Relationships between universities and their enterprises need clarifying

ON FRIDAY, THE CENTRAL INSPECTION GROUP ANNOUNCED the results of its inspections of 14 key universities. Of all the problems it found, corruption among university-owned enterprises was the most common — 13 of the 14 universities inspected were found to have this problem. Beijing News comments:

Universities are not prohibited from owning and running their own enterprises; it is their outdated mode of management that has caused the problems.

Many university-owned enterprises make use of the resources and influence of the universities to seek profits, instead of serving the universities.

Worse, some of these enterprises involve corruption of university officials. In certain typical cases, university officials run enterprises in the name of the university, but they make profits for themselves.

As early as 2015, the Ministry of Education officially instructed universities to regulate their enterprises. According to the regulation introduced by the ministry, university-owned enterprises should serve as a platform for researchers to apply the results of their research or as incubators for small technological enterprises. However, the recent round of inspections shows the problems it was aimed at curbing still exist and remain quite serious.

In order to root out these problems, domestic universities must reform the enterprises under their names and adopt a modern enterprise management mode. If a university hopes to profit by running an enterprise, it should hire professional managers to run them like any modern company. Any investments or debts of the companies should be made transparent, the jobs of their staff should be made clear, and they should be put under the supervision of the universities concerned.

Last year, a new national policy was introduced that allows college researchers to serve part-time in enterprises to apply their research results in business. But more details are needed so as to prevent certain college professors from making money for themselves at the expense of the universities.

University-owned enterprises should serve the university, not the university officials that run them.