In a blog dated 18 November 2014, Alex Usher, the Canadian higher education analyst, said, “Higher education is a tradition-driven industry … If you really want to understand what a country's university system looks like, go find a history of the country's first institutions. That's where you'll find all the answers.”
China's Rising Research Universities focuses on the present condition of four leading Chinese universities, but it meets Usher's suggestion in two ways. First, the universities selected as case studies – Tsinghua, Peking, Renmin and Minzu – are among the earliest and most prestigious institutions in China. Second, the substantial introductory chapter reviews the development of modern universities in China, dividing this history into four major phases: the Republican period (1911–49), the socialist period (1950–77), the Open-Door period (1978 to the mid-1990s), and the present period, characterized as one of global ambition (the late 1990s to the present).
The authors describe their goal as better understanding of the contributions of Chinese universities to broader society and to the nation's expanding role as a global, political and cultural leader. The book's specific focus is on faculty life in the four Chinese universities, seeing professors as the critical link in raising the quality and improving the overall operations of the academic enterprise. The case study approach, informed by the ethnographic tradition, draws heavily upon formal and informal interviews, participant observation and document analysis. The three Chinese co-authors of the book are professors at Tsinghua, Peking and Minzu Universities, providing insider access to both people and data. The result is one chapter on each of the selected universities.
Each chapter begins with a several-page history that links past decisions to the current state of the institution. For example, the chapter on Peking University focuses on “the Beida way,” the unique culture of the nation's first modern university. Much of this is well known (leadership of the May Fourth movement, the presidency of Cai Yuanpei, Beida students at the Tiananmen protests) but other incidents may not be as familiar. For example, the authors state that the intellectual ideals and values that came to define the Beida way were first planted during the 1930s and 1940s when students and faculty lived in Kunming during the Japanese occupation.
While some observers attribute the Beida way to the mystical influence of Wei Ming Hu and Bo Yia Ta (Unknown Lake and Liberal Arts Pagoda) on the university campus, most of the people involved in the case study inquiry invoke earlier professors and presidents when describing the core ethos of the university: inclusiveness, loyalty to the profession, pursuit of knowledge with skepticism, and a spirit of individualism. One important model is Liang Shuming; during Mao's reign he raised serious questions about whether Marxist class theory actually explained Chinese social structure. Another model is Ma Yanchu, a Beida president who resigned his position rather than renounce his theory on the economic consequences of increasing population. Both are cited as examples of intellectual courage in the Beida way.
China's Rising Research Universities consistently goes beyond description to provide thoughtful analyses of larger issues facing China today. For example, the chapter on Minzu University addresses the challenge of being a university dedicated to educating ethnic minority students and to studying ethnic minority issues, compared with pressures to integrate minority students into the dominant society and to add such departments as law, business and computer science to the university. The authors describe conflicts among three competing “narratives of change” used by professors to make sense of the present-day organizational context of the university: internationalization, marketization and ethnocultural development.
The chapter on Renmin University raises another critical question: to what extent are Chinese universities shaping their own destiny or being shaped by forces beyond their control? Embracing internationalism can also be interpreted as acquiescing to a new form of colonialism. Some case-study participants expressed concern that international pressures are influencing the direction of academic work in China. Chinese scholars who want to publish have to adapt to the interests of foreign scholars, the professors opined, or they lose the opportunity to publish in international journals. A Renmin professor of rural studies emphasized the need for Chinese scholars to direct their attention inward to such topics as urban–rural inequalities, but the pressures to elevate scholarly productivity and world ranking may at times work to push researchers toward topics less beneficial to national interests.
The Tsinghua chapter describes the close relationship between university and government as both advantage and disadvantage. Many Tsinghua-educated engineers have occupied high positions in national and local government; the traditional focus on applied sciences has contributed significantly to economic and social development of the nation. The university's special relationship with top officials is also reflected in the extensive support it receives from government, and to some extent, in the extra degree of institutional autonomy it enjoys. At the same time, the authors argue, close links with government encourage conservative and utilitarian characteristics in the university's culture, leading some observers to argue that such influences may limit the development of original knowledge and world-class science. Quoting Su-yan Pan, the authors state that interweaving politics and academic governance is a two-edged sword; it can place the university under greater supervision, but it can also help to protect the university from certain governmental constraints.
Since these four universities serve as models to others, trends at Beida, Tsinghua, Renmin and Minzu are reflected to some extent throughout Chinese higher education. In the concluding chapter, the authors describe areas of significant institutional improvement, from improved infrastructure to more internationally oriented recruitment practices. At the same time, they list seven areas of concern that were identified in the case study process: institutional autonomy, administrative transparency, diversified funding, faculty empowerment, faculty evaluation, ethnic affairs and diversity, and questions of colonialism.
Scholars interested in Chinese higher education will find this book fascinating, but it has relevance to others as well. The areas of concern are not limited to higher education, but are questions facing Chinese society overall. How Beida, Tsinghua, Renmin and Minzu tackle these challenges will be harbingers of how the nation resolves such important questions as transparency, diversity and relations with the West.
