MOE appoints Zhejiang uni head amid online debate

Lin Jianhua, the former president of Chongqing University, was finally appointed to the position of president of Zhejiang University Wednesday, according to a statement on the official website of the Ministry of Education (MOE).

The statement said that officials from the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee announced the appointment at Zhejiang University on Wednesday, while senior officials from the Ministry of Education also made speeches.

Lin, 58, was a vice president of Peking University before being appointed president of Chongqing University in 2010. The rank of university president is equivalent to that of a government vice minister.

Zhejiang University alumni associations across the country and overseas released an online statement  Saturday to express their desired requirements for a university president, such as the candidate should be very familiar with the university.

This sparked a public debate on the selection of presidents of Chinese universities, with some calling for public selection, rather than appointment in a bureaucratic way. Under the current system, the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee and the MOE choose the president of a top university.

"How a university president is elected reflects its key value, which should be the pursuit of higher academic levels, rather than bureaucracy," said Yang Dongping, director of the 21st Century Education Research Institute. The appointment system shows that Chinese universities are not independent, Yang said.

The MOE began to reform the appointment system in 2011, but only five institutions have used open recruitment to select a president so far.