南方科技大学校长朱清时在接受《科学》亚太编辑石磊(Richard Stone)采访时表示，南方科技大学将挑战中国现行的高等教育体系：

去官僚化，去行政级别；

为教授提供与香港科技大学相当的薪水(薪资水平甚至高于很多美国大学)；

中国第一家提供充足研究经费的大学，让教授们免去四处化缘之苦；

不基于高考成绩，而直接从高二年级招生。

这位原中国科技大学校长说，南方科技大学这些大胆举措的一个可能后果是，学生可能拿不到教育部颁发的文凭，但他的目标是南方科技大学毕业生被社会接受。

朱清时还表示，人们希望有一所大学站出来，挑战现行教育体系，探索一条改革之路。南方科技大学肯定会面临诸多困难。他本人已经做好准备，将在中国首先进行真正的教育改革，但首先取得成功的可能并不是他，而是后来者。

中国科技大学校友、中国科学院化学研究所王鸿飞在博客中为朱校长喝彩：“能够有一大批踢开教育部办学的学校之间相互竞争，中国的教育才会有多样性，才会有真正的出路。其实，很多人一直就认为中国科学院的研究生根本就不需要教育部授的破学位，中国科学院自己盖章，自己授学位，自己保证质量最好。朱校长的这段话，应该算是解放以来中国大学教育的独立宣言。以后就把2009年11月20日定为中国教育的独立日（Independence Day）吧！”

Science 20 November 2009: Vol. 326. no. 5956, p. 1050

DOI: 10.1126/science.326.5956.1050

NEWSMAKER INTERVIEW:

University Head Zhu Qingshi Challenges Old Academic Ways

Richard Stone

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/326/5956/1050

BEIJING—Every autumn when Nobel Prize winners are announced and the world's most populous nation misses out—yet again—the mass media and blogs here blame an education system that values rote memorization over creativity. Widespread disaffection is a factor, Chinese state media observed, behind the National People's Congress's decision earlier this month to sack Education Minister Zhou Ji. But true change may come only from the bottom up.

 In September, the government of Shenzhen, a city in southern China, appointed physical chemist Zhu Qingshi as president of the planned South University of Science and Technology (SUST). Zhu insisted on also being appointed the university's Communist Party secretary, making it clear he would be calling the shots.

 A Sichuan native, Zhu, 63, graduated from the University of Science and Technology of China here in 1968 (USTC later moved to Hefei) and has been a visiting fellow at several top overseas labs, including the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Zhu's pioneering research in laser spectroscopy won him election to the Chinese Academy of Sciences at the tender age of 45. He became known as a reformer during his tenure as USTC president from 1998 to 2008.

Shenzhen, near Hong Kong, was the cradle of China's market economy 30 years ago. In its bid to become a paragon of education reform, the city paid nearly $1 billion for the land for SUST's campus, expected to open in 2012 with an enrolment of 1500 undergraduates and 500 graduate students in science and engineering—all on scholarships covering tuition and living expenses. (SUST will launch with a small group of students in temporary digs next year.)

In an interview with Science, Zhu explained how he intends to shake up China's university system—whether the education ministry likes it or not.

Q: What did you do in Hefei to earn your reputation as a reformer?

Z.Q.: My most important contribution to USTC was not what I did but what I did not do. In the past several years, Chinese universities grew very quickly, buying up land and enlarging enrollments. But teaching staffs were not expanded. We wanted to maintain academic standards, so we rejected this approach. Secondly, the Ministry of Education evaluates teaching and research activities at all universities. Evaluation is a good thing. But the ministry's evaluation now is not a real evaluation; it's a formal exercise.

Q: An exercise in wining and dining?

Z.Q.: Exactly. The evaluators would come to our university, and we didn't prepare anything special; instead we asked them to observe the professors and students.

Q: Did the education ministry appreciate your approach?

Z.Q.: No, they did not appreciate it. We didn't get perfect marks, but around 70% of China's universities did. Everybody knows the evaluation has no meaning. Of course, it's connected to funding, and our university got less money from the central government. But we kept a very high level of education and research.

Q: In what way will SUST be different from other Chinese universities?

 Z.Q.: We will abolish rank: what we call debureaucratization of the administration.

 Q: How will that help?

 Z.Q.: The main problem in higher education is bureaucratic power. Many professors now pursue bureaucratic rank instead of academic excellence. If you attain a high rank, you get money, a car, research funding. This is why Chinese universities have lost vitality.

 Q: How will you persuade people to work for SUST rather than top universities like Tsinghua or Beida [Peking University]?

Z.Q.: First, the Shenzhen government promised that we can hire professors at the same salary as professors at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. That's higher than Beida, even higher than many U.S. universities. Also, SUST will be the first university in China with a significant budget for research. This is something I'm pursuing very hard. We don't want our professors to have to continuously apply for funding.

Q: A lot of critics say that China's education system suppresses creativity. At the teaching level, what needs to change?

Z.Q.: We feel that the whole year of grade three of high school [equivalent to senior year in the United States] is wasted just preparing for the Gao Kao [the national university entrance exam]. At SUST, we will not enroll students based on Gao Kao results. We will enroll them directly from grade two of high school. Next year, we will take 50 students from grade two.

 Q: Does the education ministry see your rebel attitude as a threat to its authority?

 Z.Q.: They might not forbid us to carry out our plan, but they also might not encourage us. There is a danger that our students may not get a diploma issued by the education ministry. My goal is to ensure that my students are accepted by society and get good jobs after they graduate. If I accomplish that, this experiment will be a success. People are looking for a university to challenge the education system and show an effective path for reform. SUST is going to face many problems. I am prepared to be the first to try true education reform, but maybe someone after me will be the first to succeed.