Is there a Chinese Idea of a University? Simon Marginson - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Peking University Graduate School of Education Lecture 3 on 13 June 2019 Is there a Chinese ‘Idea of a University’? Simon Marginson Department of Education, University of Oxford ESRC/HEFCE Centre for Global Higher Education Higher School of Economics, Moscow

The PKU lectures Date Title Dimension of HE 11 June 1. Higher education as student self-formation student society 12 June 2. Higher education and common goods 13 June 3. Is there a Chinese ‘Idea of a University’? university 17 June 4. Dynamics of the global research system knowledge knowledge society university student

Is there a Chinese ‘Idea of a University’? • ‘Ideas of a European-American University’: JH Newman, Kant/von Humboldt, Clark Kerr, Triple Helix, etc • China’s traditions in governance and higher education • China’s dynamic achievement in the last 25 years: does this signify a new ‘Idea’? • Reforms and changes in governance and funding - Deng Xiaoping reforms - Decentralisation and autonomy - Dual governance system in universities • University culture - Knowledge - Academic life • Conclusions: Yes and no

Ideas of a European-American University • JH Newman: The Idea of a University (1852) • Wilhelm von Humboldt and the University of Berlin (1809) • Clark Kerr: The Uses of the University (1963) • Henry Etzkowitz and Loet Leydesdorff (1995)

John Henry Newman

Wilhelm von Humboldt

Clark Kerr

Henry Etzkowitz and Loet Leydesdorff

China’s traditions in governance and higher education East West State Centralising, comprehensive, Episodically centralising but more stronger than other elements contested, and more limited role Other social Subordinated to the state, From time to time church, nobles, elements which intervened at will towns had independent authority State Managed decentralisation, Manage the aristocracy, negotiate strategies training of own officials within division of powers Knowledge Partial truths. Practical. From Universalising, specialist. High status time to time, synthesising theory often separate from practice Higher State sponsored training of Incorporated universities partially education officials in academies independent of church and state

Gross Enrolment Ratio (%): 1970-2017 60 51.0 50 China world 45.4 40 30 24.1 18.9 20 10 7.6 4.5 3.0 2.4 1.1 0.5 0.1 0

R&D as proportion (%) of GDP, 1991-2017: USA, UK, Germany, China, Japan, South Korea United States United Kingdom Germany China South Korea Japan 5.00 Korea 4.55% 4.00 Japan 3.20% 3.00 Germany 3.02% USA 2.79% 2.00 China 2.13% UK 1.66% 1.00 0.00

National investment in R&D, 2016 OECD data, $s billion, constant 2010 USD PPP 500 464.3 450 410.2 400 350 300 250 200 149.5 150 104.1 100 75.9 55.8 42.9 37.2 32.5 50 26.1 24.7 18.0 17.3 16.0 0

Annual number of published papers United States, China, Germany, United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea: 2003-2016 500,000 450,000 400,000 350,000 300,000 250,000 200,000 150,000 100,000 50,000 0 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 United States China United Kingdom Germany South Korea Japan

Growth of China-associated science papers Proportion (%) of worldwide papers in Scopus: 2000-2016 50 45 40 34.6 35 32.3 32.2 30 26.8 25.8 24.5 24.3 23.4 23.2 23.0 23.0 25 21.9 18.7 20 15.1 14.0 13.8 15 12.4 10 5 0 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 Additional papers with Chinese names, all countries (unweighted) Papers solely authored in China Total = proportion of all papers in Scopus with Chinese names

Top universities in STEM research (1) physical sciences and engineering, and (2) mathematics and complex computing, Papers in top 5 per cent of their field by citation rate, World: 2014-2017 University System Physical sciences University System Maths & & engineering computing Tsinghua U CHINA 776 Tsinghua U CHINA 236 MIT USA 691 Harbin IT CHINA 182 Stanford U USA 598 Zhejiang U CHINA 155 USA CHINA UC, Berkeley 580 Huazhong U S&T 153 USA CHINA Harvard U 552 U Electronic S&T 143 Zhejiang U CHINA 509 Xidian U CHINA 142 Nanyang TU SINGAPORE 503 Beihang U CHINA 141 U Science & T. CHINA 452 MIT USA 138 UK SINGAPORE U Cambridge 449 Nanyang TU 137 Shanghai JTU CHINA 398 NU Singapore SINGAPORE 137 ETH Zurich SWITZERLAND 394 Shanghai JTU CHINA 130 CHINA HK SAR Peking U 389 City U HK 124 Imperial CL UK 388 South East U CHINA 123 NU Singapore SINGAPORE 384 Stanford U USA 119

Top universities in Biomedical and Life/Earth University System Top 5% papers University System Top 5% papers in in Biomedical and Life and Earth Health Sciences Sciences Harvard U USA 2935 Harvard U USA 261 USA NETHERLANDS Johns Hopkins U 1085 Wageningen U 253 CANADA USA U Toronto 1071 U Washington Se. 231 USA SWITZERLAND UC San Francisco 967 ETH Zurich 227 Stanford U USA 915 UC Davis USA 227 U College London UK 850 UC Berkeley USA 223 U Pennsylvania USA 782 Cornell U USA 206 U Michigan USA 766 U Oxford UK 200 U Washington Se. USA 719 U Queensland AUSTRALIA 187 U Oxford UK 718 Stanford U USA 187 Columbia U USA 689 U Wisconsin-Madd. USA 180 USA CANADA U Texas HSC Hou. 667 U British Columbia 170 USA USA Yale U 661 MIT 162 USA BELGIUM UC San Diego 635 Ghent U 161 UC Los Angeles USA 602 Zhejiang U CHINA 160 Duke U USA 584 U Minnesota - TC USA 159 U Pittsburg USA 583 U Cambridge UK 158

Deng Xiaoping reforms from 1978 onwards • Why: Deng “considered science to be the most crucial of the four modernizations, the one that would drive the other three (industry, agriculture and national defense).” (Vogel, 2011, p. 197) • Depoliticisation: “Deng said that science had no class character; it could be used by all classes and all countries despite their different political and economic systems” (Vogel, 2011, p. 201). It was enough that scientists were loyal to country and party (p. 202) • China needed original and basic science: Deng saw internationalization not as a source of borrowed science but a guide to building China’s own capacity.

Centrally controlled depoliticisation and the dual authority system in science “Deng also responded to the continuing complaints of scientists that their professional work should be directed by someone familiar with the content. He directed that scientific institutes be reorganized with three top leaders at each institute. The party leader would manage overall policy, but the basic work of the institute would be under the direction of a leader trained in science. A third leader would be in charge of ‘rear services’, with responsibility for improving the living conditions and for ensuring that the scientists had adequate supplies to carry on their work. Aware that intellectuals were upset that they had to spend so much time engaged in physical labor and political education, Deng established a new rule that at least five-sixths of the scientists’ work week was to be spent on basic research.” - Vogel, E. (2011). Deng Xiaoping and the transformation of China . Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press (p. 208).

Decentralisation and autonomy • Since the 1990s, shift from from state leadership and control, to state facilitation and supervision • Autonomy of university leaders has increased over time • Universities remain firmly nested in government policies and strategies • Increasingly, devolved autonomy has taken corporate neoliberal forms, being associated with increased competition and private fund-raising. This has potential to shape the contents of knowledge and academic work

Dual governance system in universities • Roles of president and party secretary overlap closely, and can vary. Not all party secretaries act solely as agents of the party-state • Integration is obtained through the formal accountability of the president to the party committee • Secures a close working relationship between party-state and university, facilitating state drivers of performance • Recently the role of the party in universities was strengthened, with the president becoming vice party secretary.

Knowledge • The map of disciplines is the Western map, but it is incomplete (sciences are lop-sided, social science and humanities under-valued) • Project of uniting Eastern and Western epistemologies is discussed but not much is happening • Output driven by internationalisation strategies and rankings tends to be less engaged with real life problems and innovations in China itself – undermining traditional commitments to applied knowledge and serving society • Difficult for a Leninist party-state to embrace a plurality of new concepts and critical ideas in social science • Humanities could be a fecund source of new national narratives but again state enthusiasm is limited