Universities poised to cut office posts
Universities are to cut administrative jobs in the belief that it may take years for the central Government to boost education funding despite its pledge to contribute more money.
Leading institutions throughout the mainland are working on budgets for the new academic year and a major issue is the plan to cut administrative staff, Beijing sources say.
'The ratio between administrative and teaching staff in Qinghua University is about one to one, much higher than international standards,' said Professor Hu Xianzhang, Qinghua's vice-president.
In most universities, each faculty has its own student affairs department and administrative branch, often resulting in duties overlapping and resources being wasted.
'We are trying to set a limit on the number of total administrative staff and to integrate some of the grassroots administrative units,' said Professor Hu.
One option was centralising student registrations so that staff from each faculty were not needed for the job.
Other universities, including Beijing, were drawing up similar plans to boost cost effectiveness.
'Education Minister Chen Zhili has expressed concern about the heavy administrative costs,' a senior professor of Beijing University said.
Administrative staff referred not only to those running the daily affairs of faculties but also a large number of party cadres, he said.
The professor called for cadres at Beida to be given more constructive roles and, if not, to be removed from the university's payroll.
Beijing sources said the need to cut administrative costs became urgent when the Asian financial crisis reduced donations and sponsorship offers while the central Government, still tied by a heavy bureaucracy, could not squeeze more money for education.
Though President Jiang Zemin had lauded the slogan 'rejuvenate the country through science and technology' and pledged to turn a 10th of China's universities into world-class institutions, no significant capital had been injected.
'I guess it would take at least two years before the central Government can channel more funding for education reform,' said Professor Hu.
Mainland spending on education has lagged behind the rest of the world for many years, accounting for less than three per cent of gross domestic product.
