Announced by the Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences as a premiere and a “bang” – and now it has come under criticism: the institution in Ostwestfalen-Lippe announced a few weeks ago that it would be the first foreign institution to found an independent university in the People’s Republic of China.
However, the new university called Hainan Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences (BiUH) is met with skepticism in the Federal Ministry of Research.
Initially 140 students from twelve provinces
According to Bielefeld University – the former university of applied sciences was renamed “Bielefeld University – University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSBI)” in April 2023 – up to 12,000 students are expected to complete their bachelor’s and master’s degrees on the island of Hainan in the long term.
Teaching will begin this winter semester with initially 140 students from twelve Chinese provinces on a transitional campus – in the Computer Science and Digital Technologies courses. Electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, mechatronics or industrial engineering would follow. In 2025, the first students from Hainan should come to Germany and vice versa.
According to HSBI, the north of the island with many international investors has a special legal status: foreign universities could set up independent educational institutions for engineering, agriculture and medicine there. In contrast, in all other Chinese provinces, foreign university programs are only possible “in cooperation with and under the leadership of Chinese universities”.
Reference to China strategy
The Federal Ministry of Research (BMBF) was skeptical. “China is increasingly becoming a competitor and systemic rival, especially in science and research,” said a ministry spokeswoman for the German Press Agency. This would make the framework conditions for scientific cooperation more difficult, as the BMBF just discussed in June at the German-Chinese government consultations in Berlin.
Academic freedom, peaceful use of jointly achieved research results and legal certainty in academic cooperation are key. This is also reflected in the German government’s China strategy. “Against this background, the BMBF takes a critical view of the Bielefeld University project.”
The digital media company Table.Media recently reported that Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger (FDP) distanced herself from the China investment. Your ministry is co-financing the founding of the university through the “Transnational Education” funding program.
The ministry emphasized that Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences is responsible for ensuring that academic freedom is respected and the risk of misuse is minimised. In the China strategy recently adopted by the Federal Cabinet, the principle applies that the People’s Republic is a partner, but also a competitor and a systemic rival. The German government accuses Beijing of seriously violating human rights and undermining international law with its power politics in the Indo-Pacific.
University based on the German model
University President Ingeborg Schramm-Wölk pointed out an agreement according to which the BiUH is a university institution with an independent legal personality. The aim is to jointly build a university based on the German model. Academic freedom is guaranteed, and all academic activities such as teaching and research serve peaceful purposes, she emphasized when asked by the dpa. She doesn’t see the danger of becoming dependent on high Chinese subsidies for construction and operation. Bielefeld University is the president of BiUH in Hainan and plans are in place to be represented with a majority in all important committees.
According to Jürgen Kretschmann, President of the BiUH, the project is covered by the China strategy, as he told the dpa. The first construction phase of the actual campus should be completed by the 2025/26 winter semester. It is planned that about half of the course will be completed at the university and the other half at one of the cooperating companies.
A spokesman for the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) said in the Table.Media report that the project had already been recommended by a scientific commission for the “Transnational Education” program at the end of 2020. This funding recommendation is binding. The HSBI is developing the whole thing as an “autonomously operating, North Rhine-Westphalian state university and in scientific independence”. The ministry said that the DAAD will support the start-up from BMBF funds with around 1.9 million euros from 2021 to 2024. The money will be spent mainly in Germany for the content and administrative structure of the university.
