China's Private Universities Trapped in Difficult Situation

By June of 2009, China had over 330 private universities, accounting for 15 percent of the whole nation's institutions of higher education. But as our Yingying reports, the shortage of students and loss of teachers has trapped private universities in a difficult situation.

Li Liang, a high school junior in Zhejiang Province, will take part in the national college entrance examination this year. He is considering five universities; none of which are private ones. Li Liang's mother says it's hard for students of private universities to find a good job after graduation.

"Some of the employers don't recognize the qualifications of private universities at all. And the tuition fee of private universities is twice as high as that of public universities."

Private universities in China mainly concentrate in Zhejiang, Shaanxi and Guangdong Province. A large number of them were set up as an adjunct organization of public universities with lower scholastic requirements for students. This has labeled private universities as inferior institutions. Only students who were refused by public universities would choose private universities.

Not only do students not favor private universities, more faculty members at private universities are choosing to leave.

Zhang Yi used to be a teacher at Communication University of China's Nanjing, a private university affiliated to the famed Communication University of China. Last year, she and a dozen teachers resigned together.

"It seems the students are the masters of the university, while teachers are supposed to serve them. The university doesn't have strict rules to regulate students for fear of losing them. This has put a lot of pressure on our teachers."

Zhang Yi adds that teachers at private universities don't have chance to be conferred the title of professor or associate professor. And their salary is much lower than that of public universities.

According to some Media reports, the registered status of most private universities in China is private non-corporation institution. Yang Sihai, who's in charge of Zhongshan College, a private institution in Jiangsu Province, says this status has trapped them in an awkward situation.

"We're neither a corporation nor a state-run institution. We don't have the right to make financing activities, so we can't offer a good salary to the teachers. We don't have the governments' financial support, so we have to charge a higher tuition fee to the students."

Hong Chengwen, a professor at Beijing Normal University, says the priority to revive private universities is to free them from public institutions and provide them with more flexible policies concerning financing.

"For instance, many private universities in the US are investing in the futures or the oil market. They have their own foundations to raise money. Perhaps China's private universities can learn from that."

Hong believes that private universities' development in China is in its infancy. In the future, they will play a more prominent role in China's higher education.

For CRI, I'm Yingying.