The Rise of China’s Universities
Chronicle of Higher Ed | Harvard Professor William Kirby
Harvard professor and China specialist William Kirby, former FAS Dean, writes about the rise of the Chinese Universities throughout the world. Kirby takes an optimistic view of China’s ambitions in the realm of higher eduction, despite the impediments to freedom by the Chinese Communist Party. “Chinese universities have grown and flourished on international models and in partnership with the great institutions of Europe and North America. It is that company that they wish to keep, to compete in, and to lead.”
The Silk Road of Education— “President Xi Jinping aspires to build Chinese universities that are singular and distinctive from their international partners…Chinese universities have been mobilized for a new national goal: China going abroad along the ‘New Silk Road,’ presumably to provide Chinese models for higher education in Central Asia, Africa, and even Europe…”
Blaming the West’s “nationalism”— “Aiding China’s rise as a destination for international students is the recent surge of nationalism in the United States and Britain, long the top destinations for international students, which has led students to increasingly consider alternative locations.”
Western partnerships— “They may have ever more students from the New Silk Road countries, but they recruit their faculty from, and focus on building their premier research partnerships with, the leading Western universities.”
The Chinese State and “plagiarism”—“What distinguishes leading Chinese universities today is how they have grown as part of an international system, now buttressed by enviable financial support from the Chinese state. Like the Americans, who developed universities of a high reputation by plagiarizing the norms of German and British institutions, Chinese universities have learned from other global leaders over the past century, be they European, American, or Soviet.”
The Party as an obstacle—”The greatest challenge confronting Chinese universities today is not the competition they face abroad but the obstruction they encounter at home… ‘the party’… There is enduring anxiety in the party that universities can be — as they have been throughout modern Chinese history — powerful centers of dissent.”
Kirby’s Optimism, with Western help— “And yet let us not end so pessimistically. No civilization has a longer or more enduringly successful record than China of educating, examining, and promoting talent to serve state and society…Can Chinese universities set global standards in the 21st century? Yes, of course. But not alone. Chinese universities have grown and flourished on international models and in partnership with the great institutions of Europe and North America. It is that company that they wish to keep, to compete in, and to lead.”
