basic theoretical problems and worries for the current practice. Through studies in this thesis, two fundamental theoretical problems are to be solved: what's university's freedom ideology, why is the idea of university autonomy and academic freedom established by universities as their essential value? There is also a practical problem to be solved by this thesis: How to construct the freedom ideology for modern universities, particularly that with Chinese characteristics?In China, university is a kind of organization imported from the West about one hundred years ago. Since their inception, universities in China encountered political storms from both inside and outside of the country, without a chance to think about their own nature and construct their own ideology and system. The earliest universities in China achieved their development by breaking the traditional political, cultural, and educational systems. Though characterized by some new features, universities at that time were impossible to adopt "freedom", an ideology absolutely contrary to the traditional Chinese autocratic ideology, as their idea, to say nothing of as their fundamental value, in an overwhelming environment of traditional politics. During the period of Republic of China, a group of pioneers in thinking made great effort in searching for university's ideology and spirit, and promoting university independence and academic freedom. Nevertheless, they did not succeed in keeping out political control from both inside and outside of the country.During the early years of the People's Republic of China, in the process of taking over and reforming universities from the old society, the government adopted an enlightened and reasonable policy on culture and education, and to the intellectuals.As a result, university faculties well enjoyed their rights, and there was a kind of academic freedom to some extent. However, a series of political movements from mid 50's severely devastated the freedom in universities. Since the government's adoption of reform and open door policies, the transformation of China's economic system has been bringing great opportunities to universities' development. The increasing democratic factors in the political system and the reform in the higher education system has strengthened the independence of universities, and enhanced the autonomous position of university faculty and students to a certain extent, and is expanding the space for teaching and research freedom. However, because China is a country with more than 2000 years history of despotism, and cen...