This article argues that ideas from the ancient past supply insight about the future of Chinese universities. I make this case by outlining three claims about the nature and purpose of education in Homer, Plato, and Augustine. I propose that conversations based on these ideas illuminate central underlying problems facing Chinese higher education…

The foundation of Shanxi University is a prime example of the collaborative efforts in higher education between the Chinese and British in late Qing China (1842-1912). Both sides made compromises, with the Chinese adapting their ideas of educational sovereignty, and the British agreeing to work under the supervision of the local government. Such a…

Ma Xiangbo was born in 1840 and became a pioneer of educational reform during the republican period. He was responsible for introducing the idea that science and humanities should be valued equally in liberal arts education, a concept that became key to the model of university education. Ma's view of education combined Western humanism and science…

This study reviews the developments of 9 Chinese top universities supported by "985 Project" during 1997-2005 based on the analysis of a series of scientometric indicators, including the total number of publications indexed by Science Citation Index Expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index, the cumulated impact factor of publications,…

More attention should be paid to four issues during the massification of Chinese higher education: (1) how to understand the prime cause of the expansion of higher education; (2) how to reinforce liberal education; (3) how to balance the relationship between equality and excellence; and (4) how to harmonize the relationship between the university,…