克拉克·克尔《大学的功用》经典思想研读

A Close Reading and Analysis of “The Uses of the University” by Clark Kerr

克拉克·克尔的《大学的功用》堪称世界高等教育的经典之作。中国知网共有1359篇论文引用该著作,它在中国的影响处于渐强的趋势。该著作最大的贡献在于对“多元化巨型大学”概念和理论的构建,这是它最明显的“核心观点”。此外,还有一些经典观点分布在不同章节中,作者潜在的预设和论述其实也包含着“适应论”“变革论”和“平衡论”等经典思想,这四个核心观点是该书的精华。克尔认为:历史与现实已经证明适应社会是大学合法性的根基,无论是经典大学理念的演进还是大学治理结构的变革都是适应社会的结果;大学变革的力量主要来自外部,变革的方式通常是以渐进的方式实现的。

“The Uses of the University”by Clark Kerr is a must-read book on higher education research.It is also fairly well known in China,and has been quoted by more than 1359 research articles published in academic journals included in the CNKI(China National Knowledge Infrastructure)database.In this book,Kerr raised the famous concept of“multiversities”.In various parts of the book,Kerr also suggested,implicitly or explicitly,that the university should “adapt to society”or“transform itself”so as to strike a balancen with all stakeholders.According to Kerr,throughout history the university has been adapting itself to meet the needs of society so as to gain legitimacy.In fact,facing the pressure mainly from the outside world,the university has already transformed itself gradually over the past few centuries.The university has not only renewed its mission and vision,but also upgraded its governance system so as to adapt to social changes.