CIES Secretariat Florida International University 312 ZEB Miami, FL 33199
Number 151
Guest Editor: Dr. Robert V. Farrell, Associate Profesor, C&I, FIU
The Transformation of University Life in China
Robert A. Rhoads
Professor
Graduate School of Education and Information Studies
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
3321 Moore Hall, Box # 951521
Los Angeles, CA. 90095-1521
E-Mail: rhoads@ucla.edu
Phone: 310-794-4243
FAX: 310-206-6293
July 2009
Christopher Jencks and David Reisman fittingly described the period from roughly the end of World War II to the late 1960s as a period of “academic revolution” in U.S. higher education. The revolutionary quality of this period largely was reflected in a dramatic shift in institutional size and scope, including the emergence of powerful and dynamic research universities. With the financial backing of the Beijing Ministry of Education, through key national projects such as 985 and 211, higher education in the People’s Republic of China (hereafter simply “China”) may be undergoing its own academic revolution of sorts.
During the early part of the summer of 2009, I spent 6 weeks teaching a course for graduate students and staff at Renmin University of China, or Zhōngguó Rénmín Dàxué in Pīnyīn. The course focused on how scholars and institutional researchers study and evaluate U.S. universities, particularly with regard to understanding organizational change. My visit took place thanks to an invitation from Juan Hu, Director of Renmin’s Higher Education Studies Office (HESO), and was supported in part by her office, the university, and Beijing’s International Education Exchange program.
Given that all of the students in my class had studied and worked principally (but not entirely) at Chinese universities, the class quickly developed into a comparison of Chinese and U.S. universities. The comparative elements of the class were most exciting for me, especially in light of the fact that I am presently studying university reform and academic change at universities in Beijing, thanks to a small grant from UCLA’s Academic Senate. So far my study has involved extensive semi-structured interviews with professors at Renmin, but in the coming months I also hope to conduct similar studies at Beijing University, Beijing Normal University, and Tsinghua University—all top 10 universities in China and all in Beijing.
After returning from Beijing in early July, I found myself needing to organize my thoughts and generate some tentative themes. These observations derive from both my interviews with Renmin professors as well as my in-class and out-of-class interactions with students and staff as part of the course I taught.
A point expressed by all of my faculty interview subjects, and reinforced by students and staff as part of classroom conversations, is that the top universities in China clearly are “raising the bar” in terms of expectations for faculty research and scholarly productivity. This means that faculty at universities such as Renmin face greater pressure to publish and generate research revenue. Where they publish also is increasingly scrutinized, as faculty at Renmin are expected to publish in the top journals in their respective fields. Additionally, faculty are expected to have international experience, whether in terms of obtaining the Ph.D. at universities outside of China or in terms of spending a semester or year abroad as a visiting professor. In fact, numerous schools within the university have developed elaborate international partnerships with top universities around the world, such as the one at Renmin’s School of Public Administration, where faculty can spend a semester abroad teaching at the University of Michigan. The advanced English ability of Renmin professors, especially among the most recent generation of scholars, makes building exchanges with countries such as the United States much easier. The primary impetus of many of these initiatives is to propel the Chinese university toward world-class standing.
Another interesting theme concerns the growing pressure on scholars at universities such as Renmin to publish in international journals, most often in English. This has some serious implications for Chinese intellectual life. For example, what becomes of scholars whose work is specifically centered on the particular needs and interests of Chinese society? Given that some professors are likely to embrace the goal of impacting Chinese society, what is the relevance then of publishing internationally, assuming that such an option exists? Are Chinese scholars to abandon such national interests in favor or more internationally provocative topics? Or, do they ignore the pressure to publish internationally and continue to focus on more localized concerns?
Related to the preceding issue is the growing role of Western social and economic theory among Chinese intellectuals. Some of the professors with whom I met expressed concern about this trend, which they see as part of the internationalization of academic work in China. A very senior and well known rural economist at Renmin suggested that some Chinese scholars may be embracing Western theories of economic development uncritically, while potentially misapplying them to the Chinese context. He offered the example of rural poverty in China and the need to build solutions based on localized understandings. In other words, theories and explanations aimed at solving China’s rural poverty are not likely to come from the West, but from engagement in the lives of farmers and rural workers. This professor sees a need for Chinese scholars to produce their own theories of economic development, but in conjunction with the lived experiences of workers and peasants, by actually talking to them and developing a deeper understanding of their daily lives.
What was clear from my interactions with professors, staff, and students at Renmin University is that university life is changing quite rapidly, whether one speaks of vast improvements in physical facilities, burgeoning student bodies, the growing emphasis placed on research, or increasingly complex institutional policies and support structures. The size and scope of the changes certainly left me in awe at the challenge ahead of me, as I seek to better understand changes in academic culture at research universities such as Renmin.
The Future of Comparative and International Education
Stephen Heyneman
Katrina Hutchison
The Madrasa Resource Centers, East Africa
Salima Jaffer
The Transformation of University Life in China
Robert A. Rhoads
International Developments in the Field of Human Rights Education
Felissa Tibbits
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