清华大学的工科转型及在此过程中苏联专家的角色(1952~1960)

The Transformation of Engineering Disciplines at Tsinghua Universityy and the Soviet Influence Therein(1952-1960)

20世纪50年代初,中国借鉴苏联经验,开展院系调整。清华大学从原来的美式多学院综合性大学改为苏联式多科性工科大学,为此在1952至1960年间先后聘请65名苏联专家到校工作。清华大学改革原有工科专业,并新建工程物理、自动控制等新专业系,因而形成新的一级和二级学科体系。至1960年清华大学基本完成由“通才教育”到“各专业与工业化的结合”的转型。苏联专家分布在各系和各教研组,开展了包括开设新课、编写教材、建设实验室、培养研究生和青年教师等工作,在清华大学的转型中发挥了重要作用。清华大学是20世纪50年代院系调整的一个典型案例,反映出中国高等教育史上的一次重大转变。

In the early 1950s,China turned to the Soviet Union for help in restructuring colleges and departments around the nation.Tsinghua University(also simply referred to as"Tsinghua")went from an American-style multi-college comprehensive university to a Soviet-style polytechnic university,with a total of sixty-five Soviet experts invited to work there between 1952 and 1960.Tsinghua University reformed the existing engineering disciplines and established new departments such as engineering physics and automatic control,thus creating a new system of primary and secondary disciplines.By 1960,Tsinghua University no longer provided a"general education"and focused instead on"orienting its various disciplines toward the process of industrialization."The Soviet experts were involved with the various new departments and research groups,where they offered new courses,wrote textbooks,built laboratories,and trained graduate students and young teachers,playing an important role in the transformation of Tsinghua.Similar transformations of colleges and departments during the 1950s in China were not uncommon and indicate a major shift in the history of Chinese higher education.