Developing excellence: Chinese university reform in three steps

China’s economic growth is slowing after 35 years of rapid expansion. Sustainable development depends on converting that growth into innovation. So the Chinese government has substantially increased its investment in universities and research institutes. In 2012, for example, it spent more than 1 trillion renminbi (US$161 billion) on research and development and more than 700 billion renminbi on higher education. As a result, research capacity and productivity have grown. Between 2005 and 2012, the number of full-time-equivalent researchers in China increased by 38% (to 314,000). Over the same period, the number of published research articles from Chinese higher-education institutions rose by 54% (to 1,117,742) and granted patents went up eightfold (to 66,755). Yet the quality of research, as indicated by citations, lags behind, and technology transfer is sluggish. Ossified practices in evaluation and incentivization — such as rewarding publication quantity over quality — are holding Chinese universities back. As president of a Chinese research university, I believe that building a high-quality faculty is the key to developing a world-class research university. In the past ten years, my institution, Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), has created a culture of innovation and boosted research capacity through reforms to career paths for existing and new faculty members. China’s leading universities are taking steps to enhance their research productivity. Chinese university reform in three steps