De-politicisation a long way off for universities

De-politicisation of Chinese universities will be a tremendous undertaking, which will be difficult to achieve, said Zhu Qingshi, president of South University of Science and Technology of China, a newly established university that is pioneering comprehensive reforms, writes Chen Boyuan for http://China.org.cn.

Such de-politicisation reforms mean empowering universities with more autonomy to carry out more education and research, while detaching administrative influence from academic affairs. "The obstacle mainly comes from the lack of recognition from society," Zhu said, speaking of the difficulties. He compared the process of change to China's household responsibility system, which started some 30 years ago. "Recognition of de-politicisation in universities may also take three decades," he said.

During a recent recruitment visit to schools, Zhu noted that China now has the largest number of undergraduates and postgraduates in the world, but "still fails to see top elites emerge – which is a shame."
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