Recently, the budgets for revenues and expenditures of 75 universities in China directly administrated by the Ministry of Education have been unveiled one by one. Accordingly, seven universities' annual budgets surpass RMB 10 billion, among which Tsinghua University accounts for RMB 26.9 billion, ahead of others. Compares with RMB 23.3 billion in 2017, it is reported that this is the second time that Tsinghua's annual budget exceeds RMB 20 billion with year-on-year growth of 15.47%. Other universities with a total budget over RMB 10 billion are as follows: Zhejiang University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Sun Yat-sen University, Tongji University, Peking University and Fudan University.
The reports of various media indicate that to determine the universities are rich or not, one has to see where they are located. The eight universities with budgets ranking top-ten nationwide are located at the eastern China, and such universities enjoy the regional advantages, while another two universities in the top-ten list are Wuhan University and Huazhong University of Science and Technology, located at mid-west of China. But it is worth noting that the growth of the budgets of universities located at the mid-west has been quite obvious. For instance, in 2018, the total annual budgets of Lanzhou University have risen 21.99% to RMB 3.797 billion, while Xi 'an University of Electronic Science and Technology increases to 32.03% and Chang'an University to 31.03% last year.
Although the top-ten are mainly comprehensive universities, generally speaking, the budgets of science and technology universities have increased much more compare with liberal arts ones. The last 10 of the ranking are all liberal arts universities. However, the science and technology universities generally rank in the upper and middle reach. This indicates that Chinese universities are still 'demand-oriented'; they are being led by, rather than leading social development; even some universities that have the potentials to be leaders are not doing well. In parallel comparison with the budgets last year, the budgets of 65 universities in 2018 significantly increased except for 10 with negative growth. However, the budgets of Peking University and Tianjin University have shrunken severely. The total budget of the former is RMB 12.554 billion, decreasing 35%, or RMB 6.8 billion. The total budgets of the latter ranked sixth, being RMB 11.349 billion among over-ten-million budget list of 2017, while only reaches RMB 8.288 billion, short of approximately RMB 3 billion.
Universities with high rates of growth include Tongji University, Beijing University of Chemical industry, Shanghai International Studies University, Central Academy of Music, China Ocean University, Jiangnan University, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Xi 'an University of Electronic Science and Technology and Chang'an University, all of which are mostly strong in professional fields with growth rate of more than 30%.
These universities, without doubt, are the richer ones. But where does the money come from?
Based on the sources of income, the university revenue is mainly from financial allocations, last year's carry-forward, revenues from undertakings, operating income and others. Usually, financial allocations are the major fund pool for universities. Take Lanzhou University as an example; its budget revenue reaches RMB 2.71 billion, among which financial allocations and undertaking revenues are RMB 1.72 billion and RMB 760 million respectively, accounting for 63.47% and 28.04% of the overall income. Similarly, of Shandong University handles RMB 2.88 billion from the financial allocations, accounting for 44.85% of its income. And Beijing Normal University's allocations account for 42.19% of the budget.
However, in recent years, new trends have come into being. Undertaking revenues have been gradually dominant in universities, especially for top ones. The revenue budget of Tsinghua University is RMB 19.674 billion, among which the general public budget allocations accounts for 25.84%, and RMB 10.37 billion undertaking revenue occupies 52.71% of the income budget. Likewise, the income of Shanghai Jiao Tong University amounts to RMB 11.191 billion this year, of which the general public budget allocation accounted for 29%; the undertaking revenues were RMB 5.65 billion, taking up 50% of the annual incomes. In addition to the undertaking revenue, operating income in some cases also exists. The operating income is derived from non-independent accounting activities with the exception of academic and auxiliary activities at universities. For instance, Peking University possesses operating income of RMB 19.08 million, and Beijing Normal University has RMB 1.5 million.
How do these universities spend the money? The expenditure of universities are generally spent in fields ranging from education, science and technology, culture and sports, media, housing security, and so on. Among these, educational expenditure is the most vital one, taking up the largest proportion. The educational expenditures of Renmin University of China and Jilin University are RMB 4.879 billion and RMB 6005 million respectively, accounting for 96.72% and 95.22% of the total. In addition to educational expenditure, the housing issue of faculty, especially young lectures, is also catching the eyes of the public. A large number of universities have housing security budgets worth more than RMB 100 million, among which Shandong University, Beijing University, and Tsinghua University enjoy that of RMB 470 million, RMB 326 million, and RMB 318 million respectively.
Since 2013, the universities administrated by the Ministry of Education have started to reveal the budgets of departments to the public. Comparing with the revealed budget of departments at all levels of central and local governments of China, the budget of the universities is less detailed, with the 'three funds' (official reception fee, vehicle purchasing and maintenance fee, and business trip expenses) and detailed items not yet to be present. It is noteworthy that 'other incomes' of the universities are quite large, though the information is not disclosed in detail. A small number of universities classify the donation income as 'other incomes' with exact numbers. According to explanations by these universities, 'other incomes' consist of investment income, interest income of bank deposit, rental income, donation revenue, inventory surplus income and so forth, excluding financial appropriations, undertaking revenues and operating incomes.
A few of universities classify donation income as 'other incomes'. Among RMB 2.229 billion of the 'other incomes' of Peking University, donation income takes up RMB 134 million; The 'other incomes' of Xiamen University account for RMB 1.062 billion, among which donation incomes are as much as RMB 100 million; Renmin University of China has RMB 573 million as 'other incomes', of which RMB 70 million are donation. On the 107th anniversary of Tsinghua University, Liu Qiangdong who is Chairman and CEO of Jingdong Group, and his wife Zhang Zetian announced a donation at RMB 200 million to facilitate the construction and development of the Schwarzman College, Student Global Competency Development Guidance Center, quantum computing, AI research, supply chain and logistics, and so on. It is reported that this is not the first time that Jingdong have donated in the field of education. To celebrate the 80th anniversary of Renmin University of China, it was in June last year that Liu Qiangdong announced to offer RMB 300 million and Jingdong Fund set up to promote technological and theoretical research, as well as disciplinary improvement.
Somewhat interestingly, Baidu also donated RMB 660 million to Peking University for the celebration of its 120th anniversary. Robin Li, Founder of Baidu accompanied by his wife Melissa Ma, returned to his alma mater Peking University, declaring to endow RMB 660 million (including part of equivalent assets) to the university and established the 'PKU-Baidu Fund' for the research and exploration of artificial intelligence and other academic disciplines. This sum of donation broke a historical record of donation set by Alumni in Peking University. In 2009, Robin Li also donated RMB 10 million and establishment of the 'Robin Li Return Fund' to support the education of Peking University.
In recent days, it becomes popular for Internet entrepreneurs to give back to their alma mater, and so did a number of Internet giants. For instance, dating back to 2008, on the 25th anniversary of Shenzhen University, Ma Huateng donated RMB 10 million under his own name. Later in 2012, Lei Jun, the founder and CEO of Xiaomi Technology, donated RMB 10 million to Wuhan University to establish the 'Lei Jun Scholarship' for the cultivation of outstanding students in his alma mater. One year later, Ma Huateng together with four Founders of Tencent endowed RMB 30 million on the 30th anniversary of his alma mater. Then in 2015, Jack Ma declared a donation of RMB 100 million to Hangzhou Normal University, establishing the Jack Ma Hangzhou Normal University Education Fund. In 2016, Lei Jun once again donated RMB 99.99999 million to Wuhan University for the construction of the Science and Technology Building. And in October 2017, Jack Ma donated RMB 50 million to Hangzhou Normal University to build together the Alibaba Business College with his alma mater.
Before the reform and opening-up, most of the donors to Mainland universities were foreign entrepreneurs. Currently, the donors have been local Chinese entrepreneurs. This trend is closely related to the huge financial resources that the new economy aggregated, making the Chinese universities even richer than banking industry. In addition, the educational background gained by those entrepreneurs might also be one of the crucial factors influencing the donation. It seems that China's real estate industry show little interest in endowment for universities. Instead, they prefer to purchase a football team and alike, just looking on.
With the list of rich universities in China being exposed, more about university wealth will be learned.
