While China’s explosion in college admissions has led to a glut of graduates with gloomy job prospects, the corresponding boom in campus infrastructure offers rich opportunities for corruption. From Shen Nianzu at the Economic Observer:
There’s a joke floating around Chinese universities saying, “If you like him, put him in charge of infrastructure. If you hate him, also put him in charge of infrastructure.”
[…] Sun Yi (孙义), director of Nanjing University of Technology’s infrastructure office, has done special research on this issue. He says that by the most conservative estimate, at least 2 billion yuan [$326 million] has been illegally diverted to private hands nationwide through university construction. In these cases, it’s not only top university officials that are responsible. Several levels of infrastructure personnel have been discovered accepting bribes from project managers, suppliers and contractors.
[…] Because of China’s rapid growth in college enrollment, campuses have had to keep up with the expanding infrastructure demand with major construction projects. According to statistics from the Ministry of Education, more university cafeterias and dormitories were built in 2006 than during the previous 50 years combined. [Source]
