Pros:

    • In early 2014, Shenzhen Party chief Wang Rong gave credit to Zhu Qingshi for his dedication in promoting SUSTC’s development over the past few years.

    • In a visit to SUSTC on April 1, a research team from the Central Reform Office spoke highly of the progress SUSTC has made in such a short period of time.

    • Tang Shuxian, chairperson of the professors’ association, said SUSTC’s academic council is outperforming other universities, not only in China, but also around the world.

    • Zhu said SUSTC has made breakthroughs in the reform of six areas: setting up a renovated target, establishing a modern university management system, reforms in the recruiting systems of teaching faculty and students, and reforms in teaching and scientific researches.

    Cons:

    • In an article in “Science” magazine on May 6, 2011, Zhong Weimin, an associate professor at Yale University, said that a primary step of building a top research-oriented university is to establish the necessary infrastructure and recruit highly talented teaching faculty before recruiting students. But SUSTC seems to be going in reverse.

    • In 2011, three professors from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) who helped Zhu with building the university quit their jobs with SUSTC and said in their joint statement that the school has merely pledged some specious slogans to stave off bureaucracy and lacks a clear future plan or roadmap.

    • In 2012, an investigation report by China Society of Economic Reform revealed several defects with the university, including a lack of prudence with SUSTC’s president selection, poor leadership, uncertainties with its academic and teaching setup, a shortage of liberal education and an incomplete faculty.

    • Early this year, Xiong Bingqi, vice president of 21st Century Education Research Institute, a nongovernmental organization focused on China’s education reform, said Zhu’s attempted reforms by “cutting off government control and bureaucracy,” and “independently recruiting students and conferring degrees” have not yielded much and “more was said than done.”