From the NYT (subscription may be required, you can always use bugmenot): China Luring Scholars to Make Universities Great.
Parts of the article hits too close to... um... home.
China has already pulled off one of the most remarkable expansions of education in modern times, increasing the number of undergraduates and people who hold doctoral degrees fivefold in 10 years.
"First-class universities increasingly reflect a nation's overall power," Wu Bangguo, China's secondranking leader, said recently in a speech here marking the 100th anniversary of Fudan, the country's first modern university.
The model is simple: recruit top foreign-trained Chinese and Chinese-American specialists, set them up in well-equipped labs, surround them with the brightest students and give them tremendous leeway. In a minority of cases, they receive American-style pay; in others, they are lured by the cost of living, generous housing and the laboratories. How many have come is unclear.
Well, almost. At least they believe in their own people. To some extent.
Mr. Yang, who leads a small experimental university in Ningbo, also criticized the lack of autonomy given to many Chinese researchers.
"At Princeton one mathematician spent nine years without publishing a paper, and then solved a problem that had been around for 360 years," Mr. Yang said, a reference to Andrew J. Wiles and his solution to Fermat's last theorem in the early 1990's. "No one minded that, because they appreciate the dedication to hard work there. We don't have that spirit yet in China."
Similarly, Ge Jianxiong, a distinguished historical geographer at Fudan, said Chinese culture often demands speedy results, which could undermine research. "In China projects are always short-term, say three years," he said. "Then they want you to produce a book, a voluminous book. In real research you've got to give people the freedom to produce good results, and not just the results they want."
I don't want to get sued, so I won't comment further.
Students here are not encouraged to challenge authority or received wisdom. For some, that helps explain why China has never won a Nobel Prize. What is needed most now, some of China's best scholars say, are bold, original thinkers.
Hear, hear.
"We need a new revolution to get us away from a culture that prizes becoming government officials. We must learn to reward real innovation, independent thought and genuine scholarly work."
Enough said.
***
Before the publication of this article, we had a conversation about this in one of my classes. My professor, who's foreign born, posed us this question: Why is it that countries like Japan and Germany teach math and science far better than Americans do, but America is leading in math and science research?
The perspectives from my class is interesting, especially since my class is pretty international. As in, international. International does not mean half the class is white and the other half is from one particular region in the world. There are people from Eastern Europe, East/South-east Asia (South-east Asia being me) and South America.
The Americans were diplomatic (and I guess not wanting to push any politcal incorrectness buttons, seeing how ridiculous the "thou shalt not be offended if thou is not white and male" campus atmosphere is).
The best scientists from all over the world come to America.
There is a lot more research funding in America.
Yeah, there's also a lot of research funding in biology in Singapore.
The international students provided more interesting perspectives.
In America, being a college professor is considered prestigious. Unlike his home country, I believe.
Some may come to America for the material comforts and research funding.
My prof said, But what about math? For math you just need pen and paper. (Unless you're an applied mathematician who can convince grant agencies to give you a lot to buy a computer.)
But in (home country), you'll starve if you want to do mathematics.
In America, it is considered prestigious and viable to be a research scientist.
And my prof's take?
In America, individualism is encouraged. In contrast, in countries like Japan and China, conformity is encouraged.
