Mission of the University: Historic Evolution and Future Tendency——From the Perspective of Social Contract Theory

Key words: 
• contract theory；the university mission；knowledge society；welfare society /
• modern university /
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Abstract: Social contract theory is a long standing and well established philosophical thought, and also a core value of civic society, which could provide theoretic guidance and value judgment to the construction of modern civic society. From the perspective of contract theory, mission of the university should be embodied in the contractual relationship between university and society. After the Middle Ages, the contractual relationship between university and society had experienced several great adjustment. Therefore, mission of the university had also changed several times. At present times, the society has started to enter the era of industrialization and come to that of knowledge economy. The contract between university and society has a fresh expression, so there must be some new development in the mission of the university.