文理学院的死与生:自由教育与制度化的精英大学体系

The Death and Survival of Faculty of Arts and Sciences:Liberal Education and the Institutionalized Elite University System

文理学院是西方大学为本科生进行自由教育或通识教育的组织。19世纪的欧洲大学体系经历了古今之变,同源于中世纪巴黎大学艺学院的文理学院在欧陆和英国遭遇了死与生的迥异命运。研究发现,由于自由教育和专业教育两套不同的制度逻辑及相应的制度要素相互作用的方式不同,欧洲文理学院的演变呈现了制度渐进变迁的四种理想类型,而文理学院和自由教育的存在形态取决于它与制度化的精英大学体系之间的关系:当前者与后者相龃龉,产生"制度漂移",导致文理学院与精英大学体系的脱耦、依附或相斥关系;当前者与后者必须共存,新旧制度逻辑协调平衡,出现"制度叠置",衍生出融合古典文理学院与现代专业院系的新组织体系;当现代专业教育重新定义了人们对大学的共同认知,自由教育被除魅,仅仅被理解为专业教育的基础教育,则文理学院从被"转换"走向被"替换"。四种理想类型几乎呈现了文理学院命运的全部可能性。

The faculty of arts and sciences is an institute of liberal education or general education for undergraduate students in Western universities.The 19 th century witnessed the transition from ancient to modern in European university systems.The faculties of arts and sciences in Continental Europe and the United Kingdom,both originated from the Faculty of Arts in the University of Paris in the Middle Ages,encountered the different fate of death and survival.This study finds that,due to the differences in institutional logics and the corresponding interactions of institutional factors between liberal education and professional education,the evolution of the European faculties of arts and sciences presents four ideal types of gradual changes in institutions,and the forms of the faculties and the liberal education depends on their relationships with the institutionalized elite university systems.When there is a conflict between them,a＂institution drift＂emerges,leading to the decoupling,attachment,or repulsive relationships between the faculty of arts and sciences and the elite university system.When a coexist is in demand,the logic of the old and new systems is coordinated and balanced.The emergence of＂institution layering＂leads to a new organizational system that merges classical colleges with modern professional schools.When modern professional education redefines people＇s common understanding of universities,liberal education is derogated and be considered only as the basic education of professional education.Then the faculties of arts and sciences face the fate of being ＂displaced＂instead of being＂converted.＂ The four ideal types represent almost all the possible fates of the faculties of arts and sciences.