从“大众”到“大众化”:误解与破解——论新中国高等教育的内在张力及历史进路

From Mass to Massification:Primary Exploration of Chinese Higher Education and its Transition Stage

中国在抗战前已建立了较高质量的高教体系,然其过小的规模,无法为广大普通民众提供教育机会,造成了新的社会不平等。作为革命党的中国共产党,很早就提倡“大众的”教育,注重教育的民族性和人民性。其在全国执政后,开始深刻的教育变革,为工农服务,为普通民众提供更多高等教育机会。为此高等教育迅猛扩张,造成规模、质量与结构之间明显失衡。这一探索顺应了全球高等教育大众化的潮流;但从精英高等教育到大众高等教育之间,仍有不可跨越的“过渡阶段”。有关各方对此认识不足,以致操之过急,遭致挫折。在本质上,这是对高等教育的人民性(人民教育)与大众化(大众高等教育)之间的差异缺乏认知,澄清了高等教育的政治属性(大众性)与专业属性(大众阶段),从而造成高等教育一度偏离正轨、大起大落。这一偏向贯穿了整个五六十年代。改革开放二十多年后,中国才在更成熟的历史条件下,正式实现高等教育大众化的目标。

In the era of Chinese Republic,China had built up an Elite higher Education system while it had been too limited in scale and been mainly monopolized by the rich and the privileged.The leadership team of the CCP opposed and strongly accused this phenomenon and advocated a new proletarian education system to ensure more and more middle and lower classes share higher education.Once the Chinese People’s Republic was established,the new regime tried its best to create a new type of education and supply more opportunity to young talents.The higher education system expanded dramatically,however,the imbalance between the scale and the quality also followed as a problem.This exploration conforms to the trend of global higher education massification.In fact,there was always a transition phase between elite higher education and mass higher education.It was the insufficient recognition of the transition stage that caused the rushed and setbacks of the previous practices,as well as the huge volatilities in higher education in 1950s-1960s.Only until 20 years after the Reform and Opening-up policy,when historical conditions were truly mature,did China achieve the massification of higher education.