Home » Opinion » Opinion Columns
Tsinghua sells its soul for some extra cash
By Wan Lixin |
May 28, 2011, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
ONCE again advertising has evinced its irresistible appeal.
It was recently reported that the No.4 Teaching Building at Beijing-based Tsinghua University had been renamed "Jeanswest Building," in recognition of Jeanswest, a domestic brand of casual clothing that made a donation to the university.
This is not the first time a building at Tsinghua has been so honored. But in the past, that honor was deemed to be more proper for great people, not for corporations.
The school may use this extra money to buy itself better rankings, but that snobbish act itself would betray its fall from decency.
And Tsinghua should not lack money. Tsinghua has been generously funded by the state. In addition, the university has accepted generous donations from millionaires and billionaires by reciprocating them with MBA or EMBA titles.
These redeemed rich individuals further reciprocate Tsinghua by praising their alma mater in a conspicuous newspaper advert conspicuously signed by presidents, chairmans, and CEOs.
If the university still wants more, there are good reasons to wonder if it uses its money wisely.
During the past decade, all Chinese universities aspiring to become top domestic, regional or global institutions have embarked on ambitious infrastructure expansion projects.
Meanwhile a consensus has emerged transcending the diametrically opposed ideologically left-rightist divide: something is terribly wrong with Chinese universities.
As we can see, universities today are operated more like a bureaucratic establishment hypersensitized to titles, rankings and money. The problem may lie in the management setup where authority rests with careerists, not scholars. Even scholarship is increasingly accredited by bureaucrats.
It's as if the universities have become companies, making much fuss over numbers like SCI citations, enrollment and the height of buildings. Similarly, professors are alive to the trick of profit maximization as they use master's and PhD candidates under their supervision like cheap labor.
Powerful non-academic figures also show growing interest in academic titles. The just released list of candidates to the Chinese Academy of Engineering Sciences include such heavyweight figures as the chairman of an enormous SOE petrol monopoly, and a deputy mayor of a supercity.
Honestly that will greatly add to the value of that temple of scholarship.
When school management and professors are bent on cultivating or fostering business ties, how much energy can they spare to preserve traditional Chinese values entrusted to their care?
One thing is sure: The university's dependence on official patronage easily crushes any attempt to resist the mandate of industrialization, and by and by the degradation of education as a lucrative business becomes progressive.
Once the market steps in, the process accelerates and money begins to infiltrate every fiber of the system. For example, according to professor Ge Jianxiong, chief librarian of Fudan University Library, the library had spent 31 million yuan (US$4.77 million) on books in 2009.
The purchases provided him and his colleagues the chance to earn millions of yuan in kickbacks. Ge famously rejected any, yet this revelation remains highly embarrassing.
Filthy lucre
The primary mission of education is to supply life-sustaining faith, belief and attitudes, but it would be depressing to foresee the outcome with an educational establishment steadily gravitating to filthy lucre.
There is also a global dimension to this decay, as the degradation is not restricted to the Chinese mainland alone. In a recent issue of Xinhua-sponsored Oriental Weekly was an interview with Taiwan historian Wang Fan-Sen, who was appointed one of Academia Sinica's vice presidents last year.
Wang discussed the global concerns about our times as an era devoid of true masters. He attributes this to over-specialization, which restricts the field of vision, and excessive competition, which makes it impossible for leisured, spontaneous inquiry.
Distasteful life
"For human beings, the unoccupied part is as important as the occupied part - space, leisure, and the blank can be as important as the painted part [in a painting]," Wang said. He said this highly competitive and rigidly tense modern scholarly life is distasteful. Wang observed this tension not only in Taiwan, but Japan, and more recently, Europe.
Wang explained that excessive competition naturally degrades spiritual values, because competition presupposes the reduction to quantitative, observable parameters, and that leads to a neglect or disdain of anything spiritual, which cannot be measured.
The global obsession for universities to be among the "top global 100" is dangerous, Wang said.
There must be recognition of human dignity and identity in its own right as humans do not exist for the sake of efficiency. Scientific "development" has cluttered the human mind and trivialized human existence.
"In modern scholarship, the easy availability of information and references deprives the process of bewilderment, failure, quest, deliberation, which are indispensable for in-depth inquiry,'' Wang said.
"When the strength of partisanship and isms weakens, in the absence of grand narration, there is grave danger of trivialization," he said, adding that if we survey our life and world beyond the immediate imperatives of reality, it would yield very different views.
In the case of Tsinghua, that trivialization of purpose makes it difficult to see beyond the Jeanswest nameplate.
It was recently reported that the No.4 Teaching Building at Beijing-based Tsinghua University had been renamed "Jeanswest Building," in recognition of Jeanswest, a domestic brand of casual clothing that made a donation to the university.
This is not the first time a building at Tsinghua has been so honored. But in the past, that honor was deemed to be more proper for great people, not for corporations.
The school may use this extra money to buy itself better rankings, but that snobbish act itself would betray its fall from decency.
And Tsinghua should not lack money. Tsinghua has been generously funded by the state. In addition, the university has accepted generous donations from millionaires and billionaires by reciprocating them with MBA or EMBA titles.
These redeemed rich individuals further reciprocate Tsinghua by praising their alma mater in a conspicuous newspaper advert conspicuously signed by presidents, chairmans, and CEOs.
If the university still wants more, there are good reasons to wonder if it uses its money wisely.
During the past decade, all Chinese universities aspiring to become top domestic, regional or global institutions have embarked on ambitious infrastructure expansion projects.
Meanwhile a consensus has emerged transcending the diametrically opposed ideologically left-rightist divide: something is terribly wrong with Chinese universities.
As we can see, universities today are operated more like a bureaucratic establishment hypersensitized to titles, rankings and money. The problem may lie in the management setup where authority rests with careerists, not scholars. Even scholarship is increasingly accredited by bureaucrats.
It's as if the universities have become companies, making much fuss over numbers like SCI citations, enrollment and the height of buildings. Similarly, professors are alive to the trick of profit maximization as they use master's and PhD candidates under their supervision like cheap labor.
Powerful non-academic figures also show growing interest in academic titles. The just released list of candidates to the Chinese Academy of Engineering Sciences include such heavyweight figures as the chairman of an enormous SOE petrol monopoly, and a deputy mayor of a supercity.
Honestly that will greatly add to the value of that temple of scholarship.
When school management and professors are bent on cultivating or fostering business ties, how much energy can they spare to preserve traditional Chinese values entrusted to their care?
One thing is sure: The university's dependence on official patronage easily crushes any attempt to resist the mandate of industrialization, and by and by the degradation of education as a lucrative business becomes progressive.
Once the market steps in, the process accelerates and money begins to infiltrate every fiber of the system. For example, according to professor Ge Jianxiong, chief librarian of Fudan University Library, the library had spent 31 million yuan (US$4.77 million) on books in 2009.
The purchases provided him and his colleagues the chance to earn millions of yuan in kickbacks. Ge famously rejected any, yet this revelation remains highly embarrassing.
Filthy lucre
The primary mission of education is to supply life-sustaining faith, belief and attitudes, but it would be depressing to foresee the outcome with an educational establishment steadily gravitating to filthy lucre.
There is also a global dimension to this decay, as the degradation is not restricted to the Chinese mainland alone. In a recent issue of Xinhua-sponsored Oriental Weekly was an interview with Taiwan historian Wang Fan-Sen, who was appointed one of Academia Sinica's vice presidents last year.
Wang discussed the global concerns about our times as an era devoid of true masters. He attributes this to over-specialization, which restricts the field of vision, and excessive competition, which makes it impossible for leisured, spontaneous inquiry.
Distasteful life
"For human beings, the unoccupied part is as important as the occupied part - space, leisure, and the blank can be as important as the painted part [in a painting]," Wang said. He said this highly competitive and rigidly tense modern scholarly life is distasteful. Wang observed this tension not only in Taiwan, but Japan, and more recently, Europe.
Wang explained that excessive competition naturally degrades spiritual values, because competition presupposes the reduction to quantitative, observable parameters, and that leads to a neglect or disdain of anything spiritual, which cannot be measured.
The global obsession for universities to be among the "top global 100" is dangerous, Wang said.
There must be recognition of human dignity and identity in its own right as humans do not exist for the sake of efficiency. Scientific "development" has cluttered the human mind and trivialized human existence.
"In modern scholarship, the easy availability of information and references deprives the process of bewilderment, failure, quest, deliberation, which are indispensable for in-depth inquiry,'' Wang said.
"When the strength of partisanship and isms weakens, in the absence of grand narration, there is grave danger of trivialization," he said, adding that if we survey our life and world beyond the immediate imperatives of reality, it would yield very different views.
In the case of Tsinghua, that trivialization of purpose makes it difficult to see beyond the Jeanswest nameplate.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
