民国上海地区高校生源量化刍议

作为中国近代化最重要的窗口,民国上海不仅具有商业经济和多元文化,其高校数量亦居全国各省市之首。这些高校培养出的众多学生,不仅构成了中国近代化进程中不可或缺的人才基础,其群体特征对理解民国社会的组织与结构亦至为关键。基于大学生学籍数据的量化分析发现,若以"从什么地方来"、"从什么家庭来"和"从什么系统来"三个角度衡量,这一群体的家庭背景较为同质化,地理来源比较集中。理论上面向全国和全社会开放的各类公私立大学,学生主要来自于具有文化或财富优势的本地家庭和与各大学有着千丝万缕联系的本地中学。民国上海地区高校生源从一个侧面反映了民国高等教育的实况。As the most important window on to China’s early modernization ,Republican Shanghai had not only a commercial economy and a diversity of cultures, but also the highest number of colleges and universities out of all Chinese provinces and cities. The many students reared in these institutions constituted an indispensable talent base for China’s modernization, so their group characteristics are crucial to understanding the social organization and structure of this era. Our quantitative analysis of background data on college students in university records assesses their place of origin, family background and the system they came from. Our findings show that they were relatively homogeneous in terms of family background and were geographically concentrated. Theoretically, these public and private colleges and universities were open to all of society across the country, but in fact their students tended to be from local families with cultural or financial advantages and to have come through local secondary schools with a myriad ties to these colleges and universities. Republican Shanghai throws a sidelight on the real situation of Republican higher education.