CPC deputy Hou Jianguo: Unchecked enrollment increases affect teaching quality

Beijing, March 4: CPC deputy Hou Jianguo, president of the University of Science and Technology of China, revealed when interviewed by our correspondent that the undergraduate enrollment at his university in 2008 was under 1700. The limited enrollment was due to a concern that their teachers' capabilities and education resources might not keep up with the teaching quality or level of training required by a large number of students.

However, he emphasized that there should be no rigid uniformity in either reducing or enlarging university enrollments. President Hou said that the undergraduate enrollment at USTC has remained between 1700 and 1800 over the past ten years and the total number of full-time undergraduate and postgraduate students at his university now is 15000.

"USTC's own positioning is to train future leaders and top scholars in science and technology. Such people must be solidly trained to become well-versed in their disciplines," said Prof. Hou. More students will require more education resources. If there is a shortage of good teachers or experimental facilities, the students will have access to less education resources and their training quality will suffer.

In Prof. Hou's view, it would be relatively easy for a university to increase its hardware with short-term input, but very hard to increase its number of top-notched teachers within a short period. He quoted a comment by the president of a famous foreign university: With a doubled number of students, it would take 10 to 20 years to come up to the level of teaching before.

As the single university under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, USTC's principle has been "run by the entire CAS with each of its departments supported by counterpart research institutes". According to Prof. Hou, there are quite a few adjunct professors at USTC at present, over 200 of them being from various research institutes under CAS.

"The integration of the research resources of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the education resources of USTC greatly helps the training provided by our school," said Prof. Hou. Science personnel's taking an outside job, therefore, should not be viewed one-sidedly.

"It is most important for scholars to hold on to a correct education concept and basic values," said Prof. Hou. Education is a complex process, and it would not be an education if simple rules were enough to produce a professor that knows how to teach and advise his graduate students well. To be a qualified scholar, one has to be self-disciplined and uphold academic integrity.

"It is not right to simply assume that enlarged enrollments are wrong," said President Hou. With the fast economic development in China, more and more people want a college education. It is impossible not to increase the enrollments under such circumstances. The key is that each school should make a wise decision as to whether to increase its enrollment and by how much on the basis of its status and faculty.

"To increase the enrollment is not for receiving more tuition; to train qualified people and ensure teaching quality will be the sole criterion for the decision. It would be a good thing if we could enroll more students and still give them good training."