Anatomy of higher education

Eric Ashby

The Higher Education System: Academic Organization in Cross-National Perspective. By Burton R. Clark.

University of California Press: 1983. Pp.315. £21.25, $32.50.

On one hand their loyalty is to the discipline: what matters most to a physicist may be his status among other physicists, and this tempts him to put what he calls "my own work" before the interests of the university in which he serves. On the other hand their loyalty is to the institution and its corporate interests: what matters most may be the educational mission of the community, to produce (as the Oxford don, Mark Pattison, put it) "not a book but a man". "The culture of a discipline even includes idols". writes Clark. In the sociologist's office you see a picture of Max Weber on the wall. Yes, and in the office of a chemist who is also a tutor or a dean you see a picture of Magdalen quadrangle on the wall. It is symbolic of the split personality that inhabits the academic mind. There are subtle differences among different countries in the emphasis given to these loyalties. An American would talk of belonging to the Yale Class of '24; a German would not state his university, but would say "I was a pupil of Heisenberg"; a graduate from Oxbridge does not even mention his university: he is called ''a Clareman" or "a Wadham man".

一方面，得对学科忠诚：对物理学家来说，最重要的是他在其他物理学家中的身份，这吸引他把自己的工作放在他所服务大学的利益之前。另一方面，他们得忠于机构和机构的团体利益：就正如Oxford don和Mark Pattison所说的，最重要的是教育使命不是要出版一本书，而是要培养一个人。克拉克写道：“学科的文化甚至包括偶像崇拜”，在社会学家的办公室，你能看见墙上挂着Max Weber的画像；而在化学家担任院长或导师的办公室里，你能看见墙上Magdalen的四方画像。这是学术思维的人格分裂的象征。不同的国家，对忠诚的强调略有差异。美国人将说自己属于耶鲁24班的，德国人将不说大学，而说“我是heisenbeg的学生”，牛津剑桥的学生甚至都不提他们的大学，他被叫做a Clareman, 或者Wadham man.（以大学所在地来命名自己）