变与不变:大学的哈姆雷特之问

To Change or not to Change: Universities' Outside Pressures and Inner Tensions

变与不变是大学发展中始终面对的两难选择。时代的变化、国家的兴替、政府的力量和社会的势力都强烈地影响着大学,要求和赋予大学各种新的使命和责任,并带动和迫使大学进行变革。大学因应社会的变化和要求,从一个知识机构发展成为社会机构,由单纯的知识传授演进为知识传授、知识创造和服务社会,但这些活动的性质和要求各异,由此形成大学内在的变与不变的紧张和冲突。而在社会加速变革的今天,大学特别需要平衡各种内外力量及其需求并根据大学自身的内在逻辑来把握和选择变与不变。

To change or not to change is a dilemma for universities. The changes of times, nation-states, government and societal forces have greatly impacted higher education, requesting of and endowing universities with new missions, which have driven and led universities to change. Universities, hitherto, have evolved from a knowledge institution to be the one that corresponds to the wide demands of society. The mission of knowledge imparting in the past has been broadened into a more complex series, namely knowledge imparting, innovation and services to the society. As these missions are not always aligned with each other, the tensions of to-change and not-to-change aggravate. Universities need to balance various sources of power influences, making responses to them based on institutional logics.