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

本研究考察了美国女子学院的发展历程和前景。本研究主要包括以下五个部分：（1）美国女子学院自19世纪世纪创立以来到20世纪70年代的发展历史回顾，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20世纪70、80年代影响单性别大学教育兴衰的主要力量;（3）审查女权主义者的学术研究，阐明对性别问题敏感的教育理想在女子学院和“女成就者”研究中的意义; 4）介绍截至1996年美国所有女子学院的现状，包括地点、名称、入学人数、学生/教师比例、竞争力、学费等;第五章）分析了最近的一些人口和经济变化，这些变化将影响女子学院未来的体制战略。许多女子学院现在采取的最突出的战略是：1）招收非传统学生，如成年归国学生、转学生等; 2）通过交叉注册、学院联盟等与其他学院协调努力; 3）采用赋予女学生权力的创新课程和教学法。

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.