A Study On The Philosophy Propulsion In The Reform Of Higher Education In France

There is no doubt that French culture originating from the ancient Greek and Roman culture is a splendid superstar shinning in the western civilization system. In the long history of the development of human civilization, French culture has been sparkling with its unique charm and grace, amazingthe world by its uniqueness, richness and brilliance. Withtime-honored traditional culture, the French people are renowned for their open-mind, inclusiveheart and infinite creativeness. In addition, the higher education of France has a long history as well, even though there are twists and twists and turns and many thorns on its developmentpath.But French education ranks top among the world being a higher education power after several significant higher education reforms.It is necessaryto describe the content, process and consequence in the study on the French higher education reform and dig the causes and reasons behind the reformespecially.The revolution of political system, the development of economy and the changes of ideology and culture are indispensible promotion elements forFrench higher education reforms. Among them, the political and economic elements take the leading role in distinct position as usual, while the ideology and culture are working in darkness in most cases but its profoundinfluences on the French higher education cannot be ignored by us.If we regard ideology and cultureas the beautiful crown of a nation, then philosophical thought is the brilliant pearl on the crown. French people have a philosophy tradition proud by every Frenchman, and there are many famousphilosophers with great reputation in the history of philosophy. The influence of philosophy on the life of French people could be found in every aspect of life, higher education is no exception of course. Therefore, we can see that philosophy is served as the important driving power almost in every single higher education reform, particularly, in the reform of 1968. The year of 1968 has been doomed to the year that can never be wiped out from the history of France. The political system was comparatively stable and the economy developed fast in the 20-year period after World War II. However, in 1968, "May Storm" or "May 1968 events in France",which is a reform developedin universities, broke out suddenly and swept every field of France shortly, but the higher education was the first to be affected. In 1960s, many different schools of philosophy ideologycommunicated and collided with each other, among which existentialism, philosophy of life and structuralism were the significant ones. These thoughts erupted like blowout and caused violent changes on the thoughts of students in universities. The rigid university system cannot meet the needs of people any more, thus, millions of students, teachers and managers went onto streets to express their wishes waving their "weapon" of thoughts. Although this "storm"did not have an overturning influence on the France, it did give a powerful shake in the field of French higher education.After the "storm" subsided, The Guiding Law on the Higher Education Direction was issued and we canfind the influences of the collision of multi-philosophy in its items. But howthese philosophy thought spropelled French higher education reforms is the high priority of this dissertation.In terms of higher education in China, the experience of French higher education reform offers us a lesson with inspiration and enlightenment. China and France share many similarities in higher education system for they both are big country with long history and time-honored culture,particularly they both have a profound philosophy tradition. Of course, Chinese higher education is still in its developing stage and has more problems. However, the study on the philosophy propulsionin the French higher education reform can offer alternativesolutions to the problems in the reform of Chinese higher education reforms.The research methods applied in this dissertation are historical method, literature analysis, and comparison research. In terms of research perspectives, this dissertation started with the relationship between philosophy thoughts and higher education reforms, then deeply analyzes the philosophy propulsion elements and its influenceon the French higher education reform. Specifically, this study introduces and analyses the history development of French higher education by the method of historical research which lays the background foundation for the following study; the literature analysis is mainly adopted in organizing the French philosophy tradition and the policy,laws and acts introduced in the French higher education reforms; while the comparison research is applied to comparing thedevelopment history of higher education of France with that of china at the end of this dissertationprobingthe lesson of philosophy propulsion in French higher education reform which can be learned by China.This dissertation is arranged in five chapters. Chapter one organizes the history development of French higher education reform and divides it into old system period, modern system period and contemporary period in chronological order. It provides the background support for the following study through the description of several French higher education reforms whose tortuous development can be reflected in.Chapter two starts with the higher education reform in Enlightenment Movement. It analyzes how French higher education broke the feudal church constraints, took reforms with keen determination and entered the path toward a global power in the year that have a profound influence on France. As it should be, this chapter focuses on the analysis of the philosophy propulsion in higher education reform during the period of Enlightenmentand centers on how philosophy propelled the higher education reform.Chapter three takes theFrench higher education reform in 1986 as example to study the causes, process, result and influence of this reform. The contentemphasizes the analysis on the causes and gives a deep and profound analysis to the direct cause------"May Strom". And finally, it describes the contents and influence of the direct outcome of "May Storm"-------The Guiding Law on the Higher Education Direction.Chapter four mainly probes the propulsion element of philosophy in French higher education reform in 1968. Starting with the specific content of The Guiding Law on the Higher Education Direction, it analyzes the concrete influences,exerted by multiple philosophy thoughts when they advanced together, collided and fought with each other, compromised with each other, on the introduction of this low, and goes furtherto analyze the propulsion roleplayed by philosophy thoughts in higher education reforms.Chapter five stresses the analysis on the lesson ofFrench higher education that China can learn. As the big country with long history and profound culture, China and France have a lot in common, philosophy tradition, higher education system and their development process in particular. At present, the higher education is in its developing period when a series of problems followed. The study on the philosophy propulsion in French higher education reform givesinspiration and enlightenment and provides a lesson for Chinese higher education reform from a different perspective.