Higher Education 4 (1975) 45-59 9 ElsevierScientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam - Printed in the Netherlands

C H A N G E IN H I G H E R E D U C A T I O N IN T H E P E O P L F ' S R E P U B L I C OF CHINA* R. C. HUNT Foreign Languages Institute, Peking, People's R epublie of China

ABSTRACT

Developments in Chinese higher education since the creation of the People's Republic in 1949 are reviewed with special reference to the periods before and after the Cultural Revolution. Recent changes in admission policies, the use of work experience, the linking of theory with practice, length of course, and teacher-student relationships are discussed.

Introduction

C o n t e m p o r a r y Chinese e d u c a t i o n has evolved f r o m a traditional heritage d o m i n a t e d b y the C o n f u c i a n value system. The m o d e r n system o f e d u c a t i o n d e v e l o p e d o n l y in the t w e n t i e t h c e n t u r y ; the Imperial examination system, the hub o f traditional society, was not abolished until 1905. It is against this b a c k g r o u n d that change can be assessed and the forces leading to progress be analysed. The two significant factors affecting e d u c a t i o n a l r e f o r m since 1949 have been the ideological goals o f the Chinese social p h i l o s o p h y and the e c o n o m i c needs o f her national r e c o n s t r u c t i o n . R e c o n c i l i a t i o n o f these two d e m a n d s has proved in practice to be e x t r e m e l y difficult up to the present time. T h e r e f o r m s arising f r o m the G r e a t Proletarian Cultural R e v o l u t i o n indicate the latest lines o f thinking in e d u c a t i o n t h o u g h it m u s t be n o t e d t h a t the Chinese emphasise the e x p e r i m e n t a l n a t u r e o f the current changes. The role o f the p r o d u c t s o f higher e d u c a t i o n , the intel*This is a shortened version of a longer article written when the author was Lecturer in Chinese Studies at the Asian Studies Centre, Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand.

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lectuals, and the nature of their social relationships with the mass of producers, their fellow men, is regarded as of the utmost importance in the building of New China. This theme is explored in the following pages especially in the light of the educational reform programme of the Cultural Revolution.

The Chinese Tradition The predominance of Confucian thinking permeating the traditional Chinese value system was an enormous problem for any twentieth century government wishing to turn an agriculturally based society into an industrial and modernised society. This factor proved a troublesome sociological legacy for the government of the People's Republic of China, when it came to power in 1949 and set about the transformation of the country. Significant ideas and practices inherited from Chinese tradition that would have some bearing on future educational developments included: 1. The low social status of women, especially as recipients of education. 2. The idea that education, which produced scholar-officials, included the assimilation of ethical values as well as academic learning. 3. Though the intellect in itself was acknowledged, greater status was given to the individual's moral integrity and ethical values. The scholarofficial class was expected to influence the social ethos and to educate the people morally by the example of its own ethical conduct and by precept. 4. There was a clear social dichotomy between mental and manual work. The educated class felt it demeaning and undignified to soil their hands with any form of manual work and regarded themselves as superior people. 5. The elite scholar-intellectual class regarded education as their exclusive prerogative. Literature and literacy were monopolised by them.

The First Decade 1950-59 In 1949 the functioning educational system was a three tier system modelled on Western lines, with primary school from 7-12 years of age, middle school from 13-18 years of age (divided into junior middle 13-15 and senior middle 16-18) followed by higher education. In 1949 out of a population estimated at 500 million there were only 117,000 students in higher education and this level of education was still absorbing only a select group of students. Two ministries were set up under the control of

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the State Council: the Ministry of Education in 1949 and the Ministry of Higher Education in 1952. Virtually every field in education was a priority and initial emphasis was on the need to consolidate and expand the educational structure and to widen the educational opportunities at all levels. Orleans (1960) reports that the percentage of the education budget spent on higher education rose from 14% in 1951 to 18.3% in 1952, 23.3% in 1953, 24.9% in 1954, 22.7% in 1955 and 26.8% in 1956. Culture and Education in the N e w China, a publication issued by the Foreign Languages Press, Peking in 1951, makes clear what the aims of the system were: "According to this principle, our higher and secondary education should serve the practical needs of economic, political and cultural reconstruction and the national defence of our country . . . . Higher educational institutes must train senior personnel for construction work needed by the state and must begin to open their doors to young workers and peasants and to government cadres who come from worker or peasant backgrounds." In higher education the existing institutions were in the large cities. New ones were also set up in the urban areas so that academic resources and research facilities would be concentrated. Research institutes would be the top level and, following the Russian model, three categories of institutions were specified. The first one was the comprehensive university combining natural and social sciences; these tended to be the already established universities situated in the large cities. Secondly there were the technical institutes which specialised in a particular field such as geology, mining, petroleum, water conservancy, etc. Lastly there were the polytechnical institutes designed to give a broader subject coverage in the fundamentals of industrial and engineering knowledge. From the viewpoint of student ambition, career expectations could be represented as subtle graduations from the comprehensive university at the top down to the polytechnical institute. Higher education itself was regarded as an important segment of that part of society still maintaining an intellectual elitist mentality. Enrollment policies in higher education reflected the initial conflict between ideological values and economic needs, i.e. between "redness" and "expertise." Without a cultural ideology imbued with the socialist ethic, it was difficult to achieve a harmonious blending between the concept of service to the c o m m u n i t y and that of personal ambition. The correct social attitude of an individual was just as important as academic expertise if he was going to satisfy the goal of "Be Red and Expert." This was seen as much more important for the graduates of higher education who would tend to function in privileged positions in society. One example of this was in the higher echelons of research. Scientific research

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and the popularisation of science in education were important factors in the educational policies of this period. By 1957 the Chinese had a total of 580 scientific research institutes engaging more than 28,000 research and technical personnel (Ten Great Years, 1960). But from the political viewpoint there was dissatisfaction with the attitude of the people involved in scientific research work, especially those "bourgeois" experts who felt that their work was outside the framework of socialist theory. This criticism was stressed in the period of the Great Leap Forward 1958-59. Experiences in the development of sciences in our country during the past few years have proved that only by starting from the standpoint of production and socialist construction can the scientific institutions of this country develop rapidly . . . Bourgeois scholars maintain that scientific research is exploratory in nature and thus cannot be planned because planning will fetter "free creations." We consider this viewpoint utterly incorrect. In a socialist society, scientific studies must be and can be developed in a planned manner (Red Flag, October 1st 1958). Political study was therefore seen as essential for all students. Although by 1957 students from worker-peasant backgrounds constituted 36.3% of the total students in higher learning (Ten Great Years, 1960), there was strong criticism of the socio-cultural problems facing such students in the universities; the basis of the enrollment policy for higher education was criticised as being unfair and slanted against disadvantaged students. Students, it was said, were assessed on academic ability with little consideration for their ideology or political quality (Nee, 1969). One significant change arising from the Great Leap Forward was the introduction of productive labour as a necessary experience throughout all levels of education, and its official adoption into the educational curriculum on September I9th 1958. Another important concept that became more widely accepted in education generally was the idea of part-time education and part-work/part-study institutions. These had the dual advantage of giving productive labour experience, helping production, and at the same time allowing educational facilities to be used by an increasing number of students. In higher education during the Great Leap Forward numbers of "Red and Expert" universities were set up by local authorities throughout China to serve production on the part-work/part-study principle. Many of these institutions taught advanced agricultural techniques and ancillary subjects but little information has been issued on their development or on how they compared with the established urban universities. Table I gives an indication of the rate of growth in the period under review.

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TABLE I Number of Graduates from Institutes of Higher Learning (Note: Data include only the main faculties of the institutes of higher learning)

1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957

Engineering

Agriculture

Economics and Finance

4,752 4,711 4,416 10,213 14,565 15,596 18,614 22,047 17,162

1,718 1,477 1,538 2,361 2,633 3,532 2,614 3,541 3,104

3,137 3,305 3,638 7,263 10,530 6,033 4,699 4,460 3,651

Medicine

Natural Sciences

Pedagogy

Liberal Arts

1,314 1,391 2,366 2,636 2,948 4,527 6,840 5,403 6,200

1,584 1,468 1,488 2,215 1,753 802 2,015 3,978 3,524

1,890 624 1,206 3,077 9,650 10,551 12,133 17,243 15,948

2,521 2,306 2,169 1,676 3,306 2,683 4,679 4,025 4,294

(Ten Great Years, 1960)

Productive Labour

At present there seem to be three main fields of productive labour through which students are involved in the process of material production, whether agricultural or industrial. It can vary from unskilled labour to highly skilled work; from immediate and direct participation in the production process to unrelated, peripheral involvement. The first kind of productive labour is unskilled manual work, lao dong, and this is usually associated with working in the country. Secondly there is production work in a workshop or factory situation, making a finished product either by hand or by machine, where some manual dexterity and technical skill are required. This type of work can be experienced on or off the campus in both the urban and the rural situation. The third type of productive labour experience is in the practical implementation of the concept of linking theory with practice. There is great emphasis on this concept in higher education, as an important element in the learning process and in the acquisition of knowledge. Knowledge acquired by the students should be tested and rationalised by them in a practical way and then conceptualised into tangible theory before being tested by practice again and further modified. Work experience gives the students an appreciation of manual abilities and skills, helps to narrow the distinction between mental and manual work, gives the urban student some insight into the life of the peasants in the countryside, and deepens ideological understanding of the class struggle.

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The overall effect on the future intellectuals may be judged from this essay written in English by a 19-year-old student after working for four weeks on the canal construction site between Miyun and Peking, just prior to the Cultural Revolution. We w o r k e d in the c o u n t r y s i d e for less t h a n a m o n t h . It was a good c h a n c e to live w i t h t h e p o o r and l o w e r - m i d d l e peasants. We learned a lot from t h e m . T h e y were n o t only h a r d working, b u t also h a d the h a p p i n e s s of t h e p e o p l e at heart. T h e y o f t e n said t h a t they m u s t p r o d u c e more grain for the revolution. T h e y also t o o k g o o d care of us. T h e y let us live in the best houses, b u t t h e y themselves lived in t h e w o r s t ones. Once a c o m r a d e got ill, t h e y n u r s e d h i m b a c k to health. T h e r e o u r m a i n w o r k was to dig t h e P e k i n g - M i y u n irrigation channel. All o f us w o r k e d in real earnest. We were t h e first to bear hardships, t h e last to enjoy comforts. W h e n we were tired we w o u l d t h i n k of t h e t r u t h : " A f t e r all y o u are n o t a real r e v o l u t i o n a r y y o u t h , if you are afraid of difficulties." On t h i n k i n g o f this, o u r courage screwed up at once. No m a t t e r h o w great t h e difficulties were, we could o v e r c o m e t h e m all. So e v e r y d a y we finished the work a h e a d of time. A f t e r w o r k we always h a d a good time. S o m e studied C h a i r m a n Mao's works. S o m e read newspapers. S o m e sang songs. Some p u t things in rhymes. During physical labour, o u r life was full of happiness, because we created w e a l t h with o u r o w n hands. ( T h e m a n u script is in the a u t h o r ' s possession.)

China emerged into the 1960s with an apparent reaction against the extreme educational reform called for by the Great Leap Forward. A more moderate and conservative line reappeared and there was a swing in emphasis back to the need for academic skills and expertise rather than productive work experience. The search for a balance between academic learning and political consciousness seemed to be a focal point for disharmony and stress. China's economic and industrial reconstruction urgently needed workers with all levels of educational skills and technical knowledge. The problem was how to produce workers with both a correct outlook on society and sufficient know-how for the job. The reconciliation of these two demands, economic necessity and political ideology, has been a continual challenge in the making of educational policy and practice in the People's Republic of China. Nevertheless after the Great Leap Forward, physical labour still remained on educational timetables at secondary school and higher educational levels. In fact many students of higher education took part in the Social Education Campaign 1962-66, and large numbers of them went to live and work in the countryside for considerable periods of time.

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The

Cultural

Revolution

and its Afermath

Although the aims of the educational reform programme o f the Cultural Revolution seemed basically the same as during the Great Leap Forward, it went further in some respects and it led to a much deeper reappraisal. The broad aims could be summarised as follows: - To change the educational ethos from one of middle class privilege to one of egalitarian socialism. -To align the educational system with China's socio-economic developments and needs. - T o make the theory and practice of education reflect socialist philosophy more honestly, and inculcate it more effectively. - T o mould a cultural ideology in society appropriate to the economic base. Specific areas of reform in higher education arising from the Cultural Revolution included: - changes in enrollment policy, - development of the principle of linking theory with practice, - alterations in the length and content of courses (including productive work and political study), - advancement in the use of progressive learning techniques, aids and materials, - democratisation of the teacher-learner relationship.

ENROLLMENT POLICY

The most significant of these has been the change in enrollment policy. Since 1950 the Chinese have been endeavouring to widen the educational opportunities for children from worker and peasant backgrounds by reducing the various socio-economic factors restricting their development and by expanding educational facilities as a whole. However, again one comes back to the question of evaluating "redness" and "expertise" in the selection of individuals. "Expertise" can be assessed by some form of testing, in a mechanical way; the moral quality of "redness" is more difficult to evaluate. In general terms, before the Cultural Revolution, and excluding the period of the Great Leap Forward, it appears that entrance examinations of the academic type were a fairly c o m m o n guide in the selection process. The academic ladder upwards to the elitist levels included regular assessment of the individual's ability and progress by formal examination. As has been found elsewhere, under such a system it

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is highly probable that students from disadvantaged backgrounds (peasant/worker) will be handicapped to some degree when trying to use the educational opportunities available, unless they are allowed to compensate for their cultural inadequacy in some other way such as moral-political "redness." During the Cultural Revolution student feeling focussed on this issue as may be illustrated b y this statement from Peking No. 1 Girls Middle School. The old system of examinations in the secondary schools is in contradiction with the educational line of Chairman Mao. It is a tool in the hands of the representatives of the bourgeoisie, who are using it for the purposes of class struggle against the proletariat and for exercising a dictatorship over the sons and daughters of the workers and peasants. This system encourages students to indulge in cramming and learning dogmas by rote, and it impels them to take the path of specialists seeking personal glory and benefit. We propose the abolition of the examination system and suggest that all secondary school graduates join the ranks of the workers, peasants and soldiers, before entering higher education. If this is postponed until the completion of higher education learning, the young men and women might have already formed an individual world outlook by then, which would be hard to change. Students entering higher education should be selected directly by the Party (People's Daily, June 18th 1966).

After the struggles and criticism of the Cultural Revolution had subsided, the main urban universities began to operate again in 1970, and adopted a new admissions policy along the lines suggested in the document of the Peking No. 1 Girls Middle School. The new experimental form was to reduce middle school education to five years, from 13-17 years of age, so that the old junior middle (13-15) and senior middle (16-18) divisions were completely removed and this cut out another assessment hurdle for the pupils, i.e. selection from junior middle into senior middle school. This meant that the old senior middle schools with more specialised studies leading eventually to higher education, would no longer function as such. Some senior middle schools are however still functioning in some parts of China. The aim now is for all teenagers graduating from middle school to do two or three years of productive work before entering higher education. Applications for admission to higher education must have the support of the workers in the work unit and must be approved by the local Communist Party branch before the College or University is approached. Thus preliminary sifting in the selection process is being carried out at the local level. The initial assessment of an individual's "redness" is being done by the work unit. For the 1970-71 academic year, approximately 90% of the intakes of Peking University and of Ts'ingHua University were middle school graduates (worker, peasant and soldier students)

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with two or three years of productive work experience; the remaining students came from the bourgeois class together with a small number of outstanding veteran workers. The official criteria for selection into higher education are good health, correct political consciousness, junior middle school cultural level, age under 24-25 (apart from veteran workers), and two or three years' productive work experience. It is difficult to assess whether there have been any changes in the enrollment policy to date. With respect to the selection means used by the institutions of higher education on their student applicants, recent reports during the summer of 1973 (Current Scene, September 1973) indicate that some form of regular examination seems to be a necessary part of the selection process. However, there have been criticisms voiced where the old-style examinations have been reappearing in the selection procedure, although it is accepted that cultural knowledge is as important as political knowledge. It seems that the divergency between the radical and moderate lines in educational reform has still not been resolved. An account of the current enrollment situation in higher education for the 1973-74 academic year sums up the main points of the reformed admissions policy: Institutes of higher learning in China have completed the enrollment of new students for 1973 taking in more than 153,000 worker, peasant and soldier students. From 1970 to 1972, the colleges and universities admitted nearly 200,000 students from among workers, peasants and soldiers. Since the reform in the enrollment system, China's institutes of higher learning have carried out enrollment on the basis of moral, intellectual and physical qualifications. Outstanding young workers peasants and soldiers with more than two years of practical experience have been selected and enrolled; in addition, workers, poor and lower-middle peasants and revolutionary cadres who have more than eight years of practical experience or who have inventions or innovations to their credit have also been admitted for further studies. The principle adhered to is: voluntary application, recommendation by the masses, approval by the leadership and re-examination by the colleges concerned (PekingReview, No. 39, September 28th 1973). LINKING THEORY WITH PRACTICE

During the Cultural Revolution there was the call for all colleges and universities to set up their own factories and workshops, by a joint effort of teachers, students and staff workers together. These would provide facilities for demonstrating and developing what the Chinese refer to as the "three in one" combination of learning/teaching, research and produc-

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tion. This form of direct practical involvement can be experienced inside or outside the university situation. For example, during the 1970-71 academic year the lecturers, students and staff workers of the faculty of hydraulics and water conservancy of Ts'ingHua University of Engineering and Technology, Peking, all moved to the San Men dam projects on the Yellow River to get first hand experience of the reality of harnessing water power. At the same time two of the workshops on campus, electronics and machine tools, joined forces to build a simple computer and two milling machines automatically operated by computer. The aim is to put the students in the practical situation, confront them with the problems and give them as much direct involvement as possible in the final solution. The knowledge so acquired should be related to the book knowledge available and recorded by the work unit as research information which may perhaps add to the body of theory on that particular subject. The Chinese stress that the student involvement in production is not induced by the profit motive or economic needs but is purely for the educational broadening of the students' thinking and experience. In some cases the finished products do have a real worth to society and can be passed on to the consumer public. For example, at Peking University the biochemistry and organic chemistry departments have jointly set up a pharmaceutical factory on campus, which produces a variety of medicines, such as insulin, antibiotics, anti-asthmatic drugs, anaesthetic drugs, antiparasite tablets and cytochrome C injections. These medicines are produced in a finished form and passed on to the state organisation for public use. The Radio-Electronics workshop of the Canton Teachers Training College build transistor radio audio-amplifier sets which are in great demand in the countryside and in primary and secondary schools. These examples all relate to students in the sciences and technological subjects. What of the students in the arts, humanities and social sciences? How can they experience social practice relevant to their academic theory? This is more problematic but it appears that methods of involving these students in various practical ways are being developed. The present approach to involving liberal arts students in practical experience consists of various forms of extramural activity; a group of Peking University students of Chinese language and literature spent some time working in a large rolling stock plant which was running a campaign for the utilisation of waste products and against the extravagant usage of materials. The students were able to contribute to this campaign by summarising workers' feelings and comments, preparing articles and writing criticisms; they also publicised the investigations taking place and the suggested improvements. Apart from this they were able to entertain the workers by cultural performances of music, song, revolutionary opera, and

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so on (C.C.A.S., 1972). A group of 150 philosophy students and teachers from Peking University carried out a 6-week intensive social survey in a selected area in the western district of Peking, concentrating their investigations on management systems in the industrial and commercial sectors, and the educational institutions. They recorded the various manifestations of class struggle and features of the conflict between the proletarian and bourgeois lines and eventually produced over 60 factual reports and more than 30 combined investigation reports (Peking Review, February 2nd 1973). Teachers and students in the international politics department studied Lenin's Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism by investigating the history of an iron-smelting factory in Peking, formerly owned by foreign capital. By researching relevant material and conducting discussions with the older workers there, they were able to write up a historical account of the factory's development and then make a political analysis of their findings (Peking Review, February 2nd 1973). Some second year history students at Futan University, Shanghai, spent four months living in the countryside compiling a historical report of a commune (HsinHua News Agency, June 8th 1973). It would be unwise to generalise on this type of educational development bearing in mind the diverse regions and geopolitical differences throughout China, but the experimental methods described indicate a trend and reorientation in current educational practice. LENGTH OF COURSES 1

In line with Mao's call to shorten courses, there have been some changes taking place, and these can only be outlined in broad terms, as insufficient details are available as yet. In the comprehensive universities there has been a streamlining and condensing of the bulk of the courses from an average of five to six years' duraIion to three years. Present courses at Peking University and Ts'ingHua University are for three years. The first intakes of post-Cultural Revolution students into these two universities were in autumn 1970, the students graduating between summer 1973 and Spring 1974. The arts, languages and political science courses at the National Minorities Institute, Peking, are also for three years. Canton Teachers Training College is the same. Short term courses of from 6-8 months in Criminal Law are being offered at Peking University. All courses will include political study, productive work and lao dong, along with academic learning. At DaLian College of Engineering the 1 Information for this section was supplied by three New Zealand delegations which visited China in July, September and October 1973, respectively.

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students spend 70% of their time on academic study, 20% on political study, and 10% on productive work. The time involved in each of these activities seems to vary from area to area. The experimental aspect of this transformation process seems to allow for significant initiative at the local level in the implementation of central policy decisions. TEACHERS, STUDENTS AND THE LEARNING SITUATION One important group having a great influence on educational development is the teachers themselves. Without teacher support, educational reform is limited. On the whole this section of the educational community has tended to be cautious and conservative in respect o f extreme change. The Cultural Revolution sought to get teachers to reappraise their role in education, to understand the function of education in society, to rethink their social relationships within the educational unit and to review their approach towards new and different teaching materials, aids and techniques. In general terms all aspects of institutional activity within education are being re-evaluated by the people involved; in particular, careful appraisal is being made of teacher-student relationships and teachinglearning techniques as well as the different forms of examination and assessment. Teacher-student relationships are still affected by the old traditions of learning by rote, teacher authority and student passivity. To ask the lecturer a question would involve loss of face on both sides; it was not the recognised norm. The trend now is towards a more equitable, democratic relationship, with the demand on mutual cooperation and help between teacher and student. Teachers can use teaching-learning techniques which are discussion-based, seminar-type or project work, so that there is more orientation towards group working. Students are taking a less passive role. The old formal examinations are criticised as "setting ambushes for the students." Thorough investigation has taken place into the purpose of each examination, what student ability and knowledge is being measured, by what criteria it is being evaluated, and what type of assessment would best suit each requirement. Experimental forms include student-based and teacher-based assessment or both, continual assessment, periodic testing, group assessment, project-assignment work and so on. Obviously there is need for a form of student assessment and in some subjects the more formal type of examination is still relevant, with perhaps some modification such as questions set in advance, pre-examination group discussion, use of books and notes during the examination. Weaker students are to be helped by the teacher and the others in the group and encouraged to work persistently to achieve a reasonable level. There is no question of failure.

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Everyone is helped to achieve at least an average norm in his course. Although rarely occurring, where the selection process has allowed maladjusted or inadequate students to enter higher education, every such case is treated on its merits after comprehensive investigation and the student reallocated to a lower stage of study or transferred to a more appropriate field of study or work. TEACHERS' PRODUCTIVE LABOUR How does productive labour apply to the teaching staffs in higher education? The present requirement is for all administrators, teachers, technicians and ancillary workers to take part periodically in some manual work or productive work, as well as carrying out their normal duties. Many of the institutions have set up their own May 7th Cadre Schools (named after Chairman Mao's directive of May 7th 1966) in the countryside, an innovation arising from the Cultural Revolution. The general aim is to have rural units which can give some agricultural and production experience to the urban based bureaucrats, officials, cadres, teachers, office workers and non-manual workers, many of whom would otherwise rarely experience life in the countryside. Since many of these units were established on infertile soil, the initial pioneering efforts must have represented a considerable struggle for these cadres. The urban based mental workers can spend some time in the countryside re-educating themselves and recharging their political consciousness in the struggle for production. It will help them to avoid the "Three Divorces" - from the people, from production and from politics. The aim is eventually to make these rural units completely self-reliant and self-sufficient in food production, with surplus production being passed on to the state. Small workshops and factories are to be set up so that they will become production units both industrially and agriculturally. Many of the professors and teachers who were heavily criticised b y the Red Guards at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution have spent some time at these cadre schools being re-educated politically before being officially reinstated. The majority have returned to their previous posts and some are assuming positions of responsibility within the new organisation of higher education.

Conclusion The Chinese are extremely concerned with the function of education in society and the relationship between society, the universities and the

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neighbouring environment. There has been much criticism of "ivory towerism," that the staff and students do not communicate or integrate with the surrounding society; that there is an intellectual reserve and superiority confining them to their college situation. These deficiencies led to the formulation of the question, "What is the function of a socialist university?" How should it relate to local industry and agriculture? The short answer is, by an open door policy, by becoming a combined learning and production unit, and by practising the concept, "Take the whole of society as your factory." Looking at education in the light of social change in China during the twentieth century, the patterns emerge in a logical sequence. Chinese society is in transition from a traditional static form, with intellectual emphasis on Confucian and humanist values, to a modern dynamic form, with intellectual concentration on science and technology, and on socialist humanism. So the different classes in Chinese society are having to adjust their status, relationships, qualifications and attitudes accordingly, as their social role is redefined to fit the changing demands. How does this affect the intellectuals? They are being made to widen their horizons to include the study of socio-political activity and scientific phenomena; they are required to acquire moral-political knowledge and functional knowledge through the practical experience of social struggle and scientific experimentation. They are required to become producers themselves and to develop the outlook of service to the people. Although some Western commentators have criticised the new role expected of the intellectuals, the demands on the latter can hardly be construed as anti-intellectual, except when evaluated by traditional criteria. The intellectuals are being required to modify their stance towards the "masses" so as to minimise the social differences, to democratise relationships and to reduce the distinctions between manual and mental work, agriculture and industry, rural and urban life. It has been said that twentieth century education in China has been subject to three different influences, Confucian, Dewey and Russian. What New China needs is a modernised educational system, tailored by themselves to suit their own particular reality. The recent changes in higher education seem to be a step in that direction.

References Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars (1972). China/Inside the People's Republic. New York: Bantam. Current Scene. Monthly digest of information issued by the U.S. Information Service, Hong Kong. 58

Nee, V. (1969). "The Cultural Revolution at Peking University," Monthly Review. 21.3. Orleans, L. (1960). Professional Manpower and Education in Communist China. Washington, D.C. : National Science Foundation. Peking Review. Weekly political journal in English. People's Daily. National daily newspaper. R e d Flag. Monthly political journal. Ten Great Years (1960). Foreign Languages Press, Peking.

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