A STUDY OF DECLINING ENROLLMENT TRENDS IN WOMEN'S COLLEGES IN THE UNITED STATES : MAJOR CHANGES AND STRATEGIES FOR FUTURE.

这项研究考察了美国女子学院的发展和前景。本研究包括以下五个部分：1)美国女子学院发展的历史回顾，从19世纪初的美国女子学院到20世纪70年代的S，当时的“招生危机”迫使许多女子学院面临“死亡或男女同校”的教育困境；2)分析了1970年“S”和1980年“S”时期影响单一性别大学教育兴衰的主要因素；3)对女权主义学术的考察，阐明了对性别敏感的教育理念对女子学院和“女性奋斗者”研究的启示；4)介绍美国所有女子学院截至1996年在地点、名称、招生人数、师生比例、竞争力、学费等方面的现状；5)分析近期人口和经济变化对女子高校未来体制战略的影响。研究认为，许多女子高校目前采取的最突出的战略是：1)招收非传统学生，如成人返校生、转校生等；2)通过交叉注册、大学联盟等与其他高校协调努力；3)采用创新的课程和教学方法，赋予女学生权力。

This study examines the progress and prospect of women's colleges in the United States. The study consists of the following five parts :1) Historical overview of the development of women's college in the United States since in inception in the 19th century to 1970's, when "enrollment crisis" forced many women's colleges to face "dead or coed" educational dilemma ;2) Analysis of the major forces that affected rise and fall of single-sex college education in 1970's and 1980's ;3) Examination of feminist scholarship that illuminated implications of both gender-sensitive educational ideals in the women's college and "Women Achievers" studies ;4) Presentation of the current profile of all the women's colleges in the United States as of 1996 in terms of location, denomination, enrollment, student/faculty ratio, competitiveness, tuition, and so on ;5) Analysis of some of the recent demographic and economic changes that will affect future institutional strategies of women's colleges.The study concludes that the most eminent strategies many women's colleges are now adopting are :1) Recruitment of non-traditional students such as adult returning students, transfer students, and so on,2) Coordinating effort with other colleges through cross-registration, college consortium, and so on,3) Adoption of innovative curriculum and pedagogy that empowers women students.