U.S. and Non-U.S. Scholars

Fulbright New Century Scholars Program
Overview • Previous NCS Programs • NCS Scholar List • NCS Brochure • 2005-2006

Mohrman, Kathryn

• Executive Director, Hopkins-Nanjing Center
  
• Johns Hopkins University
  
• Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies
  
• United States

Her research topics include public policy and higher education, Chinese educational reform, and leadership and governance in American colleges and universities. She is especially interested in the development of world-class universities, using the Chinese experience as a case study with broader implications for other nations.

Dr. Mohrman was a Fulbright professor at Chinese University of Hong Kong (2002-03) looking at current reforms in Chinese higher education. Her NCS research project will extend that work by examining the changes that have occurred over the last three years. In addition, she participated in the Fulbright International Educational Administrators program in Japan and Korea in the summer of 1992.

Other relevant professional activities include membership on boards, advisory committees, and selection panels for Rhodes Scholars, Truman Scholars, National Committee on US-China Relations, Henry Luce Foundation, American Council on Education, Lingnan Foundation, Council for the International Exchange of Scholars, Association of American Colleges, National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, and others. She has received honorary degrees from Grinnell College and Colorado College.

Selected Publications

• "Sino-American Educational Exchange and the Drive to Create World-Class Universities" in Cheng Li, ed., Bridging Minds Across the Pacific: U.S.-China Educational Exchanges, 1978-2003 (Lexington Books, 2005)
  
• "World-Class Universities and Chinese Higher Education Reform," International Higher Education, Spring 2005;
  
• "Higher Education Reform in Mainland Chinese Universities: An American's Perspective," report of Fulbright research (2003), http://sais-jhu.edu/Nanjing/downloads/Higher_Ed_in_China.pdf

China's higher education system has undergone dramatic changes in the last 25 years. This research project focuses on one element of the reform movement-China's drive to create world-class universities. This work cuts across the reform agenda to touch on such issues as transnational standards, assessment and accountability, privatization, academic freedom, and the shift from elite to mass education. The project builds upon the author's 2002-2003 Fulbright at Chinese University of Hong Kong, including field research at a number of leading Chinese universities and research institutes. The author brings many years of experience as a college president, dean, and trustee, as well as the special perspective that comes with managing a joint academic venture with Nanjing University in China.

Within the broad theme of world-class universities, the research project gives special attention to three areas of change in Chinese higher education-the shift in governance from centralized control to greater local autonomy; the curricular reforms underway; and the influence of market forces, not only on finances, but on the fundamental processes of higher education. Additional investigations will compare the rapid growth of American higher education in the decades after World War II with the more recent Chinese experience of moving from an elite to a mass system. China's long history of education also raises interesting questions about alternatives to and refinements of the Western research university model. These issues are important in all parts of the world, so the Chinese situation has broad implications for higher education globally.