Nanjing Integrated Circuit University

China’s new crop of privately backed, industry-focused universities could help meet skills gaps and jump-start innovation. At the end of 2021, Chinese businessman Cao Dewang came one step closer to establishing his institution when he signed an agreement with the city government of Fuzhou to build a university for developing applied research and technical talent. The Fuyao University of Science and Technology is one example of a handful of such endeavours taking shape in the country, which experts say could provide a blueprint for future development.

“These new types of universities could bring innovation to higher education in China; they can respond to changes faster, and their collaboration with industry… is very much mandated (so) it will be easier for the government to drive changes through them,” says Ka Ho Mok, vice president of Lingnan University Hong Kong.

Their development comes at a time when Chinese higher ed institutions are struggling to keep pace with the country’s ambitious manufacturing aims. Because it’s “extremely difficult” to reform China’s government-run universities, Beijing is encouraging other types of varsities to evolve, such as those born of partnerships with overseas institutions, which “bring new models of delivery and innovation in university governance”, says Prof. Mok.

But unlike NYU, Shanghai or Duke Kunshan University, the new Fuyao and institutions like it focus on a specific industry. For instance, the Nanjing Integrated Circuit University, founded in 2020, aims to address a skills shortage in the semiconductor industry. Similarly, the Dongfang University of Technology and Oriental University of Technology — which has yet to receive its official English name and is under development in Ningbo, sponsored by chip businessman Yu Renrong — tackles industry gaps.

“China is now in great need of ‘new times’ technicians and workers in the different manufacturing organisations,” says Zhiyong Zhu, professor of sociology and educational administration at Beijing Normal University. “From the perspective of central government, private funding can possibly set an example… that (a) public university controlled by the government could learn from.”

Still, these new institutions will need to overcome several hurdles if they are to succeed, Prof. Zhu cautions. For one, they will need to find appropriately trained lecturers. “It is difficult to employ the teachers with (innovative) viewpoints and vision of learning, teaching, knowledge… because it is highly possible that most of those teachers are trained by public universities,” he says.

Such institutions will also need to have new models of governance to “encourage innovation and institutional autonomy”, says Prof. Mok. He stresses that this should be accompanied by stable government policy and “sufficient (and) stable funding support”.

For its part, China’s ministry of education will most likely adopt a different set of evaluation criteria for performance measures “if they are serious about new ways of operation being sustained”, and the government will need to adopt a different university governance framework “for supporting institutions with more flexibility in management in response to rapid changes,” he says.