10 Afterword: Liberal Arts Education in a Changing Society

Abstract

The stages of development in higher education in modern China mark a series of influences corresponding to academic models in Japan, Europe, and America. The Japanese model predominated from the last part of the nineteenth century into the early twentieth century. From 1911 to the early 1940s, Chinese universities were strongly influenced by academic models in Europe and America. During this period, the liberal arts model was most successful. This chapter has provided the academic and historical context necessary to understand the current status of liberal arts education in Chinese universities, particularly in three Shanghai institutions: Fudan, Shanghai Jiaotong, and ecnu. It has drawn on numerous interviews and surveys of selected students, faculty members, administrators, and policy makers in those three institutions and in the Shanghai Department of Education in order to depict current thinking on liberal arts education.Keywords: higher education; liberal arts education; modern China; Shanghai Jiaotong