The Study On The Theory And Practice Of Faculty Governance In American Universities

Faculty governance is the traditional administration model in western universities. It has a long history. Dating from Paris University in the Middle Ages, it has played a very important role in the development of the western university. To the 19th century, most of the western university has materially become university which implements faculty governance. However, to the 20th century, many American universities such as Harvard University, Yale University adopted the concept of faculty governance and made it characteristic of democratic governance. While introducing the concept of Faculty governance, American universities learn from it and absorb the experience of western university critically, enriching its content. But in China, faculty governance also has a glorious page. It has played an active role in promoting the process of reforming our traditional universities in the first half of 20th century.In recent years, with the reform of higher education administration system, faculty governance begins to be paid more and more attention. Many universities start another round attempt of implementing faculty governance to build Chinese characteristic system of faculty governance. Therefore, how to understand the concept and the form of Faculty governance becomes the topic of debate. This thesis attempts to provide some enlightenment for the reform of our university administration system through exploring the American universities'faculty governance. This thesis applies the research methods of literature analysis and history to study faculty governance systematically. It tries to sum up the reasonable model of faculty governance and provide reference for the implement of faculty governance in China. The first chapter introduces the development of the concept of American universities'faculty governance. The entire process is divided into four periods and introduces the administration model in different periods separately. The second chapter introduces the American universities'basic operating model and the implementation of faculty governance in Harvard university and Yale university, which demonstrating the variety of operating model. The third chapter introduces two security systems:academic freedom and tenure. The fourth chapter first explores the rationality of faculty governance from three aspects:the university essence,academic freedom,academic power and administrative power;then explores its limitations from the lack of overall point of view,role conflict,and academic elite management. The fifth chapter first introduces the history of faculty governance in our country and then explores the enlightenment of the experiences and lessons of faculty governance in American universities.