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Fast Growth of Chinese Software Colleges
PROPHE Summary (by Yingying Xu):
Citing the need to improve technology, the Chinese government recently
chose 35 top Chinese universities to build software colleges. The improvement
involves expansion but also a move toward high-level rather than already
existing low-level technical skills. Unlike traditional Chinese universities,
the software colleges get a big part of funding from foreign companies,
who see their support as a way to expand business. The software colleges
work closely with Chinese and foreign corporations and aim to provide
practical experience. In the School of Software at Peking University,
for example, many students have gone to big foreign software companies
for internships. The school has also recruited U.S. technology executives
and professors in order to introduce advanced foreign experiences, such
as Western-style management that, according to Chinese students, are better
than the hierarchical and non-merit based management style in many Chinese
companies.
For the full story see Mercury News, March 17, 2004, "China's
software schools evolve," by Kristi Heim.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/8206391.htm
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PROPHE Observation (by Daniel
C. Levy):
The initiative regarding software colleges is consistent with China's
robust market economy efforts and aim toward catching up to the technological
gains seen in neighboring India. The move toward universities having software
colleges, closely tied to major businesses and the job market, parallels
US developments. It is yet another example of a partial privatization
of Chinese public universities. A major difference between the countries
is that in China government takes more of the initiative and directs the
choices more. In that connection, it limits this initiative to designated
public universities. This step, like others involving partial privatization,
can inhibit the development of private universities where they otherwise
might have opportunities. On the other hand, the step hardly confines
action to the public sector of higher education. Instead, it opens a new
range of private-public mixes and partnerships between public universities
and essentially private colleges.
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