How Far Can We Learn Anything of Practical Value from Our Pioneers? Reconsidering Wu Yifang’s Legacy of Higher Education

Abstract

The dilemma confronting modern university development presents a challenge to the management ability of university presidents, hence a need to review how successful presidents of the past managed. Wu Yifang, the first Chinese woman president with remarkable achievements in education, has thus come to our attention. As President of Ginling College (GC), she was confronted with a preponderance of contradictions, including the conflicts between the ideas of Western universities and Chinese traditional culture, between Christian spirit and social responsibility, between educational logic and the political environment, between traditional inheritance and innovation, and between universal university governance experience and the unique needs of GC. She eventually succeeded in balancing these contradictions with her superb management wisdom, with the management ideas in China’s classical text, the Mean playing an important role in facilitating GC’s development. Wu Yifang’s management style demonstrated a remarkable balance in prioritizing both the pursuit of talent cultivation and social services, based on carefully catering to core principles pertaining to the development of universities and students. Wu Yifang’s management practices and philosophy can thus provide important inspiration for university presidents.