A list of "the richest professors in China" was published online recently and touched off a widespread reaction. The following are media excerpts:

 

Beijing News: We do not have to worry about the objectiveness of the list but the signals it sends out should be watched. For example, the professors on the list almost all have some other business titles. How they gained the different titles deserves attention.

 

In a case disclosed recently in Tianjin, the president of Yungong Group affiliated with Nankai University, formerly a teacher in the school, fled the country after being investigated for his involvement in the misuse of about 400 million yuan (US$51.61 million) in company funds. In the same city the former president of Tianjin University was expelled from the National People's Congress last November for financial misconduct causing the loss of more than 37.5 million yuan (US$4.84 million) to the university.

 

It is common to see professors holding positions in companies affiliated with their schools. This situation should not be ignored when we stress the separation between government and companies.

 

It is good to have teachers who gain the title of professor through their academic achievements and become rich because of their business abilities. But it is ironic for people to hold the title of professor because of their wealth or become rich professors through company rewards.

 

The exchange of identities between professors and the rich needs to be monitored.

 

Yanzhao Metropolis Daily: The rich list answers why China's academic world faces a predicament.

 

The list has aroused different comments on the Internet. Some students who are going for graduate studies even take it as a guide in choosing their instructors.

 

It is not rare to see rich lists today but why doesn't this rich professor list delight the public? It is probably not because of jealousy. When Professor Yuan Longping received the State's top award for his contribution to science and technology and 5 million yuan (US$645,328), no one thought it was excessive. But the doubts people cast on the list of the country's richest professors is more a warning on unsatisfactory academic phenomena in China.

 

What concerns people are whether the fat pockets of the professors can survive the test of ethics.

 

In the age of the knowledge economy, society rewards professors with relatively good remuneration. It is normal that some professors should be rich but definitely abnormal when professors only pursue economic gains.

 

When there is no list that shows the academic achievements of professors, the rich list is not praiseworthy.

 

Qilu Evening News: Some rich professors have not obeyed the rules of the game and have made their fortune by dishonest means.

 

Years ago professors were often poor and stood aloof from worldly strife. People of wealth and professors are like parallel lines that never meet. But today knowledge is capital that is increasingly powerful. Professors can become wealthy while business people can stand on the stages of universities. There is no need to look at the rich professor list with rose-colored glasses.

 

But nowadays many graduate students complain that it is hard to speak with their professors or that they have to work for the professors with meager payments. Others wonder how such money-grubbing teachers can be paragons of virtue and learning. They complain about the decline of teachers' ethics. And the society and State are paying for wasted research funds and declining academic levels.

 

(China Daily February 8, 2007)