Page 60 - EducationWorld March 2022

International News

CHINA
New model private varsities

CHINA’S NEW CROP OF PRIVATELY BACKED,
industry-focused universities could help meet
skills gaps and jump-start innovation. At the end
of 2021, Chinese businessman Cao Dewang came one step
closer to establishing his institution when he signed an
agreement with the city government of Fuzhou to build a
university for developing applied research and technical
talent. The Fuyao University of Science and Technology is
one example of a handful of such endeavours taking shape
in the country, which experts say could provide a blueprint
for future development.
“These new types of universities could bring innovation
to higher education in China; they can respond to changes Nanjing Integrated Circuit University: specific focus
faster, and their collaboration with industry… is very much
mandated (so) it will be easier for the government to drive (and) stable funding support”.
changes through them,” says Ka Ho Mok, vice president of For its part, China’s ministry of education will most
Lingnan University Hong Kong. likely adopt a different set of evaluation criteria for per-
Their development comes at a time when Chinese higher formance measures “if they are serious about new ways of
ed institutions are struggling to keep pace with the coun- operation being sustained”, and the government will need
try’s ambitious manufacturing aims. Because it’s “extremely to adopt a different university governance framework “for
difficult” to reform China’s government-run universities, supporting institutions with more flexibility in manage-
Beijing is encouraging other types of varsities to evolve, ment in response to rapid changes,” he says.
such as those born of partnerships with overseas institu-
tions, which “bring new models of delivery and innovation FRANCE
in university governance”, says Prof. Mok. Campus ideological wars
But unlike NYU, Shanghai or Duke Kunshan University,
the new Fuyao and institutions like it focus on a specific A UNIVERSITY LEADER HAS CALLED FOR
industry. For instance, the Nanjing Integrated Circuit Uni- “calm and rationality” as French academics fear
versity, founded in 2020, aims to address a skills shortage being caught in the crossfire of increasingly bit-
in the semiconductor industry. Similarly, the Dongfang ter culture wars in the run-up to the country’s presidential
University of Technology and Oriental University of Tech- election.
nology — which has yet to receive its official English name Sabine Saurugger, director of Sciences Po Grenoble, hit
and is under development in Ningbo, sponsored by chip the headlines in January after suspending Klaus Kinzler,
businessman Yu Renrong — tackles industry gaps. an associate professor of German, who had made repeated
“China is now in great need of ‘new times’ technicians criticisms of the institution in national media. Dr. Kinzler
and workers in the different manufacturing organisations,” had received death threats and been accused by students
says Zhiyong Zhu, professor of sociology and educational of fascism after claiming during preparations for an anti-
administration at Beijing Normal University. “From the racism event that Islamophobia wasn’t comparable to other
perspective of central government, private funding can pos- forms of discrimination.
sibly set an example… that (a) public university controlled Prof. Saurugger told Times Higher Education that the
by the government could learn from.” “temporary” suspension of Dr. Kinzler was based only on
Still, these new institutions will need to overcome sev- his description of Sciences Po Grenoble as a “political re-
eral hurdles if they are to succeed, Prof. Zhu cautions. For education camp” and of colleagues at the grand ecole as
one, they will need to find appropriately trained lecturers. teachers who “indoctrinate their students”. “His repeated
“It is difficult to employ the teachers with (innovative) statements have caused prejudice to the institution, its per-
viewpoints and vision of learning, teaching, knowledge… sonnel and particularly its students. Expression is free, but
because it is highly possible that most of those teachers are as an employee, denigrating with such violence and unfairly
trained by public universities,” he says. the institution you work in, causes strong prejudice,” says
Such institutions will also need to have new models of Prof. Saurugger, whose institution, while modelled on Paris’
governance to “encourage innovation and institutional au- Sciences Po, is administratively a subsidiary of Universite
tonomy”, says Prof. Mok. He stresses that this should be Grenoble Alpes.
accompanied by stable government policy and “sufficient However, in response to Dr. Kinzler’s suspension, the

60 EDUCATIONWORLD MARCH 2022