Popularization Of Higher Education System In The United States Full-time Form :1945-1970

This paper seeks to probe into the formation of the massive system of U.S. full-time higher education since World War n, specifically in the years from 1945-1970. The related conditioning factors, characteristics and the impact of such developments are also discussed, hoping to come to conclude some of the implications for future Chinese developments in the same area.The paper is divided into four parts. Part one basically describes the process of such system and the events and changes that marked the success of such formation. Part two looks into the characteristics of the post-war American higher education, which includes the development of college autonomy, competitive mechanism, emphasis on the combination of classroom teaching and scientific research, diversity and pragmatism and finally the adjustments in curriculum in universities. Part three focuses on the conditioning factors that led to the formation of massive system of American higher education. These factors include the social needs of many young people to go to colleges, the movement of colleges to reconstruct their curriculum arrangements, the support of federal government and the impact of Civil Rights movement in the 1950s and the 1960s.Part four concentrates on the impact of the such massive system of higher education which resulted in the large increase in the number of students enrolled in each year, the opportunities opened for students from the poor families and minority groups and the changes that made the U.S. to become the leading power in terms of scientific research in the world. Also hi this part, some of the major problems that occurred during the process of such dramatic changes are also discussed. Such issues include the polarities of the student's background. The number of the students from the rich family is increasing while the students from the low-income group remains staggering. This is al true of the students from non-white ethnic groups. In addition, this paper also discusses other problem, such as shortages of highschool graduates, insufficient funding sources, the decline of educational quality, and student's drug abuse issues.The last part concludes this paper and proposes some suggestions for the development of Chinese higher education hi future.