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He Huifeng

A growing number of China’s top high school students are looking beyond traditional elite universities to smaller, newer, research-intensive institutions that offer curricula focused on technological innovation and its commercialisation.
In Guangdong province, two-year-old Shenzhen University of Advanced Technology and one-year-old Great Bay University, in Dongguan, had minimum admission scores from the national entrance exam above 625 this year, higher than many departments at more established universities, according to data released by the city government of Guangzhou, the provincial capital.
Amid China’s broader push to foster research-focused universities as a way of bolstering strategic industries, the newer universities have focused on more specialised fields of research and closer links with industry than is common at traditional universities.
They include Westlake University in Hangzhou, ShanghaiTech University, Shenzhen University of Advanced Technology, Fuyao University of Science and Technology in Fuzhou and Eastern Institute of Technology in Ningbo.
For some families navigating an increasingly competitive graduate job market, the roles that prominent entrepreneurs, scientists and industry leaders play at such universities suggest graduates might have an advantage in career competition.
Steve Zheng, from Shenzhen, scored in the top 1.6 per cent of the 433,000 physics-stream high school students who took the National Higher Education Entrance Examination last year and sought to study mathematics at his home city’s Southern University of Science and Technology, which was founded 16 years ago, for that reason. But the fierce competition for places ultimately led him to enrol at a longer-established comprehensive university in the province.
The value of new research-focused universities was not to create another group of prestigious names
Xiong Bingqi, 21st Century Education Research Institute
“Universities backed by leading academics and industry figures are more likely to attract strong job opportunities,” he said in explaining his initial choice.
But Xiong Bingqi, director of the Beijing-based 21st Century Education Research Institute and an authority on Chinese education policy and reform, said most of the newer, smaller universities – often supported by wealthy entrepreneurs or local governments – were created to train researchers and build scientific capabilities over the long term rather than generate immediate employment opportunities for graduates.
“The value of new research-focused universities was not to create another group of prestigious names, but to explore different models for cultivating research talent and strengthening China’s innovation capacity,” he said.
Xiong said, however, that long-term funding remained a challenge. Fuyao University of Science and Technology, founded with a 10 billion yuan (US$1.48 billion) donation from entrepreneur Cao Dewang, has attracted public attention after he said that academic departments should become financially self-sufficient through the commercialisation of research.
Xiong said cultivating new world-class research universities would require long-term and diversified funding sources, including government support, philanthropic donations and professional input to commercialise the fruits of academic research.


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Research-focused universities with close ties to entrepreneurs and scientists seen as offering competitive advantage in job market


Research-focused universities with close ties to entrepreneurs and scientists seen as offering competitive advantage in job market.


Exam scores reveal increased student interest in China’s newer, smaller universities

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Research-focused universities with close ties to entrepreneurs and scientists seen as offering competitive advantage in job market

Research-focused universities with close ties to entrepreneurs and scientists seen as offering competitive advantage in job market