University rebel

　 South University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen
　
　

　 South University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen
　
　

　 Zhu Qingshi Photo: CFP

Prodigy Su Liuyi is the first and only student at the South University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen.

　
　

Despite his busy schedule, university president Zhu Qingshi always finds time to talk to the 10-year-old from Shandong Province, a lover of question-and-answer sessions, according to an article in People"s Daily.

　
　

"With the old style of teaching," Zhu told the paper, "his talent might be killed."

　
　

Fourteen months into the job, 64-year-old Zhu is still waiting, still struggling to get things off the ground.

　
　

Fully funded by the Shenzhen government, his experimental university aims to be the first university in China "ruled by professors not bureaucrats": a bold challenge to the educational status quo.

　
　

Since January, the university has been operating from a temporary campus that once was the Shenzhen Financial Engineering Institute of Nankai University.

　
　

There is still not one official word of approval - or disapproval - from the men at the Ministry of Education.

　
　

Meanwhile, Zhu keeps busy: The course work and syllabuses have all been laid out. Fifty students have been notified of acceptance. A dozen leading overseas scholars have expressed their desire to join the university, including three deans from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

　
　

Several hundred houses have been demolished and their residents resettled to make way for the 500-acre campus.

　
　

The Ministry of Education on May 24 brought a team of experts to inspect the university preparation work who reportedly all thought highly of the efforts of Zhu and his team.

　
　

Zhu was hopeful that with a permit from the ministry, the university could get rolling in September, the start of the new school year.

　
　

Not a word.
　

　
　

Fast facts: SUST

　
　

March 2007 Shenzhen government announces decision to launch experimental university: South University of Science and Technology (SUST)

　
　

March 2008 50,000 residents and 700 companies asked to move from Nanshan district in southwest Shenzhen, to make way for new campus

　
　

September 10, 2009 Zhu appointed president of the planned university

　
　

January 2010 University moves into a temporary campus

　
　

September 1, 2010 Su Liuyi, 10, becomes first student

　
　

September 30, 2010 Building of university campus starts

　
　

"I"ve been waiting anxiously for a reply from the ministry," he told China News Weekly on August 16.

　
　

The Ministry of Education held a special meeting sometime in September, agreeing to the construction of the buildings, if not the university itself. The exact date of that meeting was not made available.

　
　

Construction finally kicked off on September 30 in southwest Shenzhen. On the same day, 55 applicants took part in job examinations for positions at the university"s administrative offices.

　
　

Still it remains unclear how long the wait will be: days, weeks or even months.

　
　

Still Zhu waits for confirmation in writing from the ministry.

　
　

"Without ministry approval, many scholars who are interested in our university have to delay their decisions," Zhu told Beijing News Daily on October 21.

　
　

Officials hesitate as the management style advocated by the university is such a radical departure from the dominant rote-based mode of Chinese education, an unspecified source explained to the paper.

　
　

Right from the outset, Zhu wanted the South University of Science and Technology to be totally different.

　
　

"In past decades, our universities have all been guided by administration work instead of

　
　

Why?

　
　

In his own way, Zhu felt he was addressing the killer question raised by rocket scientist Qian Xuesen: Why do Chinese universities consistently fail to produce talent?

　
　

Qian, who died on October 31 last year, raised the question more than once. On November 11, 11 professors from Anhui Province urged Education Minister Yuan Guiren to "face Qian"s question" in an open letter.

　
　

Like Zhu, they are still awaiting a reply.

　
　

With South University of Science and Technology, Zhu seeks a return to basics, hoping to restore the long-lost academic integrity of Chinese universities, according to the university website.

　
　

Different from the ever-expanding, profit-oriented institution that is the modern Chinese mainland university, Zhu envisions a new kind of university, small and research-focused like the California Institute of Technology or Rockefeller University.

　
　

There will be 1,500 undergraduates and 500 graduates specializing in science and engineering: small by Chinese standards.

　
　

For starters, hopefully this year, the university will run a trial class for 50 students.

　
　

Instead of the usual candidates who scored high in their national college entrance exams, students will be hand picked by Zhu from year two of senior high school: before exams.

　
　

"This is to keep the students" originality and learning vigor from being smothered after a year"s intensive study for exams," according to the university website.

　
　

For the trial class, all teaching sessions will be conducted in English. In the first two years, courses in maths, physics, chemistry, biology, computing and English will be offered. During the last two years, students can choose their own research focus.

　
　

Zhu himself will teach a course on creativity: "How Galois invented group theory." French mathematical genius Evariste Galois (1811- 1832) was the first to use the word "group" as a technical term in mathematics to represent a group of permutations.

　
　

Zhu"s independent, pioneering spirit first became evident in 1999, soon after he became president of his alma mater Chinese University of Science and Technology in June 1998.

　
　

Responding to a call from government, universities across China expanded their enrollments, many at the price of education quality.

　
　

The University of Science and Technology was no exception. In 2001, it enrolled 1,860 undergraduate students, doubling the figure again in the early 1990s. When even this pace of expansion did not satisfy Ministry of Education officials, Zhu disobeyed their orders and stabilized enrollment, according to China Weekly.

　
　

As other universities raced to buy up land and open new campuses, Zhu remained unmoved.

　
　

His refusal to expand was not free of criticism. In 2003, as he considered a second term as dean, an article headlined "President Zhu"s strategic mistakes" was posted on an intranet discussion forum.

　
　

The author accused Zhu of adopting a contracting strategy when most other universities were expanding.

　
　

Zhu was reelected to a second term. He retired in 2008.

　
　

Two months

　
　

It was his insistence on academic excellence that made him stand out from the 200 candidates for the presi-dent of the planned South University of Science and Technology in 2009.

　
　

No sooner had Zhu taken up the post than he realized this was no routine task. As a university under the city government of Shenzhen, Zhu had to apply for almost any item of expenditure in advance.

　
　

If he wanted a computer for work, for instance, it would typically take two months before officials approved.

　
　

Though applauding Zhu"s intention to shake up China"s university system, some see his efforts as not going far enough.

　
　

"Universities aren"t ivory towers," said Hu Xingdou, an outspoken scholar at the Beijing Institute of Technology.

　
　

"Problems inside a university campus are closely related to similar social issues."

　
　

Hu still urged the ministry to liberate their thinking and finally grant Zhu"s wish for a special education zone.

　
　

Zhu remains confident the ministry will approve his university sooner or later.

　
　

He has less than four years left on his term.

　
　

About Zhu Qingshi

　
　

February 7, 1946 Born in Chengdu, Sichuan Province

　
　

1968 Graduates from physics department of the University of Science and Technology of China in Beijing. Assigned to Qinghai Province on the Tibetan plateau to work at a machinery plant as a furnace worker.

　
　

1974 Zhu applies and is accepted as an employee at the laser spectroscopy project at the Salt Lake Institute in Qinghai, a Chinese Science Academy branch research institute.

　
　

1978 Studies abroad

　
　

1982 Returns to China

　
　

1984 Transferred to Dalian in Liaoning Province to lead the laser chemistry division of the chemical physics institute under the Chinese Science Academy.

　
　

1991 Becomes youngest academician at the Chinese Science Academy at age 45

　
　

June 1998 Becomes president of the University of Science and Technology of China, now in Hefei, Anhui Province

　
　

2003 University president for the second term

　
　

2008 Retires

　
　

September 10, 2009 Accepts appointment

　

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