Training in Engineering and Science in China

Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 87, 1959, Page 119

Training in Engineering and Science in China By P. J. Alley, B.E., A.M.I.C.E., M.N.Z.I.E. [Delivered before the Canterbury Branch as a lecture on June 4,1958.] Traditional beliefs in the backwardness of the Chinese were shattered when the author visited the country in the latter part of 1957. Especially is this so in the efforts being made to train the scientist and the engineer. If their value can be measured in terms of salary, then the engineer and scientist receive the greatest rewards. Their salary is three times that of the worker. By our standards the salary is not so high, but living costs of the Chinese are very much lower, and rent only amounts to 6 yuan a month. (6.70 yuan to the £, 1957.) A typical engineering university is that at Peking, where this year 15,000 engineers are being trained. China has a population of more than 600,000,000, and she trains about the same proportion of engineers and scientists as does New Zealand. The standards attained are equal to ours, and the equipment of laboratories is very much above that which exists in New Zealand. The professors in charge of the universities at present have been trained in overseas countries. For instance, Professor Wu at Peking was trained at Massachusetts, while others have been trained in England and Delft. The age of the lecturers in these subjects must of necessity be young, and the ratio of staff to students is about 1 to 7. As an instance of the youth of the university staff, I was talking to a group of university people at Chengchow, when a young man approached us and said, “Excuse me, I teach English at this university, and I would like to talk with you. I have never yet spoken to a person whose native language is English.” All this was said in perfect English. Claims are made that the Chinese lean heavily upon the U.S.S.R. for technical guidance. They acknowledge freely that much help has been given, but the author found that at a mechanical engineering university in Peking, one-third of the textbooks used were of Soviet origin, another third of English and American origin, and the remaining third Chinese. The Chinese Academy of Sciences was established in 1949 with seventeen research bodies, and this had increased to fifty-seven in 1956. There are four departments under the Academy: 1. The Department of Physics, Mathematics, and Chemistry. 2. The Department of Biology, Geology and Geography. 3. The Department of Technical Sciences. 4. The Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences. The Department of Mathematics and Chemistry has ten research bodies, six of them in Peking, two in Shanghai, and one in Changchun and Nanking. The Department of Biology, Geology, and Geography has twenty-four research bodies, ten in Peking, and die others at Shanghai, Wuhan, Tsingtao, Canton, and Shenyang. The Department of Technical Sciences has twelve research bodies situated as follows: Peking: Institutes of Chemical Engineering and Metallurgy, Laboratory of Hydraulic Engineering, Laboratory of Dynamics, Automation, and Remote Control, Electronics. Shanghai: Institute of Metallurgy and Ceramics. Shenyang: Institute of Metal Research. Changchun. Institutes of Instrument Technology, Mechanical and Electrical. Harbin: Institute of Civil Engineering and Architecture (including a Soil Mechanics Laboratory with 11 rooms packed full of every kind of equipment, and under Dr. Tan, who was trained at Delft). Dairen: Institutes of Petroleum and Coal Research.

The Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences has 10 research bodies all at Peking, and they include Institutes of Philosophy, Economics, Linguistics, Philology, Languages, National Minorities, Archeology, Literature, History, Scientific Information, and Libraries. Education in China has undergone a drastic change. The fixed policy of the government is to make mass education possible, especially to the workers and peasants. Under the old system, less than 40 per cent of the children attended primary schools, and 85 per cent. of the people were illiterate. Now compulsory education will gradually be enforced. Tuition is free at all levels. If any student requries a grant for textbooks or clothing, there are State grants in aid given. In addition, spare time primary school education has been made possible for adults. The object of education is to impart a basic knowledge; to provide opportunities for recreation and physical education; to equip them with a healthy world outlook, and to teach them to love beauty. The numbers of students in the various groups is as follows (1956 figures): Primary schools, 53,000,000; Middle schools, 4,473,000; Universities, 408,000; Postgraduate, 4,800; Special Courses, 288,000. As the starting age of children at the primary schools is seven, there are many children attending kindergartens, and these amount to 562,000. The following is the number of Universities in China: No. of Universities. No. of Students. General Universities—Arts 15 38,000 Engineering 48 287,000 Languages 8 109,000 Normal Education 53 60,700 Agriculture and Forestry 31 21,000 Medicine 37 36,500 Economics and Finance 5 11,400 Political Science and Law 5 4,300 Fine Arts 16 2,300 Physical Education 6 2,300 Others 3 Total 227 The author visited the following universities or institutes: Peking Technical University Number of students, 15,000 (1,600 civil engineers). The Soils Laboratory consists of three rooms with a great deal of equipment. There is also a large concrete laboratory with a model batching plant. Peking Railway Research Institute There are very large and excellent buildings to house 900 engineers and staff. The research work is done on Civil Engineering, Locomotive Engineering, Telecommunications, and Economics of Transportation. The Civil Engineering work was being done on bridges, track and bed problems, and hydraulics. The Soil Mechanics Laboratory was housed in a large room, and there were 20 engineers and staff. Typically, the director had been educated at Harvard and M.I.T., and one engineer had been to the Soviet Union. When I visited the Institute, there was no sign of life. I asked why, and I was told that the whole staff were at a rectification meeting. Under this system of self-improvement, firstly large papers arc placed on covered boards on which anyone can write characters criticizing anyone else, including the staff and administration. After being pinned up for a few weeks, they are taken down and the whole matter

discussed at various meetings. Under this system it is hoped that subjective thinking, and bureaucratic tendencies in people will be eliminated. At a National Minorities College that I visited in Lanchow, one student had written 56 clauses, and he summed them all up by saying in the final clause: “Finally, we want— 1. More Professors, 2. More pay while we are students, 3. More visits to places of interest.” This form of criticism is carried out in every factory, office, institute, and university throughout China. It is taken very seriously. I asked one professor what he did when he was criticized. He replied that he examined the criticism, and if it was of value he reformed himself, but if it was naive, he talked it over with the person who had made the criticism. Harbin Institute of Civil Engineering and Architecture One of the two Chinese engineers who attended the fourth conference of the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering at London in 1957 was Dr. Tan, who had been educated at Delft. He is now in charge of the Harbin Research Institute Soil Mechanics Laboratories. Here there are 12 rooms packed full of every kind of apparatus. Work is being done on the basic study of loess, as this is a serious problem in China. Harbin Polytechnical University When a student graduates from a Chinese University, he or she becomes an “engineer”. The course takes five years and is composed of subjects to give a thorough basic knowledge to the student. About 20 per cent of the students are women. There are 1,500 Civil Engineering students at Harbin Polytechnical University, and the State provides lecturers at the rate of 1:10 students. The number of hours in the course is 4,000. The better equipped students do an extra year. It was just like being in Christchurch when I walked into the Soil Mechanics Laboratory at this University; 34 students were seated at tables in the centre of the room with samples of soil, rolling threads of soil for the plastic limit test. The laboratory was about twice as large as mine. To clinch the matter of comparisons, I was taken into three large rooms which housed far more equipment than my laboratory has. Yet all this has been done since 1951. There was absolutely nothing before that. After the pleasant shock of the Soils Laboratory, I was taken to see other Civil Engineering laboratories. There was the usual concrete laboratory with the same apparatus as we have, and in the water and sewerage department they have large scale models of complete sewerage treatment and water chlorination and filtration. These had been based on Soviet practice. Changchun Automotive and Tractor Engineering College This College was opened in 1955, and the first task was to gather experienced engineers from all parts of the country to train other teachers. In 1957 the number of teachers was 550 and the number of day and evening students was 3,100. Six courses in Automotive Engineering, Engine Manufacture, Agricultural Implements, Economics of the Engineering Industry, Transport and Foundry Work are given. At the College there are 55 laboratories, seven reference sections, and a library with 1,800 books. One of the most impressive laboratories was a great room filled with 50 lathes for instruction purposes. They were all made in China. Another laboratory had an ante-room with white coats and slippers, which were to wear in the microscope and gauge standards rooms. There were about 50 microscopes and other instruments for comparing teeth.

Changchun Geological Survey College This College was opened in 1952, and it has 3,600 students. It has three departments: Mineral Geology, Geophysical Surveying, and Engineering Geology. The Engineering Geology Department comprises soil mechanics, soil physics, soil conservation, and permafrost. There are 500 professors and lecturers, and there have been 2,800 graduates. There are 70 laboratories. I visited two of the Soil Mechanics Laboratories, and I came away deeply ashamed that our Canterbury University laboratory makes such a poor showing alongside this Chinese laboratory. Where we have one or two pieces of apparatus they have 20. They are much better equipped and they have room for 35 students at once in the laboratory. The demand for specialists in China is tremendous, and the director of the College said that his graduates frequently wrote in from all over China suggesting improvements, and this helped their work a great deal. There was a very large display room in die Engineering Geology section, containing many glass cases with specimens, and it was the largest I have seen. Anshan No. 1 Iron and Steel Engineering School To train young technicians for the steel industry, Anshan started the No. 1 Iron and Steel Engineering School in 1949, and now there are nearly 1,200 students between the ages of 19 and 23. There are 200 women students. Five main subjects are taught: (1) Electrical Engineering. (2) Coke manufacture. (3) Refractory materials. (4) Mining Engineering. (5) Pig iron manufacture. The courses are of three kinds: (1) Core subjects. (2) Basic Courses. (3) Specialised subjects. The course takes four years. There are 18 laboratories. The number of hours per week for the students is 27, and the number of teachers is 130. Chiao Tung University, Sian This is one of the older universities. Established in Shanghai 61 years ago, it has now been moved inland to Sian. This was done to carry out the policy of the Government to move the seats of learning from the coastal cities where there is an abundance of universities, to the centres of industry now springing up everywhere in the West. The position now, is that part of die University is at Shanghai and part at Sian. The Sian University will eventually cater for 10,000 students. At present there are 6,800, and the erection of laboratories and class rooms is still going on. The colossal size of this University is seen by the area it covers. There are 321,000 square yards, and the buildings spread over 165 acres. We had to take a car to go from the administrative block to the soils laboratories, a distance of over a mile. The subjects included in the curriculum are as follows: Several departments of Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, Engineering Geology, and Textile Engineering. The Hydraulics Laboratory was still in temporary quarters, but a grand new building with a large circulating tank at one end was being built. The Soils Laboratory had just taken delivery of the apparatus. Here again there was a great deal of apparatus provided. The number of students taking Hydraulics is 900, so the

staff will have a busy time when the new laboratory is built. The University of Canterbury has about 150 doing this subject. Sian Civil Engineering Construction College In Sian a new Civil Engineering Construction College to house 2,650 students was commenced in 1955, the first students came in 1956, and some of the laboratories including the Soils Laboratory are ready for use. The buildings occupy 95,000 square yards, the site covers 160 acres, and regarding the quality, they are grey brick, and are quite modern in appearance. True, it is not an earthquake design, but earthquakes are unknown in this part of China. The laboratories, some of which are not yet completed, are as follows: Chemistry, Physics, Soil Mechanics, Strength of Materials, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Engineering Material, Ventilation, and Hydraulics. The course is for five years, and a certain amount of architecture is included. There are also courses in Municipal Engineering, Heating and Ventilation, Works Economics and Management, and Transport. I inspected the Soils Mechanics Laboratory. One room is about three times as large as the room at the University of Canterbury, and there are three rooms. There is a great deal of equipment and apparatus, far more than I have to work with in Christchurch. The scope of the instruction is not quite as great as at the University of Canterbury, but the laboratory is much better. For instance, there are 18 direct shear machines. We have one. The Director disclosed during the interview that he was a graduate of Liverpool, England. The teachers are doing research into loess and vibration of soils. The engineering periodicals taken by the library are as follows: English, 350; U.S.S.R., 250; Others, 100. Chengtu Engineering Polytechnic Having seen something of the excellent progress of the Civil Engineering insttutions in China in such a short space of time, and in particular the development of my own subject of soil mechanics, I was prepared for something of a high standard at the Chengtu Engineering Polytechnic. My expectations were realised. This Polytechnic is just over three years old, having been completed in 1954. At the end of 1954 there were four departments, and 120 members of staff. There were 900 students. Now in 1957, there are 500 of staff and 3,400 students. Recently they combined with a Chemical Engineering College, so now there are five departments, which are the Hydraulic Engineering, Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Chemical Engineering. There are 32 laboratories, and the library has 200,000 books. All the students live in dormitories, and the total floor space of the Polytechnic is 125,000 square yards. One third of the students are women. The majority of the students come from Senior Middle Schools, but about 10 per cent are from peasant families. The Soils Laboratory consisted of five well stocked rooms, with every conceivable type of Soviet and Western apparatus. They have 150 students to take the course, and they can have 30 at one time. The first room is for research, the second room for physical and mechanical properties of soils, and the fifth for consolidation. A visit was also paid to a large concrete laboratory with very modern equipment, several strengths testing rooms, an asphalt and bitumen testing room, and a highways and streets laboratory. In the distance, block after block of three storey dormitories could be seen, with playing areas in between. Chungking Institute of Civil Engineering and Architecture The Chungking Institute of Civil Engineering and Architecture was built in 1952, and combined seven preliberation universities The number of students in those days was about six per university Now there are 1,700 students for day classes and

200 for evening classes. For the day students there is either a four-year or a five-year course, and for the evening students either a six or a four-year course. Twenty per cent of the students are women. There are three departments: (1) Department of Architecture. (2) Department of Civil Engineering. (3) Department of Sanitary Engineering. The Institute is under the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Education. A visit to the Soils Mechanics Laboratory showed that the Chinese are far ahead of many other countries and New Zealand. There were five beautifully kept rooms, each one larger than the laboratory at the University of Canterbury, packed full of the latest apparatus. An inspection of a student's report indicated that their work was first class. Yet this has all been done in a few years. As with most Chinese Universities, all the students live in dormitories, the total area of all the buildings being 60,000 square yards. The library has 120,000 books. The teaching staff numbers 264. In addition to the engineering subjects, the course includes a political subject and physical education. Students also work on the campus and keep it in order. In addition to teaching, the staff have formed 21 research groups. One such group is studying the use of bamboo for reinforcing in concrete. The value of Young's Modulus, however, makes it unsafe to use bamboo in beams longer than 12 feet as reinforcing in beams. Wuhan Hydraulic Engineering College Wuhan Hydraulic Engineering College is the combination of several Hydraulic and Irrigation Engineering Colleges established before 1949. It was started in 1955, and completed in autumn of 1955, and additions of 70,000 square yards have been made. Building extensions have still to be carried out. The number of students is 2,400, and the staff numbers 310. There are two departments: (1) Irrigation Engineering. (2) Hydraulics of River Engineering and Hydro Electricity. There is a good Soil Mechanics Laboratory at the College. The room is a very large one, and very much the same kind of syllabus is being taken as at the University of Canterbury. Research work is being carried out by the teachers who have formed themselves into a research group of 23 members. Other laboratories are Physics, Chemistry, Hydraulics, Hydraulic Models, Hydro Electric Machines, Pumping Machines and Irrigation. Nanking Engineering School The Nanking Engineering School has 6,000 students in its eight departments. Seven hundred take Civil Engineering. The other departments are Architecture, Food Industry, two Mechanical Departments, Chemical, Electrical, and Radio and Electronics. The Civil Department concentrates on Civil and Industrial Construction, Highways and Precast Concrete. There is a good Soils Laboratory, far better equipped than that at the University of Canterbury, and 30 students can be taken at once. The course is longer also. All the students live at the University, and they are housed in modern quarters. Of the students, 15 per cent are women.

Nanking Hydraulic Research Institute The Nanking Hydraulic Research Institute was established in 1935 under the Koumintang, but it never was completely equipped until 1949, when liberation took place. Now it has four departments: (1) Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering. (2) Hydraulic Engineering. (3) River Harbour Engineering. (4) Materials of Construction. There are 270 workers at the Institute, 30 of whom are engineers and 163 technicians. They combine routine testing of projects with applied research, and since 1949 they have made tests on 287 of these, and they have given 407 reports. Their research has been considerable. A very large bulletin is issued by the Institute each year, and the 1955 copy includes three papers in Soil Mechanics. Research has been done in Subsurface Investigation, Field Tests, Earth Dams and Seepage. The Soil Mechanics Laboratory was one of the best I have seen in China, with several rooms of very good equipment. It appears that good solid work is being done here. Tung Chi Institute, Shanghai The Tung Chi Institute in Shanghai is a very large Civil Engineering and Architectural College which was built in 1954. There are 4,000 students, who all sleep at the College. The Soil Mechanics Laboratories are under the control of Professor Wu, who was educated in England. There are five rooms in the laboratory, each one as large as the single room at the University of Canterbury, and they are filled with an excellent array of apparatus. Alongside the Soils Laboratories are located the Geological Laboratories for engineering geological instruction. There is a close link between geology and soil mechanics, and it has been realised here. South China Technical Institute, Canton This is an old Institute or University, which has been in operation for many years, but until recently with restricted buildings. They planted many trees, however, and the grounds and surroundings of the Institute are beautiful. Since 1949 there has been a great deal of building extension activity, and the Institute must be one of the show places in China. The Institute has 3,200 students, who sleep in modern living quarters. The various blocks are all built separately. The library, which is a huge building, and the administration blocks, are new. There are also new blocks for Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, and their laboratories. There are five departments at the Institute: No of Students (1) Civil Engineering 1,200 (2) Architecture 300 (3) Chemical Engineering 700 (4) Mechanical Engineering 800 (5) Paper Manufacture 200 The Soils Laboratory is housed in a large room measuring 81 feet × 110 feet, and there is also an office. It has a good representative range of apparatus, but more is being obtained, and when it is stocked up, it should equal many of the excellent laboratories seen in China. There is sufficient apparatus to have 30 students in a class.

The director of the Soils Laboratory had spent a year at Purdue University in the U.S.A. in 1949. Lanchow Oil Technical School There have been important finds of petroleum oil in China—namely, in Kansu, Tsaidam, and recently in Szechuan. There is also a large excavation at Fushun, six miles long and one mile wide where oil shale is obtained. This oil shale contains 10 per cent of petroleum oil. China's production of petroleum oil amounts to two million tons annually, and this will be increased to five million tons at the end of the second Five Year Plan. To train technicians in the industry, the Oil Technical School at Lanchow has been constructed. There are 600 students at this school between the ages of 18 and 21. Recently the Government spent 750,000 yuan in rebuilding the school. Chungking Normal College A typical college to train post-primary school teachers is situated at a village outside Chungking. The whole community numbers 10,000, there being 4,600 students and over 500 teachers. The buildings are all recent, and they have a delightful setting. The students have a course of four years. Twelve subjects are taken. Physical Education College at Sian China is very much aware of the necessity of physical education. At any engineering university at certain hours the whole college turns out to do physical exercises. In order to train instructors for this work, a Physical Education College has been established at Sian. Here there are over 2,000 students who will go out to offices, universities, middle schools and primary schools. All the students live at the college, and there is a stadium recently constructed on excellent standards which will seat 30,000, with a running track and two soccer grounds. P. J. Alley, School of Engineering, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand