The Hierarchy and Orientations in Values of Higher Education: from Philosophical and Sociological Perspective

Values of higher education are conceptions, explicit or implicit, distinctive of an individual or characteristic of a group, of the desirable which influence the selection. The hierarchy of values in higher education can comprise values of higher education in philosophical and sociological levels. There are two value orientations—epistemological and political values in philosophical level. While university is chosen as a typical higher education institution to analyze from the sociological perspective, as an organization, it can be seen as a bureaucracy or community, which reflects two different value orientations in sociological level. The values of higher education in philosophical level provide guidance for that in sociological level, and the relationships between two different value orientations in two levels are contradictory and mutual.