Research On Statutes And Policies Protecting The Rights And Interests Of The Disadvantaged Groups In American Higher Education

With the economic development and the acceleration of the process of mass higher education in our society, the disadvantaged groups in higher education and its problems have been becoming more and more prominent. It is rather urgent to solve such problems arising out of educational reform and development as how to found and perfect the aiding policy system, which is expected to be in accordance with our system of socialist market economy and keep pace with the development of higher education, and at the same time, stick to efficiency and equity with a view to promoting poor undergraduates to receive higher education. Therefore, the development of the times has necessitated referring to advanced experience of developed countries to make up for our weaknesses. This paper, taking the minorities and low-income undergraduates as its subjects, starting from the analysis of their disadvantaged situation in higher education after WWII, and using the method of literature review, comparison and history, tends to explore those American protecting statutes and policies for them, analyses and sums up advanced experience to shed lights on similar problems in Chinese higher education.The main body of this thesis consists of four parts.In the first part-"The theoretical basis and realistic backgroundof statutes and policies protecting the rights and interests of thedisadvantaged groups", starting from the ideology of training talents, human capital and promoting equal chances for higher education, widening free choices and sharing educational costs, it discusses those concepts influencing American aiding policy system at different stages after WWII. Then it makes a description of the disadvantaged situations of American disadvantaged groups in higher education, analyses corresponding influencing factors and goes further to reveal their currently disadvantaged situations.In the second part-"The evolvement of the relevant statutes andpolicies protecting the disadvantaged groups in higher education in America", it explores the American aiding policy systems at different stages since WWII, which displays and carries out in the sequence of such three periods as training talents for America and promoting economic development, and facilitating equal chances and aiding aim diversification in higher education. In the first period, the aiding policy mainly focuses on the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, the National Defense Act and the Affirmative Action Act. In the second period, it pays its main attention to the Higher Education Act, the 1972 Reauthorization of Higher Education Act and the Middle-Income Student Assistance Act. In the third period, it focuses on the Student Loan Reform Act of 1993 and the Taxpayer Act of 1997.In the third part -"The implementation of statutes and policiesprotecting the rights and interests of the disadvantaged groups in American higher education", the paper discusses the practices of those statutes and policies from economic and non-economic perspectives. Among it, its economic practices are explored from three aspects of the source of students' financial aid, the way of aiding and the management of aiding. Its non-economic practices are addressed from the three aspects of the early intervention program, the remedial program and other measures.In the fourth part -"analyzing and thinking", the paper, first ofall, sums up the experience and weaknesses of the Aiding System in American higher education. American experience is mainly embodied in the following aspects: making guarantee by lawmaking and implementing forcefully; perfect aiding system and convenient procedure of application; flexible and diversified aiding means and goals; prominent increase in the proportion of disadvantaged group of students in different links of the educational pipeline. Its weakness mainly displays in the aspects of gigantic aiding system, over-multiple variety of aiding; rapid increase in "merit-based" grants and "unsubsidized" loans; rising amount and rate of default paying the loan. Moreover, referring to the current situations of poor students and problems existing in implementing aiding policies in Chinese universities, it expounds implications of the statutes and policies protecting the rights of the...