How China's universities fuel tech growth

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The notion of someone working both as an academic and a businessman is not unique to China. Years ago, Guang worked for his professor at MIT. But Tsinghua is starting to clamp down on the number of academics who are allowed to run their own companies and teach at the university.

Credit: Dan Ilett

Zhejiang University Ph.D. student
Li Na

"You're now seeing a very different trend between the universities," Cheng said. "Tsinghua, for example, does not encourage professors to establish their own company anymore. That's because two years ago, professors founded their own companies and were living life with dual identities. They'd teach in the morning, be a CEO for a lunch, and (chief technology officer) in the evening in the labs."

"Some of them would earn more than 10,000 (yuan, about $1,250) a month. That's more than a teaching salary. Tsinghua thought that was not a good thing, so they said, 'You can start your own company, but you must resign.' But at Zhejiang University (a big university in Hangzhou province), they still encourage people to run their own business. But it's much bigger than Tsinghua," Cheng added.

Zhejiang University has 44,151 full-time students. In the information science faculty, there are 13 postdoctoral researchers, 329 Ph.D. students, 956 masters students and 2,887 full-time undergraduates.

One of those Ph.D. students is Li Na, who has been working as an intern at Microsoft's Research Center since 2004. "I'm a research assistant here," she said. "There's an agreement between Microsoft and universities, so we can extend the holidays and work longer."

Over the past five years, Microsoft has taken in 2,000 interns from some of the best universities in Asia, mostly in China. Internships are popular in China, as they work as a way for universities to strengthen their ties with industry.

Because of her efforts, Li Na was invited to visit Bill Gates' house for an annual Microsoft barbeque. She believes she wouldn't have had the same opportunities 10 years ago.

"There are many experts here from overseas," she said. "I can learn a lot from working with them or attending seminars."

She went on to underline the changes in technology in China in recent years, saying: "I entered university in 1997. At that time, there was no computer in our dormitory. We didn't know about the Internet. After one year, we had a computer and had a dial-up connection. Now we have broadband. But at that time, I couldn't imagine the current situation in China."

Dan Ilett reported from China for Silicon.com in London.