"Especially after the merger of Chinese universities since the late 1990s, those presidents only with administrative experience will have many problems dealing with the whole management of the larger universities," Chu said.

In recent years, university presidents have rotated between positions more frequently, which makes it more difficult for them to appreciate the unique characteristics of each university, Xiong said.

Stalled reform

The power of bureaucrats in China's universities has been widely criticized since 2007, when Zhang Ming, a professor at the Beijing-based Renmin University of China, complained on the Internet how deans abuse their administrative power to influence academic research.

"Universities are run by bureaucrats as if they were government departments. They focus on quantity instead of quality," Zhang said.

In a blog he wrote in March 2007, Zhang said that he might be forced to leave the university after publicly defying the director of the school of international relations.

Two days later, Zhang was deposed as head of his department, although he kept his title at the university.

Other universities strive for relative autonomy. In Guangdong Province's Shenzhen, Zhu Qingshi bucked the trend as president of South University of Science and Technology, which issues degrees through accredited overseas schools independently of the MOE.

When the MOE required universities to expand enrollment to absorb excess labor, Zhu pushed back to preserve the school's extraordinarily low student-to-teacher ratio.

According to the aims outlined in China's 10-year program for education reform in 2011-20, there are going to be changes to the way government manages higher education. The practice of ranking school officials according to the same system that applies to government officials will be done away with and the method of appointing school presidents will be improved.

In January, three presidents recruited through open selections by the MOE assumed the chairs of their universities. They are Zhang Xinxin of University of Science and Technology Beijing, Xu Anlong of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine and Lai Maode of Nanjing-based China Pharmaceutical University in east China's Jiangsu Province.

The three university presidents were picked last December. It was the second time the MOE has publicly recruited top leaders for its affiliated universities.

The previous round, which began in December 2011, included openings for two university presidents for Changchun-based Northeast Normal University in Jilin Province and Chengdu-based Southwestern University of Finance and Economics in Sichuan Province, as well as six university chief accountants. The whole process had multiple layers of screening that ended in March 2012.

During this round, the ministry adapted requirements for candidates that focused on two things: candidates must have rich experience in management of high-level universities, and they have to guarantee their complete immersion in university management once they are selected.

"A more open selection process will help address the problem that Chinese universities are overly influenced by their administrations," said Lao Kaisheng, an education professor at Beijing Normal University.

"The new requirements reflect the MOE's purpose in recruiting truly professional presidents who are impervious to the influence of administrative power," Xiong said.

Zhang Zongyi, who became president of the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics after going through the MOE's recruitment process in 2011, said that the procedures were tough.

"When I applied for the president position, I did not expect it to be so difficult. I actually thought it would just be some interviews," Zhang said in an interview with The Beijing News.

When Zhang gave his campaign speech, he found that students and faculty, as well as some retired professors and alumni of the university, were present.

However, Xiong said that the recruitment process is not open enough.

"Although any candidates who meet the requirements can participate in the selection, members of the expert panel that decided the result are from the MOE rather than any independent college councils," he said.

According to the MOE, public opinions from representatives of faculty and students are also included in the recruitment. However, this does not help dissolve Xiong's disbelief. "Last year the feedback of faculty and students was not published and we don't know how big a role their opinions played in the final decision," Xiong said.

"No success will be achieved for education reform, as long as the presidents are appointed by administrative authorities," he added.

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