The Idea of a University: Some Polemical Reflections
Some fifteen years ago Ambrose King (Jin Yaoji 金耀基), the Vice-chancellor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, published an updated edition of his book, Daxue de linian (大學的理念; King in Daxue zhi linian. Oxford University Press, Hong Kong, 2001).
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The Idea of a University: Some Polemical Reflections Leo Ou-fan Lee
Some fifteen years ago Ambrose King (Jin Yaoji 金耀基), the Vice-chancellor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, published an updated edition of his book, Daxue de linian (大學的理念; The Idea of a University 2001). Rereading the book now, I am struck by the term “linian” in the title, which consists of two Chinese characters: li, principle; and nian, idea. What seemed then to be a simple and commonly accepted term is now missing in the current discussion on university education. Does it mean that in this age of globalization any talk of “idea” or “principle” is irrelevant? In place of the more intellectual and ethical implications of the “principled idea” of a university, we are pressured to think only of the university’s functional role and its practical uses to society. As numerous commentators have already pointed out, today’s global university is essentially derived from the business model of corporation. Should a university be considered a business corporation in the first place? If so, what then is the idea of a “university corporation” aside from its operational procedures? This essay presents an argument and polemic designed to reopen the debate. I am in both principle and practice against the current corporational model and consider it harmful to the whole idea and purpose of university education. Professor King probably borrowed his book’s title from a classical book with the same title by Cardinal Newman in 1852, in which Newman first expounded on the crucial notion of what has since become known as “liberal education.” As is well known, Newman’s idea of university education is inseparable from its central aim, namely character shaping. The same book title was used by the German philosopher Karl Jaspers to expound the idea of the university as an “intellectual community” and an “organic whole” (King 2001, 5–6) rather than a loose gathering of specialized departments. What constitutes this intellectual community is, however, subject to debate and further deliberation. Jasper’s model, I suspect, is itself L.O. Lee (&) The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2016 E.T.Y. Chan and M. O’Sullivan (eds.), The Humanities in Contemporary Chinese Contexts, The Humanities in Asia 2, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-2267-8_1
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L.O. Lee
indebted to the formulation of another German philosopher and linguist, Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835), whose model of the university, first enunciated in a brief memorandum in 1809, has exerted a lasting impact on both sides of the Atlantic—and in China as well—until recently. Humboldt considers the fundamental idea of university education to be the seeking and transmission of “Wissensschaft,” a German term which means not only science but all branches of knowledge and learning. The process of acquiring systematic knowledge is called “research,” which should be without any ulterior motive except for the persistent exploration of “as yet undisc
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