Back to Academia

Shenzhen-based South University of Science and Technology of China (SUSTC) greeted its first batch of students in March 2011. The decision to autonomously recruit its own students was made when SUSTC, a university undertaking a mission of "de-bureaucracy" and "letting professors run the school," failed to obtain recruitment authorization by the Ministry of Education despite three years of preparation. This meant that in the future this intake of 45 students may be unable to get the national education authority to recognize their academic qualifications, and hold only an SUSTC-granted diploma.

The iconic stance of "de-bureaucracy" taken by SUSTC was intended to steer school management away from the state administrative hierarchy, which primarily covers government departments but also state-owned establishments. Zhu Qingshi, president of the university, conceives the SUSTC as an innovative research-oriented institution like the California Institute of Technology. "SUSTC established a council responsible for ruling on major issues the university faces. All decisions are made by voting after intensive discussions," he said. He thought this was a good way to avoid administrative interference, and he acted just as any CEO would.

"A university's de-bureaucracy does not mean removing management or administrative functions. On the contrary, universities demand efficient administrative management," Zhu explained. "The essence of removing the state administrative hierarchy is to let academic power dominate. Administrative power dominating a university implies that the highest-ranking official makes his word count; however, if academic power is dominant, the one who masters the truth makes the decision. People all obey the truth regardless of their official ranks," he clarified.

In fact, experiments meant to relieve universities of bureaucracy were conducted years ago. As early as 1985, the Decision of the CPC Central Committee on the Reform of the Educational System elucidated the intention. The Outline of the National Program for Medium- and Long-Term Educational Reform and Development, released in July 2010, once again clearly proposed that universities should overcome the tendency to amass administrative ranks, and "gradually abolish the existing administrative hierarchy and administrative management mode."

Twenty-six universities including Fudan University were enlisted in a pilot program to restructure internal management centering on the formulation of a university charter. In the pilot program internal governance of the university was reorganized and the role of the executive officer re-evaluated. In 2010, Yang Yuliang, president of Fudan, publicly declared of the new governing principles of the university that it was characterized by "academic research as the soul, education at the core, legally regulated governance, and democratic decision-making." Fudan's administrative heads accordingly withdrew from its three major academic organizations – the academic committee, academic degree committee and teaching assessment committee. Later, reforms were expanded to the school and department strata – most deans and department chairs were removed from leadership posts in the above three academic units.

Greater autonomy in recruitment also helps entrench the academic authority of universities. As early as 2003 the Ministry of Education initiated an experiment allowing some universities to independently select applicants for no more than five percent of their annual undergraduate enrollment quota. Today more than 80 schools have joined the program, and many have exceeded the five percent quota.

This year, Tsinghua, one of the best universities in China, took a step further: for its enrollment reform it introduced Plan A and Plan B, relaxing admission standards for talents of a specific nature and students who had demonstrated excellence in underdeveloped areas.

"Among our alumni are Qian Zhongshu and Wu Han (both famous writers), whose math scores in the entrance exams were respectively 15 and 0. We always welcome students with special talents and potential," said Xue Ping, head of Shanghai recruitment team of Tsinghua. "We intend to give the exceptional – whether in academic achievement or in character – access to highly-regarded universities," Xue added.

Many other members of China's Ivy League have embraced similar independent enrollment, such as Peking University and Nanjing University. Fudan University even disclosed plan to expand this practice to its entire enrollment in Shanghai, the city where it is located, next year.

Whether for autonomous enrollment, educational autonomy or just streamlining administration out of university governance, their ultimate purpose is the same, to make higher learning institutions return to the traditional concerns of academia. Administrative power will not interfere with academic matters, and professors will focus on their research and teaching. Ji Baocheng, president of Renmin University of China, has reflected extensively on China's current situation in higher education. His conclusion is while the autonomy granted to universities by the government in the 30-plus years since the reform and opening-up is obviously greater than before, "The power of universities is impaired. For example, due to the implementation of project management in finance, all special projects must be submitted to the government for approval. Moreover, money for a specific project can't be used for other projects or items. Therefore, the school's ability to handle its affairs flexibly is limited," Ji explained. He thinks the whole process is over elaborate and troublesome because of the complicated and protracted reporting, evaluation and competition to which a project is subjected.

Ji proposed government responsibilities in education should be limited to formulating education policies, basic systems and standards, but allowed to continue, as before, implementing macro-adjustments to education. As for detailed and specific management affairs like the establishment of disciplines and enrollment mechanisms, schools should gradually take these over. Education authorities should only retain the necessary and supreme supervision and veto power.

"The government must make way for higher learning institutions to assume educational autonomy, which entails returning authority over academic requirements to schools," Ji said. "I suggest abandoning the concepts of 'ministry-affiliated' and 'province-controlled' universities, replacing them with 'state' and 'provincial' universities, so as to ensure their independent legal status. Meanwhile, China should explore ways to establish higher education organizations of multiple types and at multiple levels, such as university associations, as soon as possible," he added.