De-politicization in Chinese universities will be a tremendous undertaking, which will be difficult to achieve, said Zhu Qingshi, president of South University of Science and Technology of China (SUST), a newly established university that is pioneering comprehensive reforms.

Zhu Qingshi, president of South University of Science and Technology of China reiterates the importance of de-politicization of universities.[File photo]

Such de-politicization reforms mean empowering universities with more autonomy to carry out more education and research, while detaching administrative influence from academic affairs.

"The obstacle mainly comes from the lack of recognition from society," Zhu said, speaking of the difficulties. He compared the process of change to China's household responsibility system which started some 30 years ago. "Recognition of de-politicization in universities may also take three decades," he said.

Modeling the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, Zhu Qingshi founded the SUST in 2011 with the hope to build it into a first-class research-oriented higher educational institute in Asia.

SUST has been regarded as 'a pioneer in China's higher education reform,' and has hence been involved in all sorts of disputes since its first batch of enrollment in March, 2011, one year before China's Ministry of Education formally recognized its status in April, 2012. The reform has also put Zhu Qingshi himself in the limelight of the public's attention.

While SUST is expanding enrollment to more provinces across the country, Zhu still personally visits middle schools in those places to boost recognition.

"SUST has such a short history. We ought to let students and their parents know more about us. In that way, then, we will have students who wish to study with us," said Zhu, on his visit last Thursday to No. 2 Middle School in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province.

At the visit, Zhu noted China now has the largest number of undergraduates and postgraduates in the world, but "still fails to see top elites emerge – which is a shame."

The president reiterated that SUST's mission was to restore the university spirits of pursuing excellence, academic freedom, and scholars' self-discipline – an innovation of Chinese universities' structural system and a new way for higher education in China.

"Over the years, China has been learning from the world's top universities and launched various reforms on education. We failed to do well just because of politicization in universities," Zhu said, promising students will regard their years in SUST as "an unforgettable memory" through their life.