Abstract

GOODMAN, David S. G.. China's Universities and Social Change: Expectations, Aspirations, and Consequences. Méx.cuenca pac [online]. 2015, vol.4, n.12, pp.19-38. ISSN 2007-5308.

Studies of higher education often assume that there is a close relationship between economic growth, social change, and political transformation. It is argued that economic growth leads not simply to a demand for the expansion of higher education but also an increase in social equity in admissions to universities. Students become more radicalised through this process; and both through economic growth and the expansion of higher education, academic staff who are the core after all of a society's public intellectuals, also become the voice for political transformation. The evidence from the People's Republic of China is that while there has been massive economic growth during the last thirty years, and an equally dramatic expansion of higher education since 1997, the consequences for higher education in terms of social change have been considerably more limited. Moreover, while there have been some voices for limited political transformation from staff and students, the demands for regime change that might have been expected given the experiences of other countries are virtually non-existent.

Keywords : China; higher education; economic growth; social development; political change.

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