What is a University?

The book What is a University? is another noticeable work in the field of philosophy of higher education by Professor Chuting Zhang, a prominent contemporary Chinese educator, after An Essay on Man and Philosophy of Higher Education. It consists of three parts, including a general preface and a foreword. The preface is a general introduction to the author's series of works, especially the philosophical works on higher education, and a brief review of the formation of the central ideas in the process of conception and writing by the author; the foreword is presented along with a narrative poem "Ode to University". The book delves into the question "what makes a university a university" by centering on the emergence of university, what university does after its emergence, what university should do, and where university should go. It provides a path to knowledge for us to correctly perceive the nature of university.

Professor Chuting Zhang has been working in the field of university teaching, scientific research and management since he started his career as a teacher in 1958, and has been the president of two universities, Hunan Normal University and Hunan International Economics University, for more than 30 years. He is a witness and participant of the reform and development of higher education in new China, especially since China's reform and opening up.