The Study On Faculty Governance In The Universities Of Western Countries

Faculty governance is one of the most traditional models in the west countries. It has a long history that dated from Paris University in the middle ages. However, the history of faculty governance in China is short and used to stop for a period of time. In recent years, with the reform of higher education administration system, especially the inner higher education administration system, faculty governance begins to be paid more and more attentions. In fact, faculty governance is to manage the academic matter in higher institutions all by the staff of professors. Faculty governance is naturally requested by the fact that university is a place to explore advanced knowledge. It is decided by the particularity of higher education administration. The implement of faculty governance can stimulate the enthusiasm of professors who are the subjects of academy, and exert their effects in higher education administration, therefore, help us to establish first-class universities in the world.This thesis includes four parts below.The first part is the study on the history of faculty governance in the universities of western countries. According to the characteristics of faculty governance development, we divide it into four periods: the period of forming, the period of enforcing, the period of developing and the period of reforming. The first period is from 1208 when Paris University was established to 1500. The second period is from 1500 to 1810. The third is from 1810 that is the establishment of Berlin University to 1945. The forth one is from 1945 till now.The second part is about models of faculty governance. According to the integrating ways of influences, faculty governance can be divided into three models, the European continent model, the United Kingdom model and the United States model. Then the author analyzes and compares these three models from three levels, the basic working unit level, the middle level and the systematic level.The third part is about the theory of faculty governance. This thesis firstly explores the rationality of faculty governance from the aspects of the nature of university, the relationship of faculty governance and academic freedom, the particularity of higher education administration and the new challenge that higher education faces with. And then it illustrates the restriction of faculty governance from three aspects, the limitationof energy, the lack of overall point of view and the embarrassment of double-role.The forth part is about the developing trend of the faculty governance in Chinese universities. The history of faculty governance in Chinese universities is divvied into four periods, the period of sprouting, the period of stopping, the period of resuming and the period of developing. There are some problems both in theory and in practice in the faculty governance of Chinese universities: we have not paid enough attention to it, it has not been put into practice sufficiently, the relationship of academic power and administrant power is not balanced and it is lack of guarantee of the law. So we have to take faculty governance as the long-period aim, establish the power of decision-making and administrating of professors on academic matter, provide guarantee for faculty governance from the law, and find a faculty governance model which is suitable for the situation of China.This thesis applies the research methods of comparison and history to study faculty governance systematically. It tries to summaries the models and theories of faculty governance from the history of it, which can be used as reference for the implement of faculty governance in China, so that we can find the model of faculty governance suitable to Chinese situation.