A Research On The Construction Of Modern University System Based On The Academic Attribute Of University

Scholarship is the soul of universities, and academic attribute is one of its innateproperties. An overview of the world’s top universities shows that their rising is all owedto the long established concept that scholarship reigns supreme and to the modernuniversity system constructed on the basis of the academic attribute of universities. Theseuniversities have taken for a long time the leading places in the world’s academic circlesas their modern university system value concepts, academics, and university governance,as well as worships academic value. After its reform, development and advancementduring the last30years, Chinese higher education has reached the critical stage in thecomprehensive improvement of its quality. How to perfect the modern university systemwith Chinese characteristics while sticking to the academic attribute of university is atheoretical and practical problem concerning the reform and development of highereducation in China.Taking the adherence to the academic attribute of university as its main line, theresearch puts its theoretical basis on the fundamentals and philosophy of higher educationand utilizes a rational writing method. It puts forward that sticking to the academicattribute of university is an inevitable surviving logic by which Chinese universities cantranscend themselves constantly and then achieve excellence.Reading widely as well as studying and analyzing Chinese and foreign documentsand materials, the author compares, studies and analyzes the spiritual traditions formed inthe initial stage of Chinese and western modern university systems from a historicalperspective. A large number of historical records are quoted to verify that the advent ofmodern university system is the result of the self-improvement of university’s spiritualtraditions and ideological basis through its historical evolution. The spiritual traditionworship of scholarship also proves that scholarship is the inherent surviving logic and thefoundation for university’s presence in the top list of human civilization.Therefore, Starting with the revelation and connotation expansion of the concept ‘theacademic attribute of universities, the research presents level by level in depth its coreviewpoint ‘academic nature is an inherent attribute of university’ by deductive arguments.It points out that the academic attribute of university needs to be upheld by the universitysystem through analyzing the mutual dependence between modern university system and university, and summarizes the academia’s discussion on the modern university system’striple-dimension foundation, which includes externalization and internalization, idealityand reality, politics and epistemology. On this basis, from a historical perspective theresearch probes into the very core spiritual tradition, which was formed in the initial stageof Chinese and western university systems, and discovers the common place of Chineseand western university systems emphasis on scholarship. It stresses that universityautonomy, academic freedom, and faculty governance were highlighted in the constructionof western university system, and that Chinese modern university system inherited theacademy spirit of commitment to study, the academic thought of Chinese-styleWesternization, and the university spirit of worshiping and pursuing scholarship. Inaddition, the research indicates that the traditional philosophy ofConfucian-exterior-and-Taoism-interior self-development is the spiritual origin of Chinesemodern university system. Then it is revealed that the academic attribute of university isnot fully developed and demonstrated in the construction of Chinese modern universitysystem. The research analyzes the deficiency of academic attribute and tracks thefundamental reason for the problem: the malfunction of the system. Vivid examples arecited to illustrate the crucial factors hindering the development of Chinese universities,which are utilitarianism in academic evaluation of Chinese universities and the absence ofan open and free academic atmosphere. Thus, on the basis of systematic analysis andreasoning, the author discusses the ideological foundation and the countermeasureselection of modern university system, which is built on the academic attribute ofuniversity, on the ideal level and the realistic one, pointing out that adherence to theacademic nature of university is the ideological basis for the construction of Chinesemodern university system. Also, it is proved that decision-making should take academicfreedom and autonomy as its axis by creating an intense academic atmosphere, a healthyinstitutional environment as well as an impartial academic evaluation system. The researchis aimed at maintaining universities’ momentum, cultivating more talents with innovativespirit in academics in Chinese universities, and ensuring the self-transcendence and theexcellence of Chinese universities.