On The Functions Of Chinese Universities In A New Age

As entering into the 21st century, the Chinese universities will stride forward towards a new development stage. Facing the intense competition from the knowledge-based economic globalization among the countries of the world, and the great missions of overall construction of a well-off society , universities must take on new but more functions to meet these historic changes, such as training create-quality personnel, developing science especially strengthening the combination between base science research and apply science research, serving the society in all respects, and carrying on international education exchange and cooperation. This article consists of four parts.Part 1, the definition of university function. In this article, by analysing the implication of function, university, the author draws the conclusion that university function is the function that the university, being the organization based on higher education, have to but can take on.Part 2, the history characters of the university function. Teaching ,research, serving society are three main functions of university in the aspect of history. For the development of university function, we believe it is an active process with the development of society. These history characters can be the inner basis to know about the university function on new conditions.Part 3, international and national surroundings of Chinese university . The former refers to globalization and knowledge-based society. The latter refers to entering into WTO, facing the challenges from advanced countries and the historic task of overall construction of a well-off society. These surroundings demand the change of university functions, and can be the outer practical basis to study this subject.Part 4, the functions of Chinese universities in the new age. To meet the needs, Chinese university function will change correspondingly. It includes the changes of old functions and the emerge of a new main function . There are four aspects,(1)training create-quality personnel is the basic function of universities.(2)strengthening the combination between base science research and apply science research is the new prominent damand.(3)serving society in all respects.(4)carrying on international education exchange and cooperation. For each function, the article covers its content,development in china, how to do it well and so on.In the end, the author emphasizes that the variety of university is critical to realize the everlasting development of Chinese higher education.