| Cai Yuanpei, as a famous democracy revolutionist, a great educationalist and an outstanding thinker of education, has been studied by many scholars both in China and abroad. Cai devoted himself in the development of the educational career and made great contribution to the research of theory and practice on education. Taken the advantage of the experience and model of higher education in western countries, Cai formed his idea of running a school. In his tenancy as the president of Peking University, Cai carried out his bold and resolute reform and made Peking University the biggest university of the time. And this established an model for the setting up and the developing of China's higher education at modern time and settled a basement for the modernization of China's higher education. Cai's idea of running a school in higher education and reform on higher education opened up a new prospect to the history of China's higher education and made a profound impact on the development of China's higher education.It's inferable that Cai's thoughts concerning higher educational administration can be epitomized in the following aspects. Firstly, "doing pure research for creative scholarship" is the key role that schooling institution plays. Secondly, that "all ideas will be tolerated and accommodated in accordance with the principle of 'freedom of thought'" is the basic rule to run a school. Thirdly, "permitting participation in university decisions by the body of professors and the issue of democratic administration" contribute to the construction of schooling system. Fourthly, that "the unity of five types of education helps cultivate sanity and individuality" is the goal for school running. Lastly, "the independence of education" is a basic and necessary condition that guarantees the schooling procedure.As a combination of the essence of Chinese traditional culture and Western modern civilization, Cai Yuanpei's ideology of higher educational administration not only have exerted a massive impact in his time but also exhibits its modern value after practiced and examined by over one hundred years' history of higher education. Recalling Cai Yuanpei's ideology of higher educational administration takes on great theoretical and practical significance for the development of the contemporary higher education, for explicitly defining the role of the modern universities, for further clarifying the ideas of running a school of the modern universities, for bringing up the socialist builders with a noble character as well as for stimulating the entire national ability to innovate, and in particular for the construction of the system of the modern universities. |
