Thoughts from China
by President William V. Frame

A delegation of Minnesota private college presidents, board members, and local business leaders traveled to China last November for eight days, hosted by the Chinese Ministry of Education, aiming to strengthen relations between higher education systems in both countries.

November 7, 2000

I write the morning of election day in the U.S., and the day after our most extensive conversation with the Ministry of Education concerning the utility of America's version of private higher education for China.

At the moment, our hosts doubt the relevance of our tradition to their situation, but they are fascinated by our description of it and wish to continue the interchange. Part of the reason for their skepticism is revealed, I think, by our difficulty in explaining how one founds or starts a private college of the sort we represent. They want to know what economic interest in our kind of education is strong enough to draw investors who require an attractive return and how the government can make sure that such institutions can help keep economic development moving.

It has been difficult for us to explain the dedication of our institutions to the training of men and women for life in a free society; to the preservation and cultivation of particular cultural dispensations even as students are prepared for full participation in the profoundly pluralistic society.

The oldest proprietary university in China is entirely focused on workforce considerations, and its mission is entirely determined by industrial trends and employment demand. The institution seems to be in service to social forces rather than to the liberation of the student; the idea of education correcting social forces is hard to articulate, let alone discuss.

November 8, 2000

The ancient artifacts [at the archeological museum of the imperial regime in Xianxi are stunning for their refinement in form and proportion, and the narrative arrangement of them indicate the grand trends in cultural development.

This great museum does no better than any other we've visited in pointing out the grand ideas that reorient society. The 5,000 years of Chinese history are presented without reference to anything like the trial of Socrates, the Enlightenment, the Reformation, or even the founding of the Communist Party of China. I wonder if our current moment is as utterly disconnected from our past as it appears to be here?

The private colleges and universities that are springing up across the country are faulted for the quality of their faculties, facilities, and the size of their enrollments—but admired for their popularity, their success in attracting investors, and (perhaps) feared for their potential ability to move forward without the need of official control.

The one check against this latter possibility appears to be accreditation. Only one of the proprietary institutions has [received] the right to grant four-year B.A. and B.S. degrees; all the others grant associate or three-year diplomas. Even as the largest and oldest of the private institutions await the ultimate level of accreditation, they claim that their graduates are winning immediate and rewarding employment.

The management both of the proprietary institutions with whom we have met and of the provincial and city governments overseeing higher education express strong interest in continuing the conversation which has been occurring with us over the past week. I think we should continue our interest in it; we are, after all, in touch at very high levels with perhaps the greatest educational challenge ever faced in the modern period. We might be able to help, and we will certainly learn new things about our own challenge in the process.

Today, we are off to the tomb of Chin Shih Huang Ti. Tomorrow Shanghai.