A Study On Philip G. Altbach’s Higher Education Thoughts

Philip G. Altbach, a well-known scholar in the field of higher education, has promoted the development of comparative education field and higher education field, called "the founder of comparative higher education".In view of his profound thoughts of higher education, based on previous studies, this dissertation, by using documentary and historical analytical methods, will make a systematic study on Altbach’s higher education thoughts horizontally and vertically. On the horizontal direction, it probes into his thoughts on student political activism, dependency theory of education, academic profession and internationalization of higher education; on the vertical direction, it, with the development of his thoughts, induces the features and indicates the limitations, in order to thoroughly reveal his concerns on higher education throughout the world and his academic thoughts. It may not only enrich academic thought, but also play a helpful role in the higher education development in China.The dissertation mainly launches the elaboration from the following four aspects.Firstly, it introduces Altbach’s biography experience and works, social and political background and the development process of thought, and probes into the theoretical base of his thoughts.From the perspective of the development process of thought, the dissertation finds that Altabch is good at grasping the pulse of social and historical development, and responds to the new requirements for higher education in a timely manner, and his research keep pace with the times.In 1960 s, when student political activism was surging at numerous countries around the world, owing to his experience of launching and participating in radical student movements, Altbach, in an immediate way, naturally brought it into his study and probed into student political activism, which became the first stop of his study.In the late 1960 s and early 1970 s, by Marxism and neo-Marxist influence, the traditional structural functionalism theory of sociology was constantly subjected to criticism. In view of it, Altbach actively explored the approaches of international comparative education. He introduced Dependency Theory of Development into comparative education study to examine the relationship between the Western industrialized countries’ and the Third World countries’ higher education.In the late 1970 s and 1980 s, with higher education expansion throughout the world, new managerialism, focusing on economy and performance, rushed into the higher education system. Thus, huge administrative intervention group or external political forces undermined the dominant position of professors’ power. For the needs of the new era of knowledge economy on the behavior body that bears the function of "creation and dissemination of knowledge", Altbach focused its attention on the academic profession.In the 1990 s, with the advance of globalization, WTO’ and GATS’ involvement, countries around the world started focusing on internationalization of higher education, setting off a new round of international tide. Without doubt, Altbach shifted his eyes onto the research on the internationalization of higher education.Secondly, in accordance with the development process of his academic thoughts, adhering to historical and logical principles, this dissertation discusses student political activism, dependency theory of education, academic profession and internationalization of higher education respectively."Though on student political activism" interprets that the conflict between "younger generation" and "older generation" is rooted in three "ring" students’ unique psychology of shouldering "intellectual conviction", i.e., "younger generation", under the framework of idealistic ideology, shoulders a special historical mission to achieve that the "older generation" has failed to achieve, or to correct imperfections in their environment. Therefore, when the time comes, the potential conflict between the "younger generation" and "the older generation" is likely to evolve into an explicit, intense movement. Then, the student movement is mainly controlled by "mass media, government and college" three factors. Finally, both in the western industrialized countries, or in the third world countries, those movements, in an indirect or direct way, exert influence on national policies to promote social development."Thought on dependency theory of education" explores Altbach’s logic point is the uneven development of knowledge. By employing "center- periphery" concept in the field of economics, the thought, from historical traditions, language, knowledge creation and distribution, staff mobility, neo-colonialism and the "new" neo-colonialism, describes and explains the unequal international academic system of "center-periphery". Then, it infers that higher education in third world countries is difficult to reverse its marginal status, due to the lack of adequate finance, human and other resources and facilities."Thought on academic profession", firstly analyzes the inherent characteristics of profound knowledge, i.e., "specialized, autonomous, exploratory and cumulative". Such characteristics and the logic of knowledge development have provided academic profession with "ought" legitimate rights and interests, i.e., academic power and academic freedom based on ethical principles. Secondly, following the Dependency Theory framework, it makes an analysis on the unequal international academic profession of "center- periphery". Finally, the thought notes that academic profession, under the massification of higher education, should maintain its inherent legitimate rights and interests, which is the foundation and conditions to achieve the goal of "teaching, creating and disseminating knowledge," rather than its class privileges."Thought on internationalization of higher education", firstly clarifies the concept of Altbach’s internationalization of higher education, and explores for-profit and non-profit motives in terms of academic, political, ideological and economic benefits. Secondly, it probes into the internationalization of higher education horizontally and vertically. On the horizontal dimension, it finds that academic staff, education providers and education programs flow in cross-border higher education show a non-uniform flow pattern; on the vertical dimension, it reveals that educational modes, ranging from the educational assistance in the Cold War to the educational trade in globalization exhibit unilateral control mode. Altbach’s basic idea is that internationalization of higher education may gain modest profit, but opposing to regard financial gain as the sole motivation for internationalization, so advocates maintaining "public good" nature or value in the internationalization of higher education.Thirdly, this dissertation subsequently induces the main features and reveals the limitation of Altbach’s higher education thoughts in an objective way. From the perspective of main content, his thoughts are intertwined with tradition and radicalism; from the perspective of target, most of Altbach’s studies launching the third world countries as an independent theme, trying to pull the third world’s higher education onto the international educational exchange platform, his thoughts reveal a great concern on the third world’s higher education; from the perspective of methodology, it discovers the features of international comparison and "close to realities" color, due to his study being closely linked with the realities of higher education. However, being a "belonging man" in the "Western-centrism" context with different geographical and socio-cultural environment, Altbach’s thoughts also inevitably reflect some limitations, namely narrow-minded "student politics", anti-Western center "Western-centrism".Finally, based on in-depth discussion of Altbach’s higher education thought, in recognition of its limitations, this dissertation summarizes the significance of his thoughts: it may help to rationally understand student movement, and to guide students to participate politics in a reasonable and orderly way; it may help to construct higher education system based on "interoperability" rules; it may help to rationally understand academic career, and to safeguard the "ought" legitimate rights and interests for creating and disseminating knowledge; it may help to push forward the process of internationalization of higher education in a steady way.