On Current American Higher Education Reform

The paper is intended to analyze the development of American higher education and its current higher education reform as well as the implications it will bring to Chinese higher education reform.The paper consists of six chapters:Chapter 1 presents the brief introduction of the four main phases in the history of the development of American higher education since founding the first college in 1636, including the phase of founding colleges, the phase of experiment and diversity, the rise of the American University, and the expansion of higher education.Chapter 2 mainly explains the five basic characteristics of American higher education. From the explanation, we can find out the advantages of American higher education as the most advanced education system in the world.Chapter 3 is devoted to the discussion of the problems that the current American higher education is faced with. Financial difficulties, the decline of undergraduate education quality and the problem of how to meet the great social demand for higher education are emphasized in the discussion.Chapter 4 analyzes the four important factors that have great impact on the development of higher education in the United States. The four factors include political, scientific and technological, economic and social factors.Chapter 5 is aimed at the detailed comments on the major changes in current American higher education reform. To make the point clear, the writer tries to focus on the discussions on five changes, including the emphasis on undergraduate education, the development of distance education on a large scale, the reduction of cost and improvement of the benefit of running schools, the acceleration of the transformation of scientific and technological advances, the internationalization of higher education.Chapter 6 is trying to share the writer's view of the five primary implications that American reform in higher education will bring to our Chinese higher education reform, including the implications for curriculum, financial, teaching means, scientific research and educational thought reforms.