Regulate school-run enterprises

Chinese universities and their business units should be managed under modern university system and modern enterprise system respectively. There should be a clear border between research and business to make them mutually beneficial. Once the border is blurred, the school officials and teachers will seek to illegally profit from it, says an article in the Beijing Youth Daily. Excerpts:

The Ministry of Education banned universities using school resources to operate companies and called to strengthen supervision of university property and school-run enterprises.

If schools can balance the relations between education and business, and subsidize education with business income, the universities can have more education funds. Commercial revenue is an important income for private schools in the United States.

But the school-run enterprise is a murky area in China, especially for the public schools.

The school-run enterprises have not effectively promoted the industrialization of research results in China. Many enterprises become cash cow for the school officials and teachers.

The schools use their resources to make a large sum of money, which is not included in the schools’ finance, but enters pockets of individuals. The schools’ presidents are owners of the business. Professors and researchers make use of the enterprises to translate their researches into personal profits. The enterprises also make it convenient for them to embezzle research funds from the governments and turn State-owned property to private assets.