Editor’s Note: A recently developing trend of China’s 30-year-strong reform effort has focused on the educational system, which has been frequently criticised for retarding innovation, and causing a nationwide “brain drain”. In China it is standard practice for the Chancellor of a university to be appointed by the state, which ensures that the university will operate under the ideological mandates of the party. Critics argue that this organisational system hampers creativity and innovation. China, aware of these problems and their consequences, in recent years has been experimenting with new educational reforms. The following article originally appeared on China National Radio. Additional background information was researched from Wikipedia and Baike articles.

 In early 2011, China’s first non-state-run university, South University of Science and Technology of China, was founded. The university’s Chancellor was appointed by a board of directors, not the state. Although the university has not officially opened yet, it already has 45 “trial” students. While the university has received some criticism for leadership style and taking in students before the infrastructure is complete, it has been widely regarded as China’s first real test for a new educational system—a system that can provide university students with better training to spur innovative research. Although establishing a privately-run university may be seen as one of the more extreme examples of educational reform in China, other, less “radical” changes are taking place as well. For instance, the first “foreigner” (okay, so he’s Chinese-Canadian) was recently appointed to serve as the Vice-Chancellor of Shantou University in Guangdong Province.

Shantou University: building the foundations for educational reform

On November 1st, Shantou University in Guangdong Province welcomed Gu Peihua, its first (and China’s first) "foreign" full-time Vice-Chancellor. Gu Peihua was previously an elected fellow at the Canadian Academy of Engineering and also served as the Chair of the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. The potential for educational reform was built in the foundations of Shantou University.

Shantou University was established in 1981 and opened to students in 1983. In 1981, an international businessman and philanthropist named Li Ka-Shing (currently the 11th richest man in the world) contributed 3.1 billion HKD to help establish Shantou University through his Li Ka-Shing Foundation. Li, who was born in Guangdong, believed that improving the quality of education was crucial to the nation’s development, and perhaps he figured that privately funding part of a university, and remaining financially involved with it, was the best way to improve the region’s education system. Shitou University's mission statement became “nurture aspiration, knowledge, perseverance and achievement for the young”. In the years since, the university has received various accolades from China for its reform-oriented spirit, with one party official calling it “the experimental zone for higher educational reform in China.”

In 1995, the Ministry of Education initiated its “Project 211”, which sought to improve the quality of research in the higher educational system (6% of China’s 1,700 standard universities are 211 Project institutions). The 211 Project institutions must meet certain scientific, technical and human resource standards and also offer advanced degree programmes to maintain their status. A simple statistical overview shows that Project 211 has been quite successful: 211 Project universities train four-fifths of China’s doctoral students, two-thirds of China’s graduate students and half of China’s international students. 96% of China’s “key laboratories” are located in 211 Project universities, and these labs utilise 70% of scientific research funding. In 1996 Shantou University was accepted as one of the Project 211 universities.

Two “firsts” in China’s educational reform process

In the present day, this reform-minded spirit has now manifested itself in the appointment of Gu Peihua as the Vice-Chancellor of Shitou University. Gu Peihua’s appointment symbolises two "firsts" for the Chinese education system. He is the first full-time Vice-Chancellor at a Chinese University, which is a far more common practice in Western universities. Also, this is the first appointment of a "foreign" (Chinese-Canadian) Vice-Chancellor. While Gu Peihua’s appointment reflects the fact that Guangdong is at the forefront of the educational reform movement, it is important to further analyse this news so we can better understand how it is that Gu Peihua came to be appointed.

First, Shantou University’s organisational structure is relatively peculiar in China. While the university is run directly under the jurisdiction of the provincial government and is managed by the Ministry of Education, the university’s decision-making body (in charge of appointing chancellors) is a Board of Directors. This is quite different from other universities, which have their chancellors appointed by the party committee. With a Board of Directors there is more independence in these appointments, which, proponents suggest, will lead to the appointment of more qualified, broad-minded individuals.

Second, Gu Peihua, regardless of his “foreign” status, was deemed the ideal candidate for the job for a variety of reasons. In 2005, Gu Peihua transferred from the University of Calgary to Shantou University, where he served successively as a “part-time” Vice-President, Executive Vice-President and Vice-Chancellor. During these years, Gu Peihua dedicated himself to reforming Shantou University's personnel training model, teacher salary system, financial budget and scientific research and innovation systems. Also, it couldn’t hurt that when he was originally brought over in 2005, it was through invitation by the Li Ka Shing Foundation. With his strong track record at the university, and also his support from a founding member of the university, it comes as no surprise that Gu Peihua’s appointment received approval from the Ministry of Education and Guangdong Province.
 

Source: huanqiu.com
 

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Keywords: China educational reform first foreign vice chancellor in China Shitou University China educational reform South University of Science and Technology of China reform