China’s Ivory Tower in Lockdown: Top Universities Hide Behind Gates

Tsinghua and Peking University shirk public duty with endless reservation hoops, while the Ministry of Education washes its hands of accountability.

Tsinghua and Peking Universities' insistence on maintaining campus reservation systems represents a profound betrayal of their most fundamental obligation to Chinese society. These institutions, built entirely with public funds and sustained by taxpayer money, have transformed themselves into exclusive enclaves that prioritize their own convenience over their duty to serve the nation that created them. Their stubborn resistance to opening their gates fully, even as the pandemic has ended and other universities have embraced accessibility, reveals a deeply troubling elitist mindset that has infected China's most prestigious educational institutions.

The hypocrisy is staggering when examined against the global standard of university openness. Universities worldwide, including the most prestigious institutions in the United States and Europe, operate with open campuses that welcome the public without bureaucratic barriers. Yet Tsinghua and Peking University continue to hide behind a reservation system that creates artificial scarcity, forcing citizens to compete for the privilege of visiting institutions their taxes built and maintain. This system has become so restrictive that scalpers now profit from the limited slots, turning what should be a public resource into a commodity. The universities' response has been to crack down on these middlemen rather than address the root cause – their own refusal to open their doors like any responsible public institution should.

By creating sealed academic bubbles, Tsinghua and Peking University risk producing graduates who have never learned to navigate the complexities of real society. Students who support these closure policies – something that would have been unthinkable just a decade ago – are being conditioned to view exclusivity and heavy-handed management as normal and desirable. This represents a catastrophic failure of educational leadership, as these institutions are literally teaching China's brightest minds to fear openness and embrace isolation. When these graduates assume positions of power, they will likely carry these instincts with them, perpetuating a cycle of institutional arrogance and public alienation that undermines the very social fabric these universities claim to serve.

Even more egregious than the universities' continued closure is the cowardly abdication of responsibility by China's Ministry of Education, which has the absolute authority to mandate universal campus openness but has instead chosen the path of bureaucratic buck-passing. In July 2023, when public pressure reached its peak and media outlets like the state-run Xinhua News Agency demanded action on campus access, the MOE issued a strategically vague circular that merely "encouraged" universities to open their campuses during summer vacation. This calculated non-directive represents a masterclass in institutional cowardice – the ministry wielded just enough apparent intervention to deflect criticism while ensuring plausible deniability when universities continued their restrictive practices. By framing campus access as a suggestion rather than a requirement, the MOE effectively gave cover to institutions like Tsinghua and Peking University to maintain their exclusionary policies while appearing to respond to public demands. This approach allowed the ministry to have it both ways: claiming credit when universities did open while avoiding blame when they remained closed, all while the fundamental problem of unequal access to public resources festered unresolved.

Photo by MARK ADRIANE on Unsplash

Below are three much more polite criticism published in the past three days. The first one was published in the website of Xinhua News Agency, China’s state-run news agency, on July 2. The second and third one were published by Hu Xijin, the retired Chief Editor of the Global Times newspaper, in his personal WeChat blog.

大学校园向公众开放咋就这么难？

Why Is It So Difficult for University Campuses to Open to the Public?

July 2, by Wu Mengda, Wei Mengjia, and Zhao Xu of Xinhua News Agency

As the summer vacation approaches, the topic of why university gates are hard to "open" has once again attracted attention.

One viewpoint holds that opening university campuses to society can maximize their unique role, and the more open, the better. However, some worry that opening up may disrupt teaching and research order, pose traffic and security risks, and be easily exploited by commercial entities for profit.

In response, the Ministry of Education has stated that “better opening” of university campuses to the public is beneficial for universities to better integrate into and serve society.

In recent years, many universities have gradually adopted opening measures, such as increasing the number of reservation slots during peak tourist seasons, launching fixed campus tour routes, and organizing volunteers to provide guidance and explanations. Yet, why does the topic of campus openness still frequently spark debate?

The key lies in the "gap" — the difference between the degree of campus openness and the related management procedures versus public expectations.

During the pandemic, universities strictly controlled campus entry. However, now that the economy and society have returned to normal, many schools remain hesitant, with campus gates "wanting to open but stopping" —

Some implement "restricted opening" through online reservations, but either the quota is too small or the reservation process is complicated and slow; some are like "squeezing toothpaste," lacking a reservation platform and only allowing entry on weekends with ID card scanning; others simply remain completely closed.

This approach of avoiding management difficulties and maintaining "peace on campus" reflects outdated management thinking and insufficient campus governance capabilities in some universities.

To resolve the "openness gap," university administrators need to face the public’s reasonable expectations, take on social responsibility, discard closed-off mindsets, and allow universities to return to their rightful role as public spaces.

预约才能进入校园，清北等头部大学该改改了！

Accessing Campuses by Reservation? Tsinghua, PKU and other Top Universities Need to Change!

July 2, by Hu Xijin

I support Xinhua News Agency website’s question: "Why is it so difficult for university campuses to open to the public?" Over the past two years, I, Old Hu, have repeatedly called for all university campuses to open to society, at least to abolish the practice of campus entry by reservation, allowing entry simply by swiping an ID card. However, to this day, some universities, especially top ones like Tsinghua and Peking University, regrettably refuse to abolish the reservation system.

What's particularly noteworthy is that many university students and teachers welcome closed campus management. They feel that it keeps the campus quiet, which is good. They also believe that too many outsiders might disturb teaching, pose traffic and security risks on campus, and that the university's various resources are originally provided for teachers and students. Why should outsiders enter the campus to "leech" off these resources? This understanding is very wrong. The vast majority of universities worldwide are open, and many world-renowned universities don't even have walls. Chinese universities were also highly open until recently, requiring no registration to enter the campus. Campus entry by reservation was unheard of a few years ago. In the past, when I went to Tsinghua or Peking University to give lectures or handle affairs, I would just drive right in and pay the parking fee when leaving.

Strict campus management, to the extent of requiring reservations for entry, was primarily a special control measure adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic. At that time, it was completely understandable. However, after the pandemic, most industries have lifted the restrictions on external contact that were imposed during that period. Moreover, some universities have opened up, such as Beijing Foreign Studies University, which I recently visited and found completely open. Yet, some universities have not kept up with society's reopening, finding various excuses to continue closed campus management.

Closing or opening campuses will have a subtle cognitive impact on students. Students who study in a closed campus will take the school walls, strictly managed gates, and the tranquility within the campus for granted. These will become fundamental elements of their worldview, influencing what they perceive as right or wrong, what should or shouldn't be. Their value judgments might unconsciously be linked to these elements. However, these elements, which shape their cognition, deviate from the true and widespread reality of the world. Years later, if any of those students were to manage a particular domain, one of the cognitive imprints they acquired during their university days might influence some of their decisions. Most universities in China are public; their campus resources are not solely owned by the schools, and their openness is socially and morally imperative. This point should also enter students' cognition.

老胡再谈大学校园应当向公众开放

Old Hu Discusses Again Why University Campuses Should Be Open to the Public

July 3, by Hu Xijin

It's completely understandable that some current students at popular universities are not very welcoming to external visitors. However, I believe that after learning about the historical situation where university campuses were open to the public a few years ago, and understanding the general situation where university campuses worldwide are open, they should form a more comprehensive understanding and develop an understanding and tolerance for the noise that campus openness may bring, more or less.

Today, the number of visitors to top universities has indeed increased, and management should certainly be strengthened. If there are concentrations of visitors, targeted restrictive measures are justified, and such management is entirely feasible. This is clearly different from a permanent reservation-based entry system. Some schools haven't truly put effort into management, leading students to believe that either the campus must be completely closed or it will inevitably be chaotic. This kind of information transfer is incorrect.

In fact, university campuses have long ceased to be absolutely quiet. Some social elements like tourism and leisure have participated in the environment of prestigious schools, causing a certain amount of noise. This has been the norm for famous schools across the country long before the pandemic. Twenty years ago, when I took my children traveling, I visited Xiamen University, Yunnan University, Sun Yat-sen University, and Wuhan University. During one visit to Wuhan University to see the cherry blossoms, there were a lot of people.

Tsinghua and Peking University have always played an enlightened, open, and pioneering role in Chinese society. This time, regarding campus openness, I hope they will also show the necessary courage. If there are issues of excessive visitor concentration at specific times, restrictions can be applied appropriately, but the routine reservation-based entry really needs to change.

Has tourism today significantly increased compared to 2018 or 2019 levels? Currently, some universities are closing their gates more out of fear of trouble, and largely due to the inertia of control methods from the special period of previous years. If schools transform this "one-size-fits-all" approach into students' understanding of how to manage a campus, then those students might, during their university years, form a deep-seated cognitive bias against any irregularity or noise, and instead come to believe that more management and strict control are better than loose control.

I have always believed that opening university campuses is certainly not primarily for the convenience of surrounding residents to use school resources, but rather to create a normal environment for students. University is a critical period for a person's values to form. Students need to learn knowledge, understand society, and know how to solve complex problems in a normal, open campus. If a bit of noise is part of normal society, then they should be immersed in such an atmosphere, participate in problem-solving, and interact with the world and grow in this way.

Closing the campus gates and creating a paradise-like superior environment for students, especially those at top universities, is not helping those students; instead, it might mislead them at a crucial stage of their lives.

Today, some university students dislike campus openness, which would have been impossible among university students ten years ago, because back then, when students entered university, the campus was open, and routine closed campus management was completely unimaginable. So, today, should the fact that some students support campus closure be encouraged or addressed?