Abstract
ABSTRACT The paper compares Anglo-American and Chinese approaches to the outcomes of higher education, primarily but not solely collective outcomes, by examining the Western domain of ‘public good’ and ‘public goods’ and parallel or near parallel activities in China. It reviews scholarly discourses of society, state and higher education in the respective political cultures (‘traditions’), including individualism and collectivism, university autonomy, the critical function, higher education in civil society, and global tianxia and global common good. A key issue in symmetrical cross-cultural comparison is the position from which it is made; and as well as elucidating similarities and differences the paper develops what Sen calls a ‘trans-positional’ view based on integrating the two positional views. The two traditions are not closely aligned. However, aside for the Anglo-American public/private dualism in economics (which occludes collective outcomes), all ideas in both traditions can contribute to transpositional understanding of the individualised and collective outcomes of higher education.
Highlights
What are the outcomes of higher education and how are these understood? These are ongoing questions for governments, scholar-researchers and those who work in the sector or use it
As a way to collective outcomes, we examine the domain designated as ‘public’ in Western countries (Dewey 1927) and parallel activities in China. (The implications of using an Anglo-American starting point are discussed below)
In this paper the outcomes of higher education have been investigated via the lens of Anglo-American ‘public’ and ‘private’ good(s) and the nearest Chinese equivalents
Summary
What are the outcomes of higher education and how are these understood? These are ongoing questions for governments, scholar-researchers and those who work in the sector or use it. Public financing economics has devised tools for measuring some but not all of them (McMahon 2009) Even so, they are specific to institutional mission, vary according to values and priorities, and are interpreted differently between countries. The outcomes of higher education can be understood as individualised and/or collective (Marginson 2020), even though as shall be discussed, nuances of ‘individual’ and ‘collective’ vary. Individual students acquire benefits distinctive to themselves as single persons, as self-development, knowledge, skills, employability, larger earnings or social status. Some of these individualised benefits are measurable, such as the augmented lifetime earnings associated with graduateness, or access to credential-mediated occupations – though higher education’s larger contribution to individualised agency and capability (Sen 1999a) is harder to assess. The preparation of graduates as citizens fosters both individualised capability and collective social relations
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