China has ambitious goals to become a global leader in technology and innovation, but a recent audit report has exposed some of the challenges and inefficiencies that plague its higher education system. The report, released by the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, revealed that nine universities in the region had wasted millions of yuan and failed to make real use of their research achievements.
According to the report, the nine universities had a total of 1,074 research projects that received funding from the central or provincial governments from 2018 to 2020, but only 91 of them had been converted into market applications, resulting in a conversion rate of 8.47 per cent. The report also found that some universities had large amounts of idle funds that were not used for research purposes, and that some researchers had paid for ghostwritten papers to boost their academic performance.
The report reflects a common problem in China’s higher education system, which is the lack of incentives and mechanisms to encourage researchers to translate their findings into practical applications. Professor Xiong Bingqi, vice-president of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, said: “The low conversion rate of scientific research achievements is a common problem in China’s higher education system. It reflects the lack of incentives and mechanisms to encourage researchers to translate their findings into practical applications.”
China’s tech self-sufficiency drive relies on strengthening basic research and innovation, but the country faces a gap in both quantity and quality of research output compared to the US. A report by the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), which was later removed from its website, showed that the US had a clear lead in terms of quality, as measured by citations per paper, and that China’s performance was uneven across fields. The report also stated: “The gap between China and the U.S. is not only large but also growing.”
However, China has also made significant progress in innovation in recent years, especially in areas such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and 5G. China has evolved from an imitator to an innovator on its own terms, according to George S. Yip and Bruce McKern, authors of China’s New Innovation Advantage. They wrote: “Chinese companies excel at cost innovation: creatively finding ways to reduce costs while maintaining reasonable quality.”
China’s innovation culture is influenced by its historical, political, and social context, which poses both opportunities and challenges for its future development. Professor Cao Cong, associate vice-president for research at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, argued: “Innovation is not just about science and technology. It is also about culture, mindset and institutions. … China needs to foster a culture that tolerates failure, encourages diversity and openness, and values basic research.”
China’s universities play a crucial role in advancing the country’s innovation agenda, but they also need to reform their evaluation system for research talent and their funding mechanism for research projects. Professor Huang Yasheng, associate dean at MIT Sloan School of Management, said: “China’s innovation system is not really geared towards original basic research. It’s more about applied research and commercialisation. That’s why we see a lot of Chinese companies doing well in e-commerce, fintech or consumer electronics, but not so much in cutting-edge fields like semiconductors or biopharma.”
Relevant articles:
– China universities waste millions, fail to make real use of research, audit finds in indictment of tech-sufficiency drive, South China Morning Post, August 9, 2023
– Is China open to adopting a culture of innovation?, Nature, December 7, 2022
– A report detailed the China-U.S. tech gap. Then it disappeared …, Protocol, February 9, 2022
– China’s New Innovation Advantage, Harvard Business Review, May-June 2021