Reinventing Undergraduate Education: A Study On Undergraduate Education Reform In American Research Universities After World War Ⅱ

The Research university is a key part of the American higher education. Undergraduate education is the foundation of research university. After World War II, undergraduate education in research universities of America were confront of serious crisis. From the end of 1960s, some research universities begun to carry out undergraduate education reform, which took sound effects and improved more and more universities to reform undergraduate education in 1970s. The publishing of Involvement in Learning: Realizing the Potential of American Higher Education in 1984 and College: the Undergraduate Experience in America in 1987 were the signs of the full-scale undergraduate education reform in research universities in 1980s. Entering 1990s, the development of undergraduate education in research universities went into a new stage. 1990s become so-called "the ten years of undergraduate education".This essay try to make a full review of the undergraduate education reform in America research universities after World War II, and through the review find some implications to improve the development of higher education in China.