This book brings together English translations of thirteen research papers published in Mainland China in recent years by historians, sociologists and educators who have investigated various dimensions of China’s sixteen Christian universities established in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These institutions did path-breaking teaching, research, and community service across China up to the early 1950s, when the new Communist government decided to close them and integrate their faculty and facilities into the new socialist system of higher education. It is surprising that now, seventy years later, the legacy of these institutions continues to inspire higher education reform in China and there is an ongoing scholarship that draws on archival sources in China, Europe, and North America to elaborate on their value.

In 2014, the Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies of Peking UniversityPeking University and the Beijing Alumni Association of Yenching UniversityYenching University co-organized an international symposium on “Yenching University and the Tradition of Liberal Arts Education in Modern China.” Professors Dennis Ng and Peter Ng were invited to present a paper on: “Liberal Arts Educationliberal arts education at Yenching University, as We Know Them,” to explore the tradition of LAE as found at Yenching University in the Republican era. It was believed that China’s modern tradition of LAE came from Yenda, and the understanding and reviving of Yenda’s LAE tradition would enhance the current vision of Peking University, strengthen its international connections, and raise its international academic status. The special characteristics of LAE can be seen in three areas: development of inter-disciplinary curriculum design, teaching, and learning (including academic research), development of campus fellowship among faculty and students, and bi-lingual campus life (signifying an inter-cultural as well as an international environment). The present chapter is an updated version to enhance deeper understanding of the traditions of LAE at Yenda, with special reference to the development of inter-cultural/ inter-religious studies, the application of an inter-disciplinary approach, and a bi-lingual campus which brought up the significance of the interplay between Chinese and Western cultures.

This article attempts a retrospective and prospective review of the study of the history of China’s Christian universities (CCU)China’s Christian universities (CCU) in the past 35 years (1982–2017). The authors recall some of the significant studies attempted by Chinese scholars over the years. Prof. Ma Min is the lead author of this article. He attended both the first International Symposium on the Study of the History of China’s Christian University in 1989 and the 30th Anniversary Conference of that same research group, both held at Central China Normal UniversityCentral China Normal University. Also, Prof. Ma looked at CCU from an education administrator’s perspective with his insider experience as the President and Party-appointed Secretary of Huazhong Normal UniversityHuazhong Normal University from 2003 to 2017. He affirmed that the study of CCU would provide significant contribution of ideas and insights for the modernization of Chinese higher education even up to the present. The emphases on “InternationalizationInternationalization”, “Integration of Sino-Western Cultures”, “Character Education”, “Inter-disciplinary StudiesInter-disciplinary Studies”, “Development of Critical and Creative thinking”, and many other educational ideals are also relevant to the conception of “Liberal Arts Educationliberal arts education” and “Humanistic Quality Education” which Chinese universities are striving for today.

The term “Glocalizationglocalization” was chosen to embrace intentionally the vivid interplay between the global and the local processes in the development of Christian higher educationChristian higher education in China. It’s original root, ‘Globalization’ was formerly used in referring to the missionaries’ effort at evangelizing through the introduction of Christian higher education into China, whereas the local aspect referred to the Chinese impact and response which brought about the further development of Christian higher education in ChinaChina. Globalization tends to view any changes from a one-way direction, hence becomes normative and imperialistic, whereas Glocalization looks more at the interplay between the global and local aspects and emphasizes mutually interactive relations. As a result, it is found that during the interplay between the global and local processes, Christian higher education in China went through a process of contextualization and SinificationSinification on Chinese soil. On June 10, 2022, this author was invited to give a zoom lecture for Nanjing Normal UniversityNanjing Normal University, NanjingNanjing, China. The topic was “Nurture of Human Persons: An Historical Exploration of Liberal Arts Educationalliberal arts educational ideals at Nanjing Normal University.” It was taken as a further exploration of the legacy of Christian higher education with regard to the LAE ideals in the University of NankingUniversity of Nanking and Ginling CollegeGinling College which continued their development into Nanjing Normal University throughout the twentieth century China. Hence, the two papers are now combined to form this present chapter.

From the end of the nineteenth century to the 1930s, China’s Christian universitiesChristian universities were the first to advocate a new style of Chinese and Western architecture in unique historical circumstances. This in turn served as a prelude to the revival of Chinese traditional architectural art. Due to a gradual awakening of domestic national consciousness, this new architectural style was regarded as symbolic in the way it inherited and carried forward Chinese traditional culture, and it gradually developed into a modern architectural style with special significance. The architectural style of China’s Christian universities and the resulting revival of Chinese traditional architectural art are remarkable historical evidence of the two-way flow of Chinese and Western cultures, and the vivid interplay between globalizationglobalization and localizationlocalization in the process of glocalization in China’s Christian universities. In this paper, the author demonstrates this vivid interplay by illustrations of Henry K. Murphy’s formalist architectural design and John L. StuartJohn L. Stuart’s dream of a Yenching UniversityYenching University campus which was fully Chinese in spirit yet capable of facilitating international interaction. Prof. Dong argues also that Western culture had indeed helped the revival and transformation of traditional Chinese architectural art, hence creating a new and distinctive form of architectural design in buildings on the campuses of Christian universities in China.

During the Nationalist eraNationalist era, Fukien Christian UniversityFukien Christian University and Hwa Nan (South China) Women’s CollegeHwa Nan (South China) Women’s College were deeply concerned about the problems of rural villages in Fujian ProvinceFujian Province. They made efforts to explore and resolve the rural problems with the application of both their theoretical knowledge and practical experiences. Through a systematic study of the Christian universitiesChristian universities and their connections with the rural villages in ChinaChina, this paper elaborates on the historical meaning of the contribution made by Christian universities to China’s social development and draws out from there the ways in which students were nurtured and how such practical experiences helped towards the development of rural villages in China. It also provides important lessons learnt by these two Christian universities as they took responsibility for social development in the province, and how they had learnt to contribute to the uplift of the rural villages in terms of social, economic, health services, also education, and culture in Fujian Province.

Timothy Ting-fang Lew and Tzu-ch'en Chao (T. C. ChaoT. C. Chao) were great deans of the School of Religion at Yenching UniversityYenching University (Lew served as chair of the theology department from 1920 to 1925 and became the founding dean 1925–1926; whereas Chao served as dean from 1928 to 1952). Both played an important role in the establishment and development of the school and were key figures in the Chinese Christian Church during the first half of the twentieth century. Under the strong and effective leadership of these two deans, the School of Religion at Yenching University became a leading Christian seminary in China and a benchmark for the localization of theological education in China. Based on documents and archives collected in China and the United States, this article explores what has been called the “Yenching Era” of Christian theological education in China and the role of Yenching University through the relationship between and the significant contributions of Lew and Chao in its School of Religion. It was found that Lew had already planned to step down from the School of Religion in 1926, which gave rooms for some new developments of the School when Chao became dean in 1928. Though Lew was the founding dean of the School of Religion who prepared to create a British-American model of theological education for Yenching University, the School of Religion turned out to move towards localization and indigenization (or even “Sinification”) after Lew’s departure and once Chao became dean in 1928. The year 1928 also marked the beginning of Harvard-Yenching Institute which opened up a wider platform for more teaching and research on Chinese studies at Yenching University. This article also helps to suggest another possible understanding of the development of the School of Religion at Yenching University in the 1930s and 1940s, while still confirming T. C. Chao as the first Christian theological educator who worked for indigenous theology in China.

The United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia (UBCHEA)United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia (UBCHEA) is a non-profit higher education organization serving the Asian region. From its establishment in New YorkNew York in 1922, it had long been committed to promoting the development of Christian higher educationChristian higher education in China until 1952, when it moved its focus to other Asian countries and regions. After China's reform and opening up, the UBCHEA restored its connection to mainland China. Adhering to the principle of a separation between religion and education, the United Board (UB) has played an important role in library construction, faculty development, support for visiting professors, cultural and artistic exchanges, and support for scientific research programs. In the mid-to-late 1990s, the UB gradually turned more attention to other Asian countries that needed more help, also put greater emphasis on their Christian identity, while continuing to support higher education in mainland China. Since 2000, the United Board has deliberately strengthened its Asian characteristics, and made a greater effort to establish an integrated Asian higher education collaborative network, incorporating China into this system for smooth functioning. After 2012, the United Board took up whole-person education as the core concept in all its projects and launched new plans while continuing to promote traditional projects. The UB case is another example of the dramatic interplay between globalization and localization for over one hundred years in the Asian context. Although the UB’s policies and strategies are constantly changing, China remains one of its most important partners and continues to play a role in shaping UB’s policies on co-operation with the Asian Christian higher education system.

Miner Searle BatesMiner Searle Bates (1897–1978) was a missionary educator who taught history at the University of NankingUniversity of Nanking for thirty years from 1920 to 1950. The greatest progress in China’s Christian UniversitiesChristian Universities happened after the 1920s, with the most notable evidence of this being their rapid indigenizationindigenization, move towards specialization and secularization, also their gradual integration into Chinese society as they became a significant part of the private higher education sector. However, their true glory was only shown out in the last twenty years and many internal and external factors contributed to their tragic end. The present author, Prof. Zhang Kaiyuan had been a student of Miner S. Bates at the University of Nanking in 1946–1948. Since the implementation of the reform and opening up policy in China in 1980s, Zhang had the chance to visit USA and he was so excited to discover the Bates Papers from the Special Collections at Yale University Divinity School LibraryYale University Divinity School Library Archives, that he started to do serious research on Miner Searle Bates. In this paper, Zhang attempts to re-tell the story of Bates’ life and work in ChinaChina and tries to articulate his personal viewpoint from a Chinese educator’s perspective, making an overall exploration into the historical destiny of China’s Christian universities, also providing an objective assessment of Bates’ viewpoints and his contribution as an eyewitness of the Sino-Japanese warSino-Japanese war. Bates’ insights about China are still relevant today.

China’s Christian universities had to encounter several critical situations in China, including the Anti-Christian movement, the Re-claim China’s Right of Education movement, as well as the demand of their national identity during the Sino-Japanese war- by being loyal to the Chinese government especially during the wartime. The author of this paper, Prof. Liu Jiafeng attempts a comprehensive study of how China’s Christian universities survived during the long years of resistance against the Japanese invasion in the 1930s and 1940s. Over the period of the Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) the relationship between the Christian universitiesChristian universities and the Nationalist government became much closer. Their loyalty to the Nationalist government, service to the country by keeping alive the lifeblood of education during the war and efforts to disseminate news about the War in the United StatesUnited States, all gained much recognition and appreciation from the government. In response, the government gave greater freedom in their management especially in religious education and therefore they had greater space to develop in comparison to the period before the war. Yet as the government strengthened its control over higher education, the Christian universities faced the danger of losing some of their special features and their freedom of management, which resulted a range of tensions in the relationship. In their pursuit of greater freedom and their wish to emphasize general education, the Christian universities made efforts to communicate and converse with government. A post-war plan was even proposed during the war, to demonstrate their strong commitment and hope for the future of education in China.

One of the significant features of liberal arts educationliberal arts education is the application of inter-disciplinary studiesinter-disciplinary studies. This paper on Wu YifangWu Yifang adopts an inter-disciplinary approach, using a combination of historical and psychological approaches to the study of the life of a Chinese president at a Christian university in China. Wu Yifang was one of the first women presidents of a Christian university, Ginling CollegeGinling College in China (1928–1952), and this paper studies her life by applying Eric Erikson’s theory of “Eight Stages of Psychosocial Development” plus the concept of “Relationship” introduced by Carol Gilligan, an American psychologist who emphasized psychological theory and women’s development. There are thus discussions on the development of trust, identity formation, generativity and relationship, as found in Wu’s life, and special attention is given to relating them to the evolution of a new interpretation of the college motto, “abundant lifeabundant life” (厚生) at Ginling College. The emphasis on nurturing human persons and building up intimate relationships at Ginling reflected both a new way of representing Christian faith in the college and the creation of a new form of liberal arts education, with the emphasis on character building and close relationships among teachers and students as well as sister-classes in Ginling College. It is also interesting to note that the motto of “Abundant Life” was passed on to its successor, Nanjing Normal UniversityNanjing Normal University, where it is also a part of the university motto.

The existence of Chinese studies (国学研究) at China’s Christian universities seemed to be a paradoxical phenomenon in the early twentieth century. However, the development of the subject became a distinctive feature of Christian colleges in Republican China. The Department of Chinese Language and Literature of Zhijiang UniversityZhijiang University (Hangchow Christian CollegeHangchow Christian College) is one excellent example that can be seen as parallel to the development of the Harvard-Yenching InstituteHarvard-Yenching Institute at Yenching University. The setting up of a Chinese studies department was a unique response to the Western curriculum at Zhijiang University (ZU), showing great respect to traditional Confucian teachings and significantly constituting a gradual move from Western learning (xixue)Western learning (xixue) to (Chinese) National learning (guoxue)National learning (guoxue) at the university. The present chapter is a report of the development of this characteristic feature found at ZU. The development of Chinese studies could be traced back to the time when Warren H. Stuart (the brother of John L. Stuart) became the president of ZU from 1916 to 1922. He transformed ZU into a liberal arts and science university, with the addition of Chinese studies courses. By 1922, ZU succeeded in having Chinese courses account for 15% of the total number of courses offered at the university. By 1924 Zhong Tai, a famous Chinese scholar, was hired to help develop the department of Chinese language and literature at ZU, and by 1931, the university section of ZU succeeded in acquiring approval and registration from the Ministry of Education of the Nationalist government as Private Zhijiang College of Arts and Sciences, with a strong Department of Chinese Language and Literature. This was an outstanding case of the localization of one of China’s Christian universities.

This article draws on materials from the archives of two Christian women’s universities, namely Ginling CollegeGinling College in Nanjing and Hwa Nan Women’s CollegeHwa Nan Women’s College in Fuzhou, to explore both the cohesion and conflict among Christian women as a social group in China. In the past Christian women tended to be described as a homogeneous and united social group. However, this group had differences in culture, nationality, and race, and thus their identify in relation to gender, family and nationality may more realistically be characterized as a kind of cultural confrontation between Chinese women and their Western partners at Christian universitiesChristian universities, in terms of both collaboration and conflict. These special features were particularly evident in the development of ‘relationships’ among women intellectuals in the two Christian universities under study. Therefore, this article attempts to take the perspective of modern social history as an interplay between globalization and localization processes in China’s Christian women’s universities. The case of Ginling and Hwa Nan Women’s Colleges provide a vivid illustration of the formation process of modern Chinese Christian women intellectuals in terms of issues of gender identity and family tradition with both conflicts and areas of agreement.

Chen YuanChen Yuan was appointed by Ma XiangboMa Xiangbo as the President of Fu Jen Catholic UniversityFu Jen Catholic University and he followed Ma’s footsteps to integrate learning from East and West and link religious studies to other academic disciplines. In this paper, Liu Xian portrays Chen Yuan (1880–1971) as a pioneer of a new historical approach to the study of religions in China. Chen introduced a new way of studying religions scientifically and objectively by exploring religious studies as a new branch of historical studies in China. Liu also reports that Chen had added three important aspects to religious studies in China. Firstly, it was an objective and academic study of religions moving beyond the conventional pattern of religious study oriented towards propagation; secondly, it was descriptive and explanatory rather than an apologetic approach; thirdly, Chen promoted dialogue among religions in order to understand one’s own religion and that of others. It was an open attitude, that demonstrated empathy towards all religions, including ChristianityChristianity, BuddhismBuddhism, DaoismDaoism, and others, regardless of one’s own faith preferences. This phenomenological approach to the study of religion is precisely what modern LAE is advocating, namely the cultivation of critical thinking, open to diversity, and capable of dialogue and working with people from different religions and cultures. Chen managed to preserve a distance that allowed for rationality while keeping an empathetic attitude. It is this that made him also a pioneer of this new approach to the study of religions in China.

Along with the economic and social transformation and development, China’s higher education has undergone a series of major changes in the last decade or two, especially after entering the new century, and is in a critical stage of transformation from quantitative change to qualitative change (Zhu & Lou, 2011).

If the theory is viewed as systematic integration of information and knowledge to help identify, classify, summarize, predict, or explain the behaviour and characteristics of individuals or organizations (Drake & Roe, 1986), the theory of application-oriented higher education should be the key to the following two significant theoretical issues: What is the difference and correlation between application-oriented higher education and regular higher education? What is the difference and correlation between application-oriented higher education and higher vocational education?

In this chapter, application-oriented higher education in Germany would be discussed. Universities of applied sciences (in German: Fachhochschule, FH) and universities of cooperative education (in German: Duale Hochschule, DH) are the two main types of application-oriented higher education in Germany.

Statistics is a comprehensive science to infer the essence of the measured object and even predict the future of the object by means of searching, sorting, analyzing and describing data. The application of statistical methods in educational science has been successful for more than half a century. It has made great contributions to improving the research level of educational science. The most prominent features of the new generation of statistical methods are the continuous development and progress of structural equation model, multi-layer linear model, rule space model, measurement and diagnosis theory, as well as the continuous emergence of correlation analysis, social network analysis and other technologies under the condition of big data. The era of big data provides a new platform for statistical application, and statistical theories and methods provide power for big data (Creswell & Clark, 2011). In this chapter, the statistical methods are used to evaluates the student satisfaction of universities of applied sciences in Germany and application-oriented universities in China.

The complexity of application-oriented higher education is discussed in the previous two data chapters (Chaps. 6 – 7 ) through a comparative analysis of the similarities and differences between Chinese and German application-oriented higher education.

The quantitative analysis was based on the questionnaire generated and the results of the questionnaire. It was designed specifically for this study. A variety of statistical methods are used and the relationship among the variables is well revealed.

While application-oriented higher education has a long history in Europe, the Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS) in the modern sense arose in 1969–1971 (Lepori & Kyvik, 2010). To meet the needs of industrial restructuring, technological progress, and social development after World War II, Germany established the first UAS with an enterprise-led practical teaching model in the cities of Mannheim, Munich, Aachen, and Karlsruhe. Thereafter, Sweden (1977), the Netherlands (1987–1993), Norway (1989), Austria (1994), Switzerland (1994), Belgium (1995), and Finland (1996) also established their first local UAS respectively. Among them, the first UAS in the Netherlands and Belgium were transformed and converted from former secondary specialized institutions.

Higher education is a professional and vocational education based on the completion of secondary education (Ramsden, 2003). It is the main social activity for training high-level professionals. It usually includes a variety of educational institutions with high-level learning and development, teaching, research, and social services as their main tasks and activities.

This chapter examines the impact of the overseas leadership development programmes delivered in the U.K. From 2012 to 2018, 233 Chinese HEI leaders visited 24 HEIs and organisations in the U.K. As one of the most popular destinations for degree education and international benchmarking, British HEIs subscribe to the ideologies of neoliberalism, consumerism and internationalisation. By visiting a wide range of British HEIs, the Chinese HEI leaders compared and contrasted two higher education systems and their underpinning values. Some best practices were adopted and adapted to serve Chinese HEI leaders’ professional development and their institutional needs. Some institutional-level changes were implemented after the programme, while some contextual differences were reflected upon by the participants.

This chapter explores the leadership development of Chinese HEI leaders through participation in overseas leadership development programmes. Transformative learning theory and the conceptual term ‘the third space’ are employed to analyse three HEI leaders’ perceptions of their leadership, both before, during, and after attending overseas leadership development programmes. After travelling to Canada, the U.K. and the U.S., respectively, the Chinese HEI leaders shared their learning experiences from the programmes and connected their reflections with possible leadership practices in their own HEIs within the Chinese higher education system. Qualitative data were collected and content analysis was used across the three cases. The findings show that the overseas leadership development programmes transformed their understanding of leadership from being a leader to becoming a service-provider, from being a practitioner to a reflective-thinker and from being a learner to a communicative-creator. By acknowledging the dynamic interactions between hybrid cultural forces, the overseas leadership development programmes create a third space in which Chinese HEI leaders can transform their perceptions and practices relating to their routine work. The findings confirm the value of overseas leadership development programmes and have practical implications for other countries wishing to develop their HEI leaders’ leadership through intercultural exchange within formal programmes.