Society

List of top alumni donors released

By Xie Yu (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-01-26 06:59

A ranking of Chinese tycoons' donations to their alma maters has been released, following the controversy over an entrepreneur who gave a record $8,888,888 to Yale University in the US.

An independent Chinese website focusing on alumni affairs, www.cuaa.net, carried out research on tycoons listed in five rich lists such as Hurun and Forbes from 1999 to 2009 and found alumni from Zhejiang University "the most generous".

Duan Yongping, 49, a tycoon involved in the electronic appliance business, came out first in the list for donating 248 million yuan ($37 million) to Zhejiang University. Duan, who was an undergraduate in Zhejiang University from 1977 to 1982, ranked 71st on the Forbes rich list in 2003 and 340th with a fortune of 3 billion yuan on last year's Hurun rich list.

Four graduates from Tsinghua University took second place by making a joint donation of 220 million yuan to the school in 2008.

Huang Nubo, 54, a real estate tycoon, came in third by donating landed property worth 100 million yuan to Peking University (PKU). Huang, who studied in PKU from 1976 to 1981, ranked 130th with a fortune of 6.7 billion yuan on the Hurun rich list.

The latest ranking included more than 50 tycoons, with total donations surpassing 1 billion yuan.

Zhao Deguo, editor-in-chief of cuaa.net, said the researchers mainly drew their data from public information, which would have left out anonymous donors.

Zhao said they only counted donations from people on rich lists, "which could not fully reflect all the donations a university received".

However, Zhao said the findings could provide some perspective for universities in their alumni work.

Yang Jie, an official from the Zhejiang University alumni group, said it is educational quality and teachers that helped Zhejiang University win "loyal and caring alumni".

"But I do not think the amount of money is everything. The alumni can contribute to their alma maters in many other ways besides donating money, for example, their social influence and their networks," he said.

The latest ranking saw some active discussion within the online community.

"More people should learn from the generous donations," a netizen from Zhejiang's Ningbo city said on Sohu BBS.

"Donations are part of personal choice and there is no need to compare one to another," another netizen from Anhui province said.

Earlier this month, Zhang Lei, the founder and managing partner of Beijing-based Hillhouse Capital Management, gave a record donation to Yale's management school.

Zhang, who received a postgraduate education in Yale, said he decided to make the donation because Yale's educational system had "changed his life".

However, he donated nothing to Beijing-based Renmin University of China, where he received an undergraduate education.

Zhang's decision angered many Chinese citizens, some of whom said it was impossible for him to go to Yale without the 20 years' education he received in China. Others argued that Chinese schools needed donations more badly than US schools.