试论现代大学的社会责任

Views on Social Responsibility of Modern University

当代高等教育已经发展成为一个巨型的复杂系统。必须对高等教育机构进行科学分类，对”大学”重作界定，以多样化的高等教育系统应对多样化的社会需求。大学承担的社会责任日趋重大，但它能够和必须承担的社会责任仍然是有限的。大学的主要社会责们是高层次人才培养、科学发现与知识创新；大学为社会服务，基本上是大学的教学、科研活动的合理延伸。大学的社会服务必须界定在一定范围，即”真正学术性的、科学的、适度的服务”，并以大学所特有的方式与途径来实现。
由于学科类别及其结构的差异性，由于学者教授研究兴趣和专业特长的差异性，大学承担并实现社会责任的方式与途径也是千差万别的。为了更好地履行大学的社会责任，大学需要与社会保持一种”不即不离”的关系，大学远离社会、脱离社会固然是错误的；但与社会”需距离接触”同样是不可取的。

Modern higher education has already developed into a huge and complex system. Therefore， “university” requires re—fixing its boundary， with diversified system of higher education， responding to multiple social demands. In spite of its growing social responsibility， the dominant responsibility of a university remains educating high—level talents， scientific discovery and knowledge creation， with its social service being basically the reasonable extension of teaching and research activities. The social service of university must be placed within a certain boundary and realized in its way， i.e. “genuine academic， scientific and aptly—degreed service”. Even for the research—oriented universities， the channels and means to shoulder and accomplish social responsibilities are in multiple forms as a result of differences with respect to disciplinary categories， scholarly interests and professional advantages of scholars and professors. For university to better fulfill its mission， the relationship of being “neither too close nor too distant” sustains， i.e. the principle of “Non—Utilitarian， Non—Practical Distance” between university and society should be abided.