The Challenges of Chinese Universities in the Next Decades

Jianhua Lin

Executive vice president and provost

Peking University

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Context

Historic view Some issues Future

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Historic view: Ancient Education Traditional Chinese higher education

More than 2000 years “Sishu”: Private School “Shuyuan”: Private college of classical learning “Taixue”: Imperial college

Core value of traditional “Great Learning” What the great learning teaches, is to illustrate

illustrious virtue; to renovate the people; and to rest in the highest excellence

emphasizing on rectifying one’s heart, cultivating person

The main purpose of traditional learning Utilitarianism: good scholar can become an official Sciences: not developed in Chinese education system

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Modern higher education institutions The missionary colleges

Saint John’s college founded 1879 There were 14 missionary college in 1919

The national colleges Tianjing University

Imperial Tientsin University, 1895 Focussing on technology

Peking University Imperial University of Peking, 1898 The administrative ministry of higher

education in China Many universities were founded in the

beginning of the 20th century Liberal arts education

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Research Universities in China The former president Cai Yuanpei of PKU

Recruiting new faculty Reforming the system of PKU

First graduate schools in China Graduate institutes at PKU, 1917 Overall graduate school was founded in 1932

Research at universities The facilities at PKU were comparable to some

universities in US in 1930 The devotion and enthusiasm of faculty and

students for research was much higher

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Historic view: Chinese universities Relocation of disciplines in 1952

More specialized universities PKU: humanities, social sciences and natural sciences Tsinghua: purely technology oriented Single mission: serve to the industrialization of China Only few universities maintained research Education become more specialized

Cultural revolution All universities were closedown for about 10 years

Opening policy in 1978 1978~1998 slow moving 1998~2010 takeoff

First total synthesis of insulin in 1965

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Some issues

Scale of high educationMerging of universities

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Expansion of Chinese universities Expanding size of universities

The gross rate of enrollment reach to 24%, almost 30 million registered students, the largest in the world

The increase of the state investment on education was slowBillion ￥

Scale of the universities

Many new campus, new recruiting, and new facilities The average spending per student decreases dramatically,

quality? About 300 billion bank loans, recent relief plan New campuses: profitable investment for the future

New Campus of Jilin U New Campus of Sun Yet-sen U

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Merging of Universities Huge comprehensive universities

ZJU: with Hangzhou U, Zhejiang medical U and Zhejiang agriculture U WHU: with Wuhan hydroelectricity U, Wuhan mapping U, Hubei medical

U JLU: with Jilin U industry, Baiqiuen medical U, Changchun U geology,

Changchun communication U Merged with medical universities

PKU: with Beijing medical U FDU: with Shanghai medical U SJTU: with Shanghai second medical U

Local universities Suzhou U: with Suzhou silkworm college, Silk technology college,

Sushou medical college Ningbo U: Ningbo normal college, Zhejiang aquaculture college

A powerful reaction to the former relocation of disciplines in 1952 Good for small specialized colleges, but destroying the diversity of

Chinese higher education system

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Distribution of the higher learning institutions in China

Economically activity areasEconomically activity areas

NBS Statistics,NBS Statistics,

Higher Education Higher Education

Institutes=1079+1184Institutes=1079+1184

Total Students=29 millionTotal Students=29 million

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The higher education in 2020 enrollment: 36 million the gross rate of enrollment: 40%

The main target of next 10 years is to improve the quality of education

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Issue: 211 and 985 projects

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211 and 985 projects Promoting excellent universities

Centennial anniversary of PKU, in May 4 1998 985 project

Promoting few Chinese universities to top level Investment(billion): I: 14, II: 18.9, III: 30.5 (five years a

term) 211 project

Improving 100 good universities in China Investment(billion): I: 2.755, II: 6.0, III:10.0

Investment to PKU 985 (five year a term):

I: 2.2 billion II: 2.2 billion III: 3.3 billion

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Concentration of funding 985-III project:

PKU and Tsinghua share: I: 25.7%; II: 19.1; III: 21.6%

The other 7 universities in C9 share 27.5% in 985-III, but they should receive similar compensation from local government

The rest 30 universities share 41.9% about 10% flexible

C9 is informer association what include 9 top universities

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Research activities at PKU Quality and quantity of research output have been improved

over the decade

First Author Pub Publicationsss

Ave IF

(from the Office of Scientific Research, PKU)

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Research activities in Chinese universities The scientific publications on international journals increase

dramatically in the past decade for the major comprehensive universities in China

The overall publications also increase for all universities

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Citation of selected universities

Í

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The impact of the research is still low

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Rankings The performance of Chinese universities in these rankings are

improving continuously Better performance on comprehensive ranking

PKU is around 14-50 in the past several years For research orientated ranking, Chinese universities are all far

behind Shanghai Jiaotong:

PKU 200-250; Tsinghua: 200-250

Australia Research council Chinese universities are all quit far away

219 PKU, 233 Tsinghua, 365 SJTU, 389 Fudan, 417 Zhongshan, 418 Zhejiang, 428 Nanjing

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Issues Investment on R&D and education

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R&D investiment in China China’s R&D Investment increases continuously over 1995 to 2009 The GERD is only 1.7% in 2009, which is much lower than most of

the developed countries expected GERD is about 2.5 in 2020

Billion ￥

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Research funding policies

Fundament research NSFC and MOST NSFC’s budget will be 10

billion next year National needs oriented

MOST, local government, other ministries and industry

16 national key project, about tens of billions each

600 billion budget was approved within the stimulating package

Technology transfer mainly by venture capitals,

but government provides various financial and policy assistant

NSFC

100 million

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Large research facilities Synchrotron radiation Neutron sources

Reactor at Beijing Spallation neutron source at Dongguan, Guangdong province

Others Super magnetic field facilities Protein genomics wild species bank astronomical telescope

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External funding (R&D) of Chinese universities External funding increases but the share decreases

because of more R&D spending in industry Chinese universities focus mostly on applied research The fundamental research funding is only 22%

Statistics from MoST ， 1997-2008

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Research funding of universities

External research funding of PKU

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Million ￥

Investment PKU

The budget was about 4.6 billion in 2009 The external research grant was about 1.26 billion in 2009

Tsinghua The research grant was ~30 billion in 2009

Scientific Research Income

University Income

in 100 million Yuan

Scientific Research Funding

School enterprises

Government Investment

UniversityFoundation

Special Funding

University Income

PKU budget in 2009

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Political willing More investment on education and R&D The education spending will be 4% of GDP by 2012

about 1600 billion The R&D spending will be 2.5% of GDP in 2020

about 720 billion

Difficulties it is difficult to force the local government invest more

on education rich and poor regions The state compensation per students

Beijing: 24,380, Shanghai: 15,349, Guangdong: 10,622, Tianjing: 9,827, Zhejiang: 8,771, Sichuan: 4,000, Xijiang: 6,300, Ningxia:3,400, Shenzhen: 24,000

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The research Culture Different meaning for

“kexue” in Chinese context

The culture influence on the funding distribution

Big science versus interests oriented research

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Issue: Frontier and interdisciplinary Relocation the strengthen of the

universities

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Strengthen and weakness

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Strengthen of Chinese universities

Comparison with US and EU Strengthen: physical sciences Weakness: life science and

medical sciences

• Pekin

g U• Harvar

d U

• Cambridge U

3333

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Biomedical research at PKU Biomedical related Institutions

Faculty of Sciences School of life sciences School of chemistry Department of psychology

Faculty of medicine School of Basic Medical Sciences School of Pharmaceutical

Sciences School of Public Health 8 affiliated hospitals 12 teaching hospitals

Research institutions Institute for molecular medicine

Center for system biology

Institute for clinic medical research

Center for bio-optical image

Center for functional image

Center for chemical genomics

Center for neurosciences

Center for stem cell research

National protein genomic center

National life science center

............

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future perspective

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Future perspectives Overall R&D input be raised to over 2.5% of GDP in 2020;

and overall education input should be 4% of GDP (about 36,000 billion 2009)

Become an innovative country in 2020 the contribution rates of scientific advancement reach over

60% dependency on foreign technology decrease to below 30% number of annual authorization of invention patents and

number of international citation of scientific thesis rank among top 5 in the world

The top research universities would play a significant role in this process

Do we need more research universities in China?

Research Universities in China

Research Universities in China

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New Research Universities in developed regions Financial revenue (billion Yuan)

Jiangsu: 315, Zhejiang: 214.2 Suzhou:74.5, Ningbo: 39.0, Shenzhen: 101.6

Financial compensation per college student (yuan) Beijing: 24,380, Shanghai: 15,349, Guangdong: 10,622, Tianjing:

9,827, Zhejiang: 8,771, Sichuan: 4,000, Xijiang: 6,300, Ningxia:3,400

Shenzhen: 24,000

Suzhou University founded in 1900

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Research Universities South university for science and technology at Shenzhen city

The city invested 10 billion for a new campus, and 1 billion per year for running 400 new recruiting faculty, 6000 undergraduates and 4000 post graduates Focussing on science, engineering and management, taking HKUST as a model

According to State Strategic Plan, the education spending should be 4% of GDP The GDP of Shenzhen city is more than 1000 billion for Shenzhen, which means

they have to spend at least 40 billion on education each year

new campus of SUST

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International collaboration There are many joint research collaborations

in PKU: Joint PhD program with GIT Joint research institute with UCLA, UM Joint programs with more than 200 institutions

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Joint education programs SHJT:

Joint engineering college with UM XAJT:

Joint university with Liverpool U Yale:

Joint liberal arts college with NUS NYU

discussion with Shanghai establishing a fully independent campus at Pudong, Shanghai

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International Cooperation and ExchangeCase Study: XJLU University International joint institution

jointly formed by Xian Jiaotong U and Loverpool U mainly undergraduate very successful and well accepted by society and other academic

institutions

Vision: a research-led international university in China with its unique features in

teaching & learning, research, social service, education management.

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Thank you

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Publications and citations continuously improving in the past decade but still for below the world average

SCI PapersCitations

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State key project key IT devices and software, IC: integrate circuit, new generation of broad band mobile communication

system, drug discovery, aircraft, exploring new oil resource, petroleum, nuclear power plant, water pollution, biotech and gene related technology, infectious diseases, space flight, aerospace technology,