Abstract:

Higher education, as a “relational existence”, is manifested as a complex “relational system” or “relational aggregate”. Its complexity is mainly reflected in three aspects: the complexity of internal relations, the complexity of external relations, and the complexity of the relations between internal and external aspects. Corresponding to these three complex relations, higher education simultaneously possesses three ontological attributes: it is a causal existence, a processual existence, and a resultant existence. In other words, higher education is essentially a triadic structure formed through a spiral interdependence of “causality-processuality-resultativity”.

Key words: higher education, causal existence, processual existence, resultative existence