On The Independence Of Harvard University And Its Reflections On Chinese Universities

In the United States of America, the fact that “Harvard was founded before theUnited States of America” shows its long history, as well as reflecting its closerelationship with the United States. There are a number of reasons for HarvardUniversity’s success. Though we can say that the external environment of the rise andthe development of the United States is indispensable to Harvard’s success. However,the independence of Harvard is more important. After hundreds of years of experienceand accumulation, as well as multiple reform and pains, Harvard formed itsindependence. It is the existence of such independence and continuity that contributedto today’s brilliant success of Harvard. Therefore we can say that the independence isthe true meaning of Harvard’s value.Harvard’s independence was first enlightened by religious thoughts. And then itadvanced continuously in secularization, rooted in the American spirit, and benefitedfrom the national education legislation. These multiple factors created Harvard’sindependence today, mainly concluded as “the autonomous university entity”,“theunique educational philosophy” and “the multiple funding ways”. If a university couldget enough freedom and space in organization and management, finance andeducation philosophy, it can really possess its independence and embody the realmeaning of its existence. A university, without control from the religion, the state andthe society, can pursue real academic freedom, thus achieving the ideal state of“principal governing, professor teaching and researching, and students studying”. Wecan not duplicate “Harvard Pattern”, but we have found important enlightenment fromits shaping way of independence to build our universities into world-class universities.This paper summarizes the performances of the independence of HarvardUniversity from the history of the formation and development of its independence. Itconsists of four parts, chapter one serves as a commencement, which briefly explains the background of selecting the topic, synthetically states the general researchcondition in this field home and abroad, and clearly illustrate the research thought andmethods adopted by this paper. Chapter two describes the historical roots of theconfiguration and development of the independence of Harvard University. Chapterthree introduces the concrete expressions of the independence of Harvard University.Chapter four proposes some reflections for the development of Chinese universities.