The Absence of Soulware in Higher Education E-Book

Way Kuo

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Bildung
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 798

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

THE ABSENCE OF SOULWARE IN HIGHER EDUCATION The book offers an analytical account of higher education in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland China with examples of best practices from higher education in the US for guidance. This book is Professor Way Kuo's attempt to address issues that remain to be challenges for universities in the globalized 21 Century, namely academic autonomy and freedom, seamless integration between research and teaching, curricula update, innovative and problem-driven research, and adopting best global practices, based on his reflections about higher education from a global perspective through his personal experience as a senior academic leader in the US and Hong Kong. Borrowing from the languages of computer science, this book not only talks about the hardware and software in higher education, which refer to the infrastructure and the physical entities that provide an environment conducive to good teaching and research, it also highlights the importance of a third category for achieving great success: the presence of a certain mindset, a willingness to embrace due process and follow international standards and procedures or a vision in making the best use of the hardware and software to spearhead innovation in combining teaching and research for the benefit of students and the well-being of society. Such a mindset is called the soulware of higher education. Specifically, this book: * Covers four key areas where a lack of proper soulware or mindset is deterring the advancement of higher education: internationalization; seamless integration of teaching and research; quality and evaluation; and creativity and innovation; * The author's arguments are factual and comments are critical on what is perceived to be less desirable or a failure in higher education; * The book offers useful insights into the future and a global perspective on trends, challenges, and opportunities in higher education. Audience Educators, policymakers, higher education providers and administrators, global stakeholders of higher education including students and parents, and the general public in both the East and the West who have an interest in global higher education.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Table of Contents

Series Page

Title Page

Copyright Page

Keep Distance from Empty Talk

Preface

Reasons for Publishing

Soulware

Higher education across the Strait

The Absence of Soulware

Publication of the Book

Video Clips of Interviews with Academic Leaders

The Right Way

List of Figures and Tables

Acknowledgments

Introduction

How Should Universities Be Run?

Current Status of American Higher Education

Trump, Roosevelt vs Biden: A Historical Overview

First Encounter with Hong Kong

How Should Universities Be Run?

Internationalization of Higher Education

Integration of Teaching and Research

Separation of Politics and Education

Quality and Evaluation

Creativity and Innovation

Learning and Questioning: Ancient Chinese Wisdom

Part I: INTERNATIONALIZATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION

1 Internationalization without Soulware

International Branch Campuses around the World

Essence of Internationalization

Hardware and Software

Soulware and Absence of Soulware

Anonymous Letters and Surreptitious Whispers

Localization

Thoughts at Taipei Marathon

2 Higher Education in the UK

From Elite to Mass Higher Education

Increase in Tuition Fees

Financing

Adoption of the American Way of Higher Education

Marconi’s Contribution

3 On Universities across the Strait

Universities in America and across the Strait

Higher Education in Macau

Higher Education in Hong Kong

Education Reforms in Taiwan

A Tale of Two Territories

Second Rise of Mainland Universities

Common Characteristics of Higher Education across the Strait

Low Tuition Policy in Universities across the Strait

Comparing Students Studying Abroad

Exchanges of Cross-Strait Students

Undergraduate Degrees Granted by Universities across the Strait

Learning from Global Experience

Declining Birth Rate Problem in Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Mainland

4 Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication

First: A Good System Should Make It Easy to Do the Right Thing and Hard to Do the Wrong Thing

Second: Avoid Using the Right Solution for the Wrong Problem

Third: Models are not to be Trusted Completely, but are Useful for Reference

Is a Low Birth Rate a Real Problem?

How to Deal with a Low Birth Rate?

Stress Relief

5 Blind Spots and Loss of Scholarship

Selection of University Leaders

Be Courteous to and Respect Talents

Brain Drain

Publish Peer-Reviewed Papers

Subcontractors of Academic Papers

Ju Quan

Part II: INTEGRATION OF TEACHING AND RESEARCH

6 Communicating Rigorously

Mutuality in Communication

Communication Requires Cultural Understanding

Communication Should Be Genuine and with Substance

Wherein Lies the True Beauty of Tang Poetry?

Popular Courses at Harvard

Communication and Distorted View of English

English, Chinese, and Korean

Writing Contests

International Students on University Campuses across the Strait

Asian Higher Education Market

Light Up Our Campus with Humor

From Jokes about Teaching to Importance of Content

7 The Essence of University

Perfecting Skills Coupled with Research

Investigation for New Knowledge

Disputes over Teaching versus Research Universities

Research and Teaching, Not A Zero-Sum Game

Whoever Questions, Learns

Teaching without Research is like Driving after Drinking

8 University Positioning

Four Types of Universities

What else for a University besides Teaching?

Students Are the Reason for Universities to Exist

Remove Restrictions and Establish Clear Positioning

Bai Juyi’s Idea about the Hermit in Between

9 Pitfalls of Misaligning Whole-Person Education

Bernard Shaw’s Stephen

Whole-Person Education: A Historical Perspective

Pseudo-ethics

A Professor’s Lament

Blind Spot for Youths

Blind Spot for Adults

Parenting

Professionalism

A Wonder Woman: a Contemporary Story

10 Strategies for Nurturing Generalists and Specialists

The Meaning of A Doctoral Degree

Multicultural and Cross-disciplinary Knowledge

General or Confused Knowledge

Is there concrete knowledge in general education?

Cooking

11 The Successful Evergreen Tree

Math and the Tuhao (Newly Rich Hillbillies)

Degrees Are Not Equal to Knowledge and Expertise

Knowledge and Expertise Do Not Equal Practical Experience

Experience May Not Stand the Test of Time

Take Nothing for Granted

A Few Thoughts

A Farmer’s Advice

12 Students and I

Tim-yan and Kay

Po-yan and Kiki

Follow Basic Norms

A Warm Story of the Old Days

Part III: SEPARATION OF POLITICS AND EDUCATION

13 External Forces that Interfere with Soulware

Oude Universiteit Leuven in Belgium

University of Vienna, Austria

Humboldt University of Berlin

George Washington University and Washington University in St. Louis

First-rate Higher Education

Teachers’ Union

Social Factors for Disparities in Higher Education

Respect Creativity

Where Dao is, so is the Teacher

Ingesting without Digesting

14 Stains in Academic Freedom and Campus Autonomy

The Definition of Academic Freedom

Academic Ethics

Other Examples of Violations of Academic Ethics

Campus Autonomy

Blind Spots of the Mind

15 Mechanism of the Separation of Politics and Education

Academic Freedom in the US

The Impact of Strained Sino-American Relations on Higher Education

The Accelerated Impact of Pandemic on Higher Education

The Self-Regulating American Democratic System

When Will Politics and Education Be Separated in Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Mainland?

A Dialogue with the Chief Executive of Hong Kong

16 University

Social Malady

Student Movements in the US

Student Movement – A Lofty Ideal

The May Fourth Movement

Social Movements and Official Career

Raising the Red Flag Only to Sabotage It

A Little Story of a Little Kindness

17 Populism

Populism, Taiwan Style

Power Shortage, Power Outage

Random Thoughts about Hong Kong

The Mainland

Pathology of Following Blindly the Wish of the Officials

Unstable Society, University in Trouble

Warm-hearted Folk vs Hypocritical Whole Persons in Officialdom

The Hypocrisy of Populism

Chen Peizhe and Anthony Fauci

Part IV: QUALITY AND EVALUATION

18 Review is the Father of Success

Things Are Not What They Used to Be

Quality and Quality Management

Subject Accreditation

Teaching and Research Evaluation

Take Heed of Rankings

What Does University Ranking Represent?

Ranking of Scientists

Controversies Regarding Rankings

Delusional Donations

The Cooking Oil Story

19 Rankings in the Humanities and Liberal Arts

Goodnow’s Advice

Cookie-cutter Selection of Universities or Majors

Subjects Take Priority

American Strengths in Arts & Humanities and Social Sciences

Substance Matters in Academic Innovation

Evaluation Applies to All Professions

Stories about my Colleagues

20 Tuition, Salary Comparisons of Professors and Graduates

Income and Degrees

Salary Comparisons of Fresh University Graduates

Student Tuition and Faculty Salary

Higher Education is Costly

The Driving Force behind Progress

A Hairdresser’s Story

21 Course Design and Choice of Majors

Evaluation-Rankings-Job Market

Evaluation of University Curricula

Trivially Divided Disciplines and Sloppy Decisions

Learning and Selection of Majors

Associate Degrees and Community Colleges

Drunk Man Reported Missing Joins Search Party for Himself

22 Accomplished Hermits behind Unprepossessing Gates

Israel’s Culture

Ukrainian Persistence

Innovation in Japan

Hermits of This World

Sentiments Regarding University Names

Campuses and Gates

Dedication to Work, both Fair and Unselfish

Part V: CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION

23 Creativity Depends on Asking Questions

Ask More Questions

Think More

New Technology, New Challenges

One Health

A Composition from a Small Child

24 How to Promote Innovative Technology?

South Korea

Singapore

Taiwan

Hong Kong

Mainland China

The Role of the University

Innovative Technology and Intellectual Property

Removing Political Interference in Industrial Development

Professor Huang vs Professor Singpurwalla

25 Where Is the Innovative Talent?

Barry Lam and Kai-fu Lee

Charles Kao and Daniel Choi

Pride and Regret

Reflections

Kin-man Yeung

Elite CEO’s Academic Background

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Steve Jobs

The Story of Michael Yang

26 Creativity in Higher Education and Risk-Taking

Creativity in Education

Online and Off-line

No Risk, No Innovation

Creativity and Innovation Help Entrepreneurship

Challenges in Higher Education in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland

Distance between the US and Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland China

27 Setting Policy Direction and Avoiding Nano-Management

The American Higher Education Experience

Policy and Market Orientation

Cure Thy Absence, Sanctify Thy Soul

Epilogue: How Does a University Set the Trend?

Tu Youyou – a Breath of Fresh Air

A Philosophy of One’s Own

Owl and Phoenix

References to Tables and Figures

Appendix: Basic Principle of Academic Governance

About the Author

Index

End User License Agreement

List of Tables

Introduction

Table 0.1 Students from Mainland China studying in the US (2009–2020).

Chapter 17

Table 17.1 Annual fatalities in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Mainland China and the US...

Chapter 18

Table 18.1 Number of universities ranked in top 100 in the US, the UK, Mainl...

Table 18.2 Number of universities in the world’s top 100 with the top 2% of ...

Chapter 20

Table 20.1 Comparison of four Asian Tigers.

Chapter 24

Table 24.1 Number of US utility patents granted to universities in the US, t...

Chapter 25

Table 25.1 Academic background of CEOs in the US, Mainland China, Hong Kong ...

List of Illustrations

Preface

Figure 0.1 Elements of university composition.

Figure 0.2 Three wisdom pillars of higher education soulware.

Figure 0.3 Geographical locations of the 36 universities and high schools wh...

Figure 0.4 The QR codes to access (a) the video series “Beyond Boundaries”, ...

Chapter 3

Figure 3.1 University enrollment rate in the US, Mainland China, Japan, Sing...

Figure 3.2 Number of newborn babies in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland China ...

Figure 3.3 Birth rates in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland China (1950 to 2021...

Chapter 20

Figure 20.1 Percentage of starting salary of university graduates to GDP per...

Figure 20.2 Percentage of the typical annual salary of assistant professors ...

Figure 20.3 Percentage of student tuition to GDP per capita.

Chapter 23

Figure 23.1 The One Health concept.

Part 5

Figure V.1 R&D investment in the US, Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Sing...

Guide

Cover Page

Series Page

Title Page

Copyright Page

Keep Distance from Empty Talk

Preface

List of Figures and Tables

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Table of Contents

Begin Reading

About the Editors

References to Tables and Figures

Appendix: Basic Principle of Academic Governance

About the Author

Index

Wiley End User License Agreement

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Scrivener Publishing100 Cummings Center, Suite 541JBeverly, MA 01915-6106

Publishers at ScrivenerMartin Scrivener ([e-mail])Phillip Carmical ([e-mail])

The Absence of Soulware in Higher Education

Way Kuo

Senior Fellow, Hong Kong Institute for Advanced Study

President Emeritus, City University of Hong Kong

This edition first published in 2023 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, USA and Scrivener Publishing LLC, 100 Cummings Center, Suite 541J, Beverly, MA 01915, USA © 2023 Scrivener Publishing LLCFor more information about Scrivener publications please visit www.scrivenerpublishing.com.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

ISBN 978-1-394-17474-4

Cover image: Pixabay.ComCover design by Russell Richardson

Keep Distance from Empty Talk

Money comes and goes like endless traffic in and out of a tunnel;It is nothing compared to the knowledge that enriches thinking.

A degree gives only a temporary pride of owning a certificate,Not worth holding on to and relying upon.

Give full play to one’s potential throughout one’s life,For the promotion of the sustained development of society.

Effectiveness must be reviewed and assessed;If we really care for education, keep your distance from empty talk.

Preface

The Chinese and English editions of The Absence of Soulware in Higher Education are simultaneously published by Linking  in Taipei and Wiley in New Jersey. The book reflects the momentous changes taking place in higher education in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland China as well as globally in the past five years and analyzes strengths and weaknesses with concrete examples.

Reasons for Publishing

Before I took over the presidency at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) in 2008, I had been engaged in teaching and research in the US and Europe for 34 years, starting as a graduate student and progressing through the ranks to assistant professor, associate professor, professor, chair professor and university distinguished professor. During my tenure in the US, I also had progressive responsibilities in academic leadership, starting from being appointed the head of department to dean of engineering and associate vice-chancellor for engineering at Texas A&M University System. I was a Fulbright scholar during that period and was elected director of the Council of Industrial Engineering Academic Department Heads. I have also been an ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) member for ten years.

I have been personally involved in scientific research and innovation in the US, heading scientific research administration at national laboratories and serving as a high-tech and government consultant for over 40 years and as editor-in-chief for IEEE Transactions on Reliability for 16 years. Therefore, as I have access to and have provided first-hand higher education and research, I have a legitimate voice in this matter.

The English version of Soulware: The American Way in China’s Higher Education, published by Wiley-Scrivener in New Jersey, 2019, highlighted the importance of separating politics from education. In the last four years, while tremendous changes have occurred in higher education across the Taiwan Strait (the Strait) including Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland China, political conflicts, street politics and populism have swept through campuses. Much worse, some media organizations have often acted as go-betweens for those entangling politics with education, a phenomenon hardly seen in the US. This is why significantly revising and updating the English version and publishing the Chinese version are required.

I endeavor to be as factual as possible in all these versions when I make my arguments. In several instances, my arguments are critical of what I perceive as serious mistakes in higher education, if not outright failures.

Soulware

Before moving on to higher education, it is necessary to define the terms I will be using. Borrowing from the verbiage of computer science, I will reference the hardware and software found in higher education.

By hardware, I mean a university’s infrastructure or physical facilities, such as buildings, libraries, internet, laboratories, and so forth, which provide an environment conducive to good teaching and research. By software, I mean human resources, government policy, society’s attitudes, strategic plans, the research abilities of faculty, and the sound educational background and preparedness of students. People often say grandmasters can be categorized as software and can be more important than grand buildings.

Whereas the hardware and the software are both essential for success in higher education, a third element is even more critical. It is essential for achieving greatness at a university and is related to education efficiency and internationalization.

In Chinese culture, people with great talent and ability are referred to as “1,000 li horses (supposedly able to gallop 1,000 li, approximately 400 kilometers, in a single day), while Bo Le  is the legendary person who could judge a horse’s qualities from appearance. While there may be 1,000 li horses here and there, finding the right judge of horses or Bo Le is hard. Here, 1,000 li horses refer to academic masters, and Bo Le is the recognition of soulware, the subject of this book.

Education calls for efficiency. The Chinese ancestors believed that education could not only enlighten our minds and cultivate our moral self so that we could learn to manage our families, govern our state and be a “gentleman” but also serve as a stepping stone for obtaining government positions at the imperial court. Today, for anyone receiving an education, we need to assess the results of education: the capability to pursue a personal career, give back as a citizen, advance social harmony, and maintain the sustainable development of the world. Internationalization is a commonly discussed topic among university administrators and governmental officials. It demands the presence of a certain mindset that goes beyond the hardware and the software of a university. This mindset enables better communication and coordination toward achieving greatness in education and research.

“Go ahead setting a high moral standard and advocating noble ideas, and don’t overthink the rest, be it east or west, past or present.” This mindset is what I have labeled soulware. So what exactly is soulware for a university?

At a more abstract level, I see soulware as a vision, as the crucial bringing together (or fusion) of technical virtuosity and humanistic cum spiritual engagements. Soulware entails a commitment to enable our hearts and souls to embrace due processes, follow international norms in all our educational endeavors, and devote ourselves truly to learning from our studies and research. Soulware can refer to moral character and Bildung (cultivation of self or formation of one’s character).

Su Shi, a Chinese Song dynasty poet, once wrote, “With straw sandals and a bamboo staff, I am better suited than riding a horse / And fear not / The wind and storm in life though clad only in a palm-leaf plaited cape.” If we keep our goals in sight and let them be, we can travel light no matter what happens. At the operational level, we need to make the best use of the hardware and software at our disposal and spearhead innovation, the combination of teaching and research, and the separation of politics and education for the betterment of society. Conceptually, I envision hardware, software, and soulware working and communicating in concert as the three constituting parts of a university, with soulware as an internal cosmic force, as shown in Figure 0.1.

Figure 0.1 Elements of university composition.

An ideal university has the pursuit of excellence in producing and disseminating knowledge as its goal. The soulware concept elaborated in this book encompasses anti-discrimination, openness and transparency, fair competition, equal treatment, and accountability applied to all stakeholders, including universities, government, and society. These principles provide a conducive environment for achieving the goal with significant opportunities for students’ enlightenment. It sharpens both the pen and the sword, whereas the reverse might see them coerced by politics and politicians, making such students more like subcontractors who survive only by following trends. Achieving such goals depends on implementing healthy soulware in higher education, free from politics, government interference and the babbling of populists.

Simply put, the separation of politics and education, academic freedom, and campus autonomy constitute the ideal combination of higher education soulware and the three pillars that drive a great university forward. As shown in Figure 0.2, we can only guarantee academic freedom and campus autonomy by ensuring the separation of politics and education. With clear guidelines, universities should play a leadership role in integrating industry, education and research. To promote innovation, academics should refrain from holding positions simultaneously in industry, government and universities, and neither should the community encourage such practices. Instead, they should seek industry-university-research collaboration.

Higher education across the Strait

For the most part, the higher education system in the US has been the most advanced over the past century, and therefore it deserves to be studied and benchmarked.

Figure 0.2 Three wisdom pillars of higher education soulware.

Much of this book concerns higher education systems, in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland China. Though I have somewhat less personal experience in the Mainland than in Taiwan and Hong Kong, my observations via my visits and other sources and data help provide sufficient evidence for the analysis presented in this book. Compared with the US, the observations and analysis made in this book regarding higher education across the Strait are equally applicable elsewhere, especially in universities in Europe, South Korea and Japan.

Ironically, some people in Taiwan and Hong Kong dissociate themselves politically and even economically from Mainland China. Some think of themselves as not Chinese; however, they turn out to be more Chinese and retain more traits of traditional Chinese culture than they may have realized or are willing to admit. Culturally speaking, they may be more Chinese than people on the Mainland because they did not experience the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) when educational institutions from primary schools to universities were closed and intellectuals were targeted for ideological critique and physical abuse. The Mainland Chinese of that generation were subject to physical and spiritual distortion, the influence of which is deeply rooted. As a result, “uncultured intellectuals” can be seen everywhere.

More objectively, however, there are many similarities among universities across the Strait because they share similar cultural roots. For example, on a somewhat negative side, people in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland China—not only students but also perhaps their parents, and especially our society—fetishize academic degrees, believing that the more the better. They often possess an obsequious admiration for Westerners and Western things, and yet they may not learn from others’ strong points or avoid others’ shortcomings. As a result, the value of academic degrees becomes diluted, people fail to find jobs despite their elevated level of education, and degrees do not reflect actual learning. They may be well-disciplined, but often they lack the spirit of innovation and creativity. They are primarily diligent, energetic, peace-loving, interested in learning, and highly respectful of those with knowledge, degrees, or power. These phenomena, whether positive or negative, are the result of the influence of what happened in modern China and its historical heritage.

One common criticism of Mainland Chinese students is that many need more humanistic literacy. Such students may seem like robots with mechanical memories and lots of skills but with insufficient education in the arts and humanities. On the other hand, students from Hong Kong tend to be too particular about trifles, write poorly in both English and Chinese, and need to be taught about Chinese and world history. In recent years, the youth in Taiwan, confused by history re-written out of political concerns, do not know what to believe anymore, which may be the implications of the entanglement of politics and education, with the most serious situation being in the Mainland, followed by Taiwan and then Hong Kong.

I do not subscribe to a universal way of educating people, given that employment must be the ultimate aim. Therefore, general education, which is promoted in many universities, must be modulated for university students from different disciplines. In some cases, general education may be unwarranted for professional education at the university level and could even backfire.

On the other hand, the primary purpose of education is for students to learn how to serve society rather than just to benefit from what society offers, “dancing around under the moonlight, oblivious of time and place.” (Su Shi,  However, it is common to find people in Hong Kong and Taiwan who are self-centered and keep asking for favors. Universities across the Strait are encouraged to inculcate humanistic literacy studies at college, but it might be too late by then because the students may have already formed their patterns of behavior.

So how do we learn the lessons going forward?

The Absence of Soulware

In Hong Kong or Mainland China, names in official documents are often recorded according to the local romanization system, and sometimes the first and last names are reversed. During my many years in the US, such errors were seldom seen. Americans don’t know the meaning of Chinese names, yet they don’t mix things up because they regard it as impolite to misspell others’ names. In the US, there are all kinds of given names and family names. Such matters are always dealt with carefully. This is Bildung, a manifestation of soulware.

What’s outrageous is that not only is a person’s name or an overseas university’s name misspelled, some people who have communicated with us multiple times and have letterheaded paper at hand that spells CityU, short for City University of Hong Kong, as CUHK (short for The Chinese University of Hong Kong) or even worse, simply as the University of Hong Kong (HKU), crediting the papers written by CityU professors to The University of Hong Kong or The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Sometimes, such mistakes are made by people from a government’s education departments. In the US, people are taught to respect others, while people across the Strait tend to only care about sweeping the snow from their own doorstep, i.e., minding their own business or being more concerned about their own feelings. Due to their poor upbringing, they are more interested in tricks than in seeking justice. This might epitomize some of the reality across the Strait.

In addition to a lack of respect for others, universities in societies across the Strait are incorrectly viewed as political assets to be manipulated and utilized. Even in Taiwan, which has experienced a baptism of democracy and the impact of political disputes, young people still feel lost and disoriented. The Western democratic system may not be perfect, but it offers people ways to secure power for the betterment of society. Unfortunately, the benefits of democratic practices for the people have been overlooked by many across the Strait when they use universities and their students as a platform for promoting political propaganda. More or less controlled by politics, people in societies across the Strait put forward empty slogans and advocate populist actions. What the superior loves, his inferiors will be found to love exceedingly. It is, therefore, not surprising to see young people, knowingly or unknowingly, fall into a cheap cycle of political disputes, willing to be pawns or the hands behind the action.

As a result, they are almost always imitators when dealing with academic issues and major decisions; instead of dealing with genuine concerns, staying busy responding to those issues experienced by local communities or outside practices, when ideally, universities should be leaders for the betterment of society. Among others, using the internet in the classroom is an example; establishing big data research is another. Both were standard industry practices before universities started to pay attention to them.

Many universities lag behind others because they possess poor mind-sets. They should stay away from empty talk and, while following academic autonomy and ethics, implement internationalization wholeheartedly from the outset.

According to Wang Chuanshan  a Chinese essayist, historian, and philosopher of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, “If we put knowledge first, respecting knowledge at the cost of ability, then our ability will be lost.” But the truth is, we don’t know, either! Curing the blindness of the mind and promoting a healthy soul and spirit are the essential points of this book.

With the right soulware and dedication to excellence, what counts is not the number of texts studied, the breadth of books read, the degrees obtained, or the depth of the research carried out. Everything can be overcome in higher education if we adhere to the integration of teaching and research and the separation of politics and education.

Publication of the Book

The Absence of Soulware in Higher Education provides an analysis for promoting healthy soulware in the higher education sectors in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland China from five angles: internationalization of higher education, integration of teaching and research, separation of politics and education, quality and evaluation, and creativity and innovation. In addition to the Introduction, titled “How Should Universities Be Run?”, I offer an analytical account of higher education in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland China in 27 chapters, with examples of best practices from higher education in the US for guidance. We must uphold the four basic requirements in higher education: adhering to procedures, simplifying administration, adopting good advice from all quarters, and leadership accountability. Otherwise, nothing is left but castles in the sky.

The book ends with an Epilogue: “How Does a University Set the Trend?”

The tables and figures were prepared based on the materials listed in “References to Tables and Figures”. Due to time constraints, there may be errors.

Included in the Appendix is “Basic Principle of Academic Governance,” which states that the separation of politics and education is the foundation of academic freedom and campus autonomy.

A previous book was published in Taipei in 2015 under the Chinese title   which was my first attempt to explore the soulware concept. In 2017, a slightly modified version was published by The Commercial Press in Hong Kong, and a version printed in simplified Chinese by Citic Press Group in Beijing under the title  and   respectively. What’s more, the concept of soulware attracted attention in Japan. A Japanese edition under the title  was published by Josai University in Tokyo in 2018. After a lot of updates and enrichments to the 2019 Wiley-Scrivener version, Soulware: The American Way in China’s Higher Education, the new version in Chinese titled  was published to serve as a witness to history.

The Absence of Soulware in Higher Education is written as a reference for the higher education sector. All royalties will be donated to scholarships for university students.

Video Clips of Interviews with Academic Leaders

I have interviewed the presidents of 32 universities worldwide and the principals of six high schools across the Strait and France since 2019 for a video series “Beyond Boundaries: Dialogue with Presidents of World’s Leading Educational Institutions.” We have recorded 36 episodes in total. A 22-minute condensed and a 40-minute full version of each of these high-quality programs have been broadcast each Friday, except during leave breaks, on the CityU website since March 2022 and then at Master-Insight.com. From January 2023, Hong Kong Cable Television has broadcast ten edited interview episodes, each featuring conversations with two university presidents. These interviews caught the attention of Times Higher Education (THE), which uniquely introduced each episode with quite an exceptional treatment. As of May 1, 2023, THE has generated over 2.2 million social media impressions and attracted more than 13,000 visits to the microsite across all 32 episodes. THE has leveraged the reach of its e-newsletters to showcase the series to a global audience of over 135,000 academics and administrators.

The university presidents and high school principals invited for the interviews come from institutions either with a long history and having passed through many setbacks or leading institutions known for their outstanding achievements, or both. Not only do these pioneering interviews in the higher education circle allow us to witness the teaching, research and management philosophy of top universities in the East and West, but they also represent the prevailing concepts of teaching and research as well as governance and reinforce the points illustrated in this book, for example, the “integration of teaching and research” and the “separation of politics and education”, thereby enriching the content of this book and endorsing its arguments.

Figure 0.3 shows the universities and schools in South Asia, East Asia, the Caucasus, Europe, North America, the Middle East, South Africa, Australia and other places whose presidents or principals have been interviewed. Most of the talks were conducted face-to-face, and a few were conducted on Zoom due to quarantine restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Higher education must keep pace with the times. The interviews elaborate on the arguments presented in this book and can be used as a reference

Please browse the CityU website, through the QR code in Figure 0.4, to access the video series “Beyond Boundaries” for my interviews with 36 presidents and principals.

Figure 0.3 Geographical locations of the 36 universities and high schools whose presidents and principals were featured in the videos.

Figure 0.4 The QR codes to access (a) the video series “Beyond Boundaries”, featuring interviews with university presidents and high school principals; (b) ten edited interview episodes broadcast by Hong Kong Cable Television.

Due to COVID-19 and my own health, the project was not completed by the end of 2022 or before my retirement as CityU president in spring 2023 as scheduled. It was especially disappointing not to conduct interviews with the presidents of the following well-regarded institutions: the University of Helsinki, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, McGill University, National Taiwan University, Seoul National University, the University of Sydney and Tsinghua University.

The Right Way

“Some things are essential, and others are incidental. For every issue, there are an end and a beginning. Knowing what is first and what is last, we will be close to the Way” (Great Learning). There is no Way without the soul; there is no soul without the Way. Both the “integration of teaching and research” and the “separation of politics and education” are the right Way for higher education. If you still feel perplexed about the Way, then soulware is absent.

Way KuoCity University of Hong KongHong Kong Institute for Advanced StudyJune 2023

List of Figures and Tables

Figures

Figure 0.1

Elements of university composition.

Figure 0.2

Three wisdom pillars of higher education soulware.

Figure 0.3

Geographical locations of the 36 universities and high schools whose presidents and principals were featured in the videos.

Figure 0.4

The QR codes to access (a) the video series “Beyond Boundaries”, featuring interviews with university presidents and high school principals; (b) ten edited interview episodes broadcast by Hong Kong Cable Television.

Figure 3.1

University enrollment rate in the US, Mainland China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Figure 3.2

Number of newborn babies in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland China (1950 to 2021).

Figure 3.3

Birth rates in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland China (1950 to 2021).

Figure 20.1

Percentage of starting salary of university graduates to GDP per capita.

Figure 20.2

Percentage of the typical annual salary of assistant professors to GDP per capita.

Figure 20.3

Percentage of student tuition to GDP per capita.

Figure V.1

R&D investment in the US, Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Japan.

Figure 23.1

The One Health concept.

Tables

Table 0.1

Students from Mainland China studying in the US (2009–2020).

Table 17.1

Annual fatalities in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Mainland China and the US over the indicated years.

Table 18.1

Number of universities ranked in top 100 in the US, the UK, Mainland China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Israel and Others.

Table 18.2

Number of universities in the world’s top 100 with the top 2% of scholars in the US, the UK, Japan, Mainland China, Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Israel and others; and number of universities in the world’s top 100 with “the ratio of top 2% to total number of professors in the university.”

Table 20.1

Comparison of four Asian Tigers.

Table 24.1

Number of US utility patents granted to universities in the US, the UK, Mainland China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and others.

Table 25.1

Academic background of CEOs in the US, Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Acknowledgments

The Forewords for Soulware: The American Way in China’s Higher Education were written by G. P. “Bud” Peterson, President of Georgia Institute of Technology (2009–2019); Yong Qiu, President of Tsinghua University in Beijing (2015–2022); and Frank H. Shu, President of National Tsing Hua University at Hsinchu (2002–2006).

The book has been reviewed by Mr. Longgen Chen, Mr. Michael Gibb, Dr. Eva Lui, Dr. K F Tam and Dr. Kevin Downing of CityU.

I am indebted to Professor Loren Crabtree, former Chancellor of the University of Tennessee; Professor Mike Crow, President of Arizona State University; Professor Mike Kotlikoff, Provost of Cornell University; and Professor Chin-Chuan Lee and Professor Longxi Zhang of CityU for their input during the writing process.

A 40-minute video clip of each of the interviews that I conducted with university presidents and high school principals between 2019 and 2022 was produced by a team of five led by Professor Joe He of CityU, who traveled a long distance with me, designing, editing, and completing the final production, with coordination handled by Ms. Pauline Chan of CityU. The ten edited interview excerpts were produced by him and his team. The final product confirmed that if there is a will guided by the right soulware, there is a way.

In addition, I have been invited in the last few years to deliver speeches on education and science and technology by over 100 universities, high schools and academic institutions across the Strait, as well as by international forums in the US, Japan, Australia and Europe. These include:

Universities: The Chinese University of Hong Kong, CityU, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; National Taiwan University, National Tsing Hua University, National Chiao Tung University, National Cheng Kung University, National Chengchi University, Asia University, China Medical University, National Sun Yat-sen University, Tamkang University; Peking University, Tsinghua University, Zhejiang University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Northwest University, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Fudan University, Beihang University, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Harbin Institute of Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences;

High schools: Several dozen high schools in Hong Kong; Taipei Municipal Chiankuo High School, Taipei First Girls’ High School, Tainan First Senior High School, Taichung First Senior High School, Municipal Kaohsiung Girls’ Senior High School, Taipei Jingmei Girls High School, St. Viator Catholic High School, National Hualien Girls’ Senior High School; Beijing No. 4 High School, Hengshui High School, Hebei, Yanyuan Nationality Middle School, Sichuan; Robert College in Turkey;

Professional organizations: Ministry of Education, Taiwan, Republic of China, National Science and Technology Museum, Chinese Institute of Industrial Engineers, Chinese Management Association, Institute of Engineering Education Taiwan; The Hong Kong Jockey Club, The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups, Master Insight Media, University of Chicago Centre in Hong Kong, CityU Eminence Society, Hong Kong Professionals and Senior Executives Association, Hong Kong College of Radiologists, Tsinghua Alumni Association of Hong Kong, The Federation of Hong Kong Writers, Asia Pacific Taiwan Federation of Industry and Commerce, Rotary International, Global Institute For Tomorrow (GIFT), 2021 Hong Kong Book Fair; Chinese Academy of Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, The Forum by Phoenix TV, China Association for Quality, Systems Engineering Society of China, Annual Meeting of Institute of Quality & Reliability of Tsinghua University; Asia-Pacific International Symposium on Advanced Reliability and Maintenance, Eurasian Conference RISK.

Organizations outside the areas across the Strait: The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration; Iowa State University, DIALOGUE360 live TV in San Francisco, Texas A&M University, The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, The Electrochemical Society Meeting in New Orleans, US; Tsing Hua Entrepreneur Network; North America Federation of Tsinghua Alumni Associations; PARIS VI (University of Pierre & Marie Curie), Paris, France; Indian Institute of Technology Bombay; IEEE NSW Section held at The University of Sydney, Australia; Atomic Energy Society of Japan, Yokohama, Japan; Cross-Strait University President Forum 2015 in Macau.

This book was partially written by adapting speeches delivered on the above occasions. Some of my views were reported in newspapers and magazines, such as Hong Kong Economic Journal, Ming Pao Daily, Sing Tao Daily, Hong Kong Economic Journal Monthly, Ming Pao Monthly, Yazhou Zhoukan, East Week, Hong Kong Economic Times, Master Insight and South China Morning Post in Hong Kong; Global Views Monthly, ChinaTimes, United Daily News, Economic Daily News, Management Science Newsletter and The Storm Media in Taiwan; and in internal publications of universities and institutions in Mainland China; as well as editorials for IEEE Transactions on Reliability. Interviews have been conducted by US, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland China media corporations such as TVB, Bloomberg, Evaluation Bimonthly by TWAEA, Journal of General Education, Business Weekly, iFeng Century Forum, NetEase, Sohu, People’s Daily Online, Asia-Pacific Satellite TV, The New York Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Times Higher Education, among others.

The above-mentioned people, interviews, professional societies, schools and institutions have provided me with precious opportunities and assisted me in authoring the book. I would like to express my gratitude to them all.

Introduction

How Should Universities Be Run?

It is well acknowledged that Chinese culture pays special attention to education. But how has education been viewed and how modern is the current practice of education in Chinese societies? How is it going to develop further? And to what extent has the modernization of Chinese higher education been developed?

In ancient times, “Chinese” was more of a cultural concept than a racially or ethnically defined notion, but at the same time, there was the differentiation of hua, meaning civilized Chinese, and yi, meaning barbarians outside central China and a different race. Such differentiation between hua and yi has been embedded in the mind of the Chinese for a long time, even when China was economically and politically weak. Even today, we still hear people in Hong Kong use the slang gweilo and gweipo (meaning literally “ghost/devil men or women”) to refer to white men and women, respectively. In Taiwan, in addition to a small sub-group of the non-Han population of Taiwanese native inhabitants who have inhabited the island for millennia, there are the ethnic Hoklo or Hakka immigrants from southern Fujian province and people who migrated to Taiwan after 1949 from Mainland China and their descendants, and the newly naturalized residents in recent years.

In addition to the southern culture in Hong Kong and Taiwan that discriminates against people from specific provinces, there are all kinds of discrimination cases on their campuses. Since they are not serious enough to be considered violations of the law, little attention has been paid to them, or they have simply been ignored. Discrimination is common in the US as well, but racial, sex and age discrimination are strictly prohibited. If similar cases should happen at American universities, they are dealt with as serious matters, and the responsible party will face dire consequences.

In this part of the world, however, it is not rare to see people poking fun at foreigners, mocking foreign customs, or joking about foreign names or faces. There was once even a university president in Hong Kong who laughed at someone’s foreign-sounding name. Because it was not viewed as a big issue, no one demanded an apology. This not only shows bad taste and a lack of sensitivity among the Chinese but also a lack of respect for other people and their identities.

People of the world hope to learn from advanced civilizations, understand multiple cultures, make effective use of or update their cultural resources and, at the same time, create their own brand. Measured by higher education standards, on many occasions, the United States seems to be hua (or the civilized Chinese), while the three territories across the Strait become yi (or barbarians)! How did this happen?

Current Status of American Higher Education

Campus autonomy is the essence of American higher education. With respect to the professional management of higher education, any improvements needed in teaching and research at universities should be left to the professors rather than outsiders, with strategic measures that encourage healthy and open competition so that universities can make contributions to society through academic research.

American colleges and universities excel; American citizens enjoy opportunities to receive a high-quality education. They have been at the top for many years, which is unprecedented in human history. Nowadays, even some European universities with a long history are trying to imitate the successful practice of American universities. But the popularization of higher education should not be achieved at the cost of reducing the quality of higher education and degrees. Even though everyone can be educated, success depends on personal effort. There is no guarantee of getting a degree. In this regard, the American higher education system is the best and worth emulating. In addition to the elite private educational institutions widely known to the public across the Strait, the state universities and colleges in the US may be more admirable, but they are often neglected by people worldwide.

Of course, American higher education is not perfect and is continuously adjusting and improving. Although American universities adopt strict quality assurance when granting degrees, higher education has been under general attack due to cuts to state-funded public universities, expensive tuition and fees of private universities, and regular tuition increases, which are different from the practice at European universities. Moreover, there are many success stories concerning people around the world, including those in the US, who never went to college or only had limited further education. This shows that global higher education is still inadequate, and so we should consider more adaptable, inclusive and innovative solutions.

In recent years, US college enrollments have declined due to fewer high school graduates. Increasingly four-year universities actively recruit overseas students to offset falling numbers of domestic students. However, with fierce competition from the UK, Australia and New Zealand, as well as from educational institutions in Mainland China, the enrollment of overseas students in the US also started dropping.

According to a research report by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, American colleges and universities experienced the largest drop in enrollments in half a century in 2021. The number of undergraduate enrollments declined for two consecutive years. The number of freshmen in 2021 was down 6.6% from 2020. International undergraduate enrollments continued to decline as well. The 8.2% drop in 2021 followed the previous year’s 12% year-over-year decline. The number of international graduate students grew by 13.1% after a 7.8% decline in the fall of 2020. Under the influence of free-market competition and the COVID-19 pandemic, some small private universities are on the brink of bankruptcy.

Trump, Roosevelt vs Biden: A Historical Overview

Trump

According to a report on CNN, former US President Donald Trump characterized Chinese students in the US as spies during a private dinner with corporate executives in New Jersey on August 7, 2018. Apart from the impact on international unity and historical perspectives, such careless words, if they were in fact uttered, endanger both Chinese students and US society at large, which is lamentable.

Whether or not influenced by Trump, Mainland China was no longer on the list of countries for the 2018/19 admission cycle, during which an optional interview program was offered by Stanford University, after Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). That means applicants from the Chinese Mainland interested in applying to these two universities did not have an interview opportunity.

Developments in the US-China trade war, and the investigation of researchers affiliated with the Thousand Talents plan, a scheme to attract Chinese scientists and entrepreneurs back to Mainland China mostly for part-time appointments, have slowed academic advancement and technological modernization in China and ultimately hurt China-US scientific cooperation. This is based on news published in Nature on October 24, 2018, in an article titled “China hides identities of top scientific recruits amidst growing US scrutiny.” By the same token, Taiwan’s Yushan Talents scheme, like Mainland China’s Thousand Talents scheme, could be in jeopardy because it was being questioned by the US.

Upon hearing all these news stories, people might wonder why Chinese students go to study in America in the first place and what they have brought to these societies over the years. Do we know what has happened historically in Sino-American student exchange?

Roosevelt

In 1906, Edmund J. James, the fifth president of the University of Illinois, proposed that the US establish scholarships enabling Chinese students to study in America. “The nation which succeeds in educating the young Chinese of the present generation will be the nation which for a given expenditure of effort will reap the largest possible returns in moral, intellectual and commercial influence,” James wrote to US President Theodore Roosevelt at the time.1

Instead of mimicking those 19th-century imperialists, who reaped huge financial gains from old China, Roosevelt’s administration accepted the idea of establishing the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program. Roosevelt believed such a program could maximize American profits by bridging China with American culture and traditions. In 1908, the US Congress passed a bill endorsing Roosevelt’s vision, which led to the establishment in 1911 of a preparatory school in Beijing for young Chinese who would later pursue studies at American universities. The school was named Tsinghua College (Tsinghua Xuetang) and would use half of the Boxer Indemnity to support Chinese students studying in the United States.

The Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program was a milestone for Chinese students wishing to study at US institutions of higher learning, and it set the scene for The American Way in China’s Higher Education. Other than during the war years in the 20th century, studying in the US has been the mainstream for Chinese students going overseas. The number of Chinese students in the US set an all-time high in the 2019/20 academic year, reaching 372,532. Among them, 55,661 were PhD students and 28,779 high school students. China also remained the largest source of international students in the US for the tenth consecutive year. Table 0.1 outlines the number of Chinese students studying in the US over the last 12 years.

In addition to bringing back to China the American way in education and technology development, Mainland Chinese students, as well as students from the three territories across the Strait, add value to American campuses and societies through the diversity of their perspectives, which American high-tech industries and national laboratories know full well. The impact of the Tsinghua program and other extended programs on China and the US has been much greater than either James or Roosevelt could have imagined.

The history of Chinese immigration to the US can be traced to as early as over 170 years ago, from the railway workers who contributed to building the first railway on the North American continent in the mid-19th century to the government-sponsored overseas students around the 19th and 20th centuries, and the university, high school and primary school students studying in the US, investors, high-tech talents or people who choose to retire in the US because of their naturalized children. By 2021, there were approximately 5.5 million ethnic Chinese in the US (including those from Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and Southeast Asia). Among them, 54% had at least a bachelor’s degree, 51% were engaged in professional and managerial work, 27% had a master’s degree, whereas only around 13% of immigrants from other countries had a master’s degree. Among the local residents, 12% had a master’s degree.

Table 0.1 Students from Mainland China studying in the US (2009–2020).

Year

Students from China studying in the US

% change over the previous year

2020/21

317,299

-14.8

2019/20

372,532

0.8

2018/19

369,548

1.7

2017/18

363,341

3.6

2016/17

350,755

6.8

2015/16

328,547

8.1

2014/15

304,040

10.8

2013/14

274,439

16.5

2012/13

235,597

21.4

2011/12

194,029

23.1

2010/11

157,558

23.5

2009/10

127,628

---

Note: According to the Wall Street Journal, the number of student visas issued by the US to Mainland citizens in the first half of 2022 was reduced by 50% compared to the same period in 2019 due to US-China tensions and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chinese students also bring honor and pride to America. One such example is that eight Chinese-American Nobel laureates in physics and chemistry studied and did their research in the States. In addition, about 200 Chinese Americans are members of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Medicine. Numerous Chinese Americans who work in national laboratories, high-tech companies and higher education institutions have contributed economically, technologically, and scientifically over the past few decades, promoting those American values cherished in China and elsewhere in the world. The top three regions with the largest distribution of prominent Chinese scientific and technological talents in the US are Silicon Valley in California, Greater New York, and Greater Boston. Of course, we should also include the outstanding Chinese in arts, sports, and so forth who add to the brilliance of the US.

Chinese culture has enriched, and will continue to enrich, life in America, helping to make the US a more internationalized country. Disparaging an entire population or any ethnic group is wrong-headed and un-American. James’ remarks about educating young Chinese in America had held true for more than 100 years until the Trump period when he complicated the matter. An overall view of the situation for the US and China shows that the world benefits when it is united; it suffers when divided. For that reason, Roosevelt’s vision to bridge China with American culture and traditions should be enhanced instead of diminished. We should also bridge the US with Chinese culture and traditions to make this a better world.

Biden