The Development Of American Universities' Social Service Function Of And The Corresponding Enlightenment

At such a time of knowledge economy, knowledge has become one of the decisive elements of social development. Universities, as the "seedbed" of knowledge, are of the determining effect on the social development, and the development of their function is close relate with the social advancement. How should universities develop their social service function in order to adjust to and meet the social requirement? This subject has increasingly attracted universal concern. American universities has developed their social service function at an earlier stage and has already acquired remarkable achievements, and therefore, became a model of higher education of the whole world. Their rationale and practice have great significance of enlightenment and reference for the current higher educational reform and development of our country. Therefore, this thesis, based on the foregoing researches, attempts to probe into the historical evolution, current situations as well as the dominant forces in the development of American universities' social service function with the ultimate aim to provide lessons for the execution and development of our universities' social service function.This thesis is divided into five parts:The first part defines the concept of universities' social service function and briefly introduces the related researches on the topic of universities' social service function home and abroad.The second part gives a review to the historical evolution of American universities' social service function and an analysis on the stages of gestation,...