Author | Intern of China Science Daily Meng Lingxiao
Edit | He Tao
Recently, universities directly under the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology have successively announced the 2022 department budget reports. Tsinghua University ranked first in the domestic university funding list with about 36.211 billion yuan, Zhejiang University ranked second with about 26.103 billion yuan, and Peking University ranked third with about 21.929 billion yuan.
According to the data currently released, Tsinghua University's budget funds are far ahead and it is still the only university in the country with a budget of more than 30 billion yuan, which is 10.108 billion yuan higher than Zhejiang University, which ranks second. The difference is equivalent to the annual budget of Jilin University (about 10.393 billion yuan) and Beijing Normal University (about 9.897 billion yuan).
At the same time, Tsinghua University's budget funding has increased significantly, an increase of 4.483 billion yuan compared with 31.728 billion yuan in 2021; second-ranked Zhejiang University's budget funding has also been greatly improved, an increase of 3.287 billion yuan compared with 22.816 billion yuan in 2021. Surprisingly, Peking University's budget funds fell by 200 million yuan compared with 22.134 billion yuan in 2021. As a result, the gap in budget funds between Peking University and Zhejiang University has suddenly widened, and the budget funds difference between the two has rapidly expanded from 682 million in 2021 to 4.174 billion.
2022 TOP 3 of the budget for universities directly under the Ministry of Education (Photo source: China Education Online)
College funds have increased year by year, but there are huge differences between schools. So, where does the money from colleges and universities come from? Does the annual budget that costs tens of billions rely on the support of financial appropriations or the ability of universities to operate independently?
carried forward 44% last year, can’t the money be spent in colleges and universities?
In the annual budget of colleges and universities, a major source of funds is carried forward last year.
The so-called "carry-over" refers to funds that have been implemented in previous years but have not been completed and still need to continue to use in accordance with the original prescribed purposes this year. In layman's terms, it's the money that was not spent in the previous year's budget.
The 2022 revenue and expenditure budget of the three schools shows that Tsinghua University carried forward about 10.63 billion yuan last year, Zhejiang University carried forward about 10.089 billion yuan last year, and Peking University carried forward about 5.628 billion yuan last year. Taking Zhejiang University as an example, the carry-over funds in 2022 accounted for almost 44.22% of the total budget of 22.816 billion yuan of the previous year.
The budget has not been spent nearly half. Is this normal?
In fact, the previous year's carry-over funds in the budget are directly related to the completion cycle of scientific research projects. Taking the National Social Science Foundation project in 2022 as an example, the completion time limit for basic theoretical research is generally 3-5 years, and the completion time limit for applied countermeasures research is generally 2-3 years. Therefore, it is difficult to settle the budget implementation of scientific research funds and special funds in that year.
Director of the Finance and Taxation Law Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law believes that high carry-over funds reflect at least two problems: one is that the budget is not scientific enough or that the budget implementation process encounters policy bottlenecks and other problems; the other is that the unreasonable scientific research funding management system has caused difficulties in scientific research funding expenditure.
fiscal appropriations, how much does it take?
In addition to the funds carried forward in the previous year, the income subjects of colleges and universities usually include four incomes, namely general public budget allocation, government fund budget allocation, business income and other income.
General public budget allocation refers to various financial appropriations obtained by higher education institutions from the financial departments at the same level in that year, including fiscal education appropriations , fiscal scientific research appropriations and other fiscal appropriations. In Tsinghua University's revenue budget this year, the general public budget allocated about 5.732 billion yuan, accounting for 22.41% of the revenue budget; in Zhejiang University's revenue budget this year, the general public budget allocated income was about 4.159 billion yuan, accounting for 25.97%; in Peking University's revenue budget this year, the general public budget allocated income was about 5.171 billion yuan, accounting for 32.30%.
It can be found that this part of the direct financial allocation is one of the key sources of university income, accounting for more than one-fifth of the top three universities in the budget.However, compared with the high total budget, the general public budget allocations listed by universities do not differ much.
The second government fund budget allocation is usually very small in the income budget of colleges and universities. For example, Peking University's government fund budget allocation revenue this year was 1.155 million yuan, accounting for 0.01%; Tsinghua University's government fund budget allocation this year was 63.625 million yuan, accounting for 0.25% of the income budget.
Therefore, government fund budget allocation is not the main source of budget revenue for colleges and universities.
Money "earned" by universities themselves
What really causes the difference in college funding is the money "earned" by universities themselves. The third business income of the subject is closely related to university researchers. A freshman in college pays tuition and accommodation fees for his alma mater every year, which are all the school's education income. The scientific research projects that many teachers and students have participated in may bring income to universities in terms of undertaking scientific research projects, carrying out scientific research collaboration, and conducting scientific and technological consulting.
or above education income and scientific research income together constitute the business income in the college income subjects. Among the top three universities in this year's university budget, Tsinghua University's career income was about 13.72 billion yuan, accounting for 53.65% of the revenue budget, Zhejiang University's career income was about 9.15 billion yuan, accounting for 57.14%; Peking University's career income was about 7.122 billion yuan, accounting for 44.48%.
Regarding the income from colleges and universities, Chen Zhiwen, editor-in-chief of China Education Online, once wrote an article to comment: "This part of the income comes from colleges and universities, and is earned by the colleges and universities themselves, not paid by anyone. The differences in funds from famous universities are reflected in this regard." The fourth other income of
mainly refers to the income obtained by colleges and universities except the above income, mainly including investment income, donation income, rental income, bank deposits, interest income, cash profit income, etc.
In this part of the income, the operating capabilities of colleges and universities cannot be underestimated. In March last year, Li Yongxin, founder of Zhonggong Education Group, donated 1 billion yuan to Peking University . This is the largest individual donation since the founding of Peking University and the largest alumni donation.
Previously, the national third-party university evaluation agency iReshen Alumni Association released the 2021 Alumni Association China University Alumni Donation Ranking. Tsinghua University and Peking University have received a total of 4.72 billion yuan and 4.197 billion yuan donations respectively, and Zhejiang University has received 2.377 billion yuan of donations, ranking fourth.
Today, it is not easy for higher education to maintain growth in the economic situation. The increasing budget funds year by year are also given more expectations that benefit front-line teaching and research work. As stated in the annual goal column of Peking University’s project benefit target table: Provide stronger support for school teaching and research work and give back to society.
Swipe up to view reference
https://www.tsinghua.edu.cn/info/1119/93507.html
https://www.zju.edu.cn/xxgk/17961/list.
https://xxgk.pku.edu.cn/gksx/cwzcsf/cwys/index.
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/3JMk9NrFEagPhO1tjB-ENg
https://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-505548-978062.html
http://www.nopss.gov.cn/n1/2022/0208/c431038-32347813.html
https://news.sciencenet.cn/htmlnews/2022/1/472582.shtml
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