Research On The Undergraduate Education Quality Of The United States' Research Universities Since 1980s

Since 1980s, because of the unbalanced emphasis put by the United States'research universities on research and graduate education, undergraduate education has always been neglected and its quality has received widespread criticism from the society. To address this problem, the government of the United States gives the reform of undergraduate education top priority among the agendas of the development of higher education. In the meanwhile, all research universities take various measures to actively deal with the undergraduate education quality problem.The problem of undergraduate education quality of the United States'research universities is the main research focus of this thesis. There are six chapters in this dissertation. The first chapter is the'introduction'. The research background, main concept, literature review, research objectives, possible contribution and research methodology are included in this chapter. The second chapter is'the problem of undergraduate education quality of the United States'research universities since 1980s'. This chapter first analyzes the conceptualization of the undergraduate education quality of research universities, and then clarifies the existing problem of undergraduate education quality of the United States'research universities since 1980s based on this discussion. The third and fourth chapters are the essential parts of this thesis which discuss the internal and external reasons of the problem of undergraduate education quality of the United States'research universities. Based on the Triangle Theory of Bolton Clark, the third chapter analyzes the external reasons of the problem of undergraduate education quality of the United States'research universities which include government, market and academia. Based on the Process Theory of Total Quality Management, the fourth chapter analyzes the internal reasons of the problem of undergraduate education quality of the United States'research universities which include curriculum arrangement, teaching mode and teaching organization and management. The fifth chapter is'the evaluation of the reform of undergraduate education of the United States'research universities'. This chapter furthers the factor analysis of the third and fourth chapters, evaluate the reform of undergraduate education of the United States'research universities according to the reform measures and challenges, and predict the future of this reform. The sixth chapter is'implication'. Based on the systematic analysis of the external and internal reasons of the problem of undergraduate education quality of the United States'research universities and the evaluation of the reform of undergraduate education of the United States'research universities, some suggestions are made on the reform of undergraduate education and research universities construction of our country.