A Research On The Construction Movement Of American Residential College In The 20^th Century

Since the second half of the 19 th century,the status of undergraduate education and the foundation of universities have been continuously eroded and gradually declined in the context of the rapid expansion of American universities.Meanwhile,their specialization and emphasis on research in particular.Considering the cultural ties between the United States and the United Kingdom as well as the charm of the educational tradition in British.Therefore,a large number of educators have reached a consensus that they were determined to set up residential colleges in American research universities.After the process of long-term planning and argumentation,American universities started the movement of the residential college construction in the early 20 th century,which lasted for nearly a century.The introduction of British residential colleges provided a good model for American universities,thus the development of American higher education was in a good condition.The development of the residential college construction movement in American had began in the early 20 th century and continued until the 1980 s,which has great implications for Chinese universities in the era of great changes.This paper takes the construction movement of residential colleges in some American universities in the 20 th century as the research object.From a historical perspective,the research is divided into four parts:Part ?: the rise of the residential college construction movement in the United States.Firstly,it presents the opportunities and dilemmas faced by American universities in the period of transition before the 20 th century,and traces the origin between them and British classical colleges.Due to "academic" deeply influenced on American university campus lifestyle,coupled with the excessive pursuit of vocational education in university,many questions and criticisms caused by ignored the general education,a growing number of American scholars realized single German university was not suitable for long-term development,Therefore,the reform of higher education in UK become emphasized.During this period,literary works about British universities emerged,there were many scholars spared no effort to convey and publicize the college life mode of Oxford and Cambridge.In addition,a large number of " Rhodes scholars" became known as educators,who had a deep influence on American education,and all them highly praised British residential colleges.Therefore,this period witnessed the rise of the residential colleges' construction movement.Part ?: the formative stage of the American residential college construction movement.In the formative stage,Harvard University and Yale university were the representatives.Under the leadership and initiative of the presidents of the two universities,they carried out a vigorous movement of building colleges.Harvard University in the early of the failed attempt,Lawrence Lowell principal with a new idea came to power,he was committed to multilateral financing,the oil tycoon,with the support of Edward Harkness,Harvard University started to imitate the Oxford style on campus building new hotels,and to implement tutor system in the campus,the organic combination of Harvard hotels and tutorial system,formed a kind of harmony on campus life and learning atmosphere,more harmonious relationship between students and teachers.Similarly,Yale's conservative leanings in the "big change" led its leaders to plan a series of residential colleges.President James Rowland Angier struggled to secure Harkness ' financial support,and in the years 1930 to 1935,Yale built and renovated eight dormitories on campus.In order to fulfill the community function of the residential college,the designers of the Yale had also designed an elaborate scheme to provide a suitable community life for undergraduate students.Part ?: the "American character" stage of residential colleges.After the second world war,the scale of higher education continued was expanded,therefore Jerry Gaffe put forward the concept of "cluster colleges" and advocated the establishment of small,relatively independent residential colleges in a series of giant universities,finally it regained the public's confidence and expectation of traditional British colleges.The idea of cluster colleges in this period is not only the inheritance of Oxford and Cambridge residential colleges,but also reflected the innovation of the idea in the United States.Under the initiative of this idea,two kinds of cluster colleges began to be established widely.The other was to set up affiliated colleges in the university and shared hardware and software facilities with the university.The most representative and successful example was the university of California,Santa Cruz.By the 1970 s,Santa Cruz had eight residential colleges.The group college had succeeded in a short time,but it still had encountered many problems and difficulties.Part ?: The conclusions analyzed challenges and opportunities from the various stages of the residential college construction movement in the United States in the 20 th century.Although the campaign had achieved results,it had not achieved the goal and effected by its advocating.To explore its reason,the first point is when dealing with the foreign culture and its reality of intersection is not balanced,the society and the education system of two countries are not totally same,the building of "American" residential college system has not completely inherited the English traditional academic community organization,residential college system in the process of Americanization.Secondly,in the process of running the residential college system,the implementation of the tutorial system encountered many obstacles,therefore the development of its academic education function was not perfect as practitioners expected at first.The enlightenment of educational reform is drawn from American experience.The United States still has a long way to construct the residential college.It needs to seize the precious opportunities to develop them.