RT Journal Article
T1 An anthropocosmic view: what Confucian traditions can teach us about the past and future of Chinese higher education
A1 Lu, Ying
A1 Jover Olmeda, Gonzalo
AB The historical debate between a liberal orientation of university education and a university education with a more practical orientation has been reproduced by defenders and detractors of the course that is being adopted by the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). Instead of resorting to a dichotomous view of these two arguments, this article employs an anthropocosmic worldview to look at the university by examining the past and present of Chinese higher education, in contrast to the philosophy and reality of the European university within the framework of the EHEA. The anthropocosmic view is central to Confucian holistic humanism, which asserts that humanity is part of a continuum consisting of community, Earth and Heaven. With the self as a ‘centre of relationships’, the individual is interconnected with an ever-expanding network of human relatedness, extending from the self to the family, the community, the country, the world and beyond. The authors argue that despite being based on a European model, the Chinese university, in fact, boasts a unique Chinese character that can be traced back to its Confucian learning tradition, which itself reflects this anthropocosmic worldview. In our world today, a world of unprecedented globalisation, an anthropocentric view of higher education is no longer sufficient. Instead, to address the challenges humanity faces, a Chinese model of the university based on anthropocosmism presents a potential new pathway for the global university of the future.
PB Springer
SN 0018-1560
YR 2019
FD 2019-03-01
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/92926
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/92926
LA eng
NO Lu Y, Jover G. (2019). An anthropocosmic view: what Confucian traditions can teach us about the past and future of Chinese higher education.  Higher Education, 77(3), 423–436. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-018-0280-z
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NO China Scholarship Council
DS Docta Complutense
RD 16 jul 2025