It has become a common sight in Chinese universities: poor professors cycling to classes on Flying Pigeon bicycles, while their higher-paid colleagues arrive in stylish BMWs. The disparity is a symbol of the large income gap which now exists on campuses across China.

穷教授骑飞鸽，副教授开宝马，这样的场景在中国大学校园已是屡见不鲜了。如此迥异的境遇表明，教授们的收入差距正逐渐拉大。

Such a situation is unimaginable to those who taught at Chinese universities in the past. One 81-year-old former university president, who refused to disclose his name, commented that he found the present day situation unbelievable.

那些在大学校园搞了一辈子教育的老教师根本无法想象这几十年里高校发生的变化。一位不愿透露姓名的81岁老校长表示，他不敢相信眼前发生的这一切。

He stated that, before China's policy of reform and opening-up, professors could barely feed themselves. A simple bicycle would cost them six months' salary.

老校长说，改革开放前，教授们的生活基本属于温饱型，买一辆自行车，需要攒上半年工资。

In general, there was no real income difference among professors at the same level or with the same title; the rules were transparent and simple: a higher title meant a larger apartment and a ten-yuan (US$1.57) increase on the monthly salary.

在当时，同一级别职称的教授收入基本没有差别。所有人享受的待遇规则透明而简约：职称长一级，住的房子会大一点，每个月比别人多上10元钱。

The former university president said that, even as university president, he had no extra income apart from the extra monthly duty allowance.

他那时候任一所大学的校长，除了职务津贴之外，也没有过额外的收入。

Despite these issues, he became involved in the independent research and development of China's first diesel engine in Dalian in 1958. As it was not a national research project, the project received no funding. However, his department won the support of Dalian Shipyard.

就是在这样的背景下，1958年，他在大连参与主持了全国第一台柴油机的自主研发。当时，这并不是国家的课题，没有经费预算，但老校长所在的院系与大连造船厂一拍即合。

For more than a year, a group of teachers, along with a class of students, worked on numerous experiments before finally achieving success. At no point during the project did anyone mention money, the former president insisted. "We just wanted to prove that we could achieve our aim, as there was no diesel engine in China at that time," he said.

一批老师带着一个班的学生，苦干了一年多，各方想尽办法提供试验条件，终于研制成功，其间根本没人提过钱的事情，就是想要争口气，因为国内没有呀！老校长感慨说。

According to the former president, the income disparity among professors dates back to the late 1990s, and was attributed to program commissions and the so-called "gray income" earned from concurrent off-campus jobs.

在老校长的记忆里，教授收入差距的拉大，大约是在上个世纪90年代末以后，而且主要拉开差距的恰恰是项目提成以及校外兼职的灰色收入。

Since then, he has been constantly working to update his knowledge and understanding of the university system and the teachers within it.

由此肇始的变化，让老校长不断地刷新自己对高校体制、对高校教师的既有认识和理解。

The former president stated that, at his university in 1983, in order to decide which associate professor should be promoted, a group of older professors simply wrote their recommendations on a piece of paper.

据老校长介绍，1983年那会儿，他所在学校要评选正教授，一帮老教授聚在一起，一人一张纸，现场填写你认为副教授中谁能上。

The result was announced on the spot and later reported to the provincial Department of Education. He commented that today's method, where professors are dependent on form-filling and the number of papers they've had published, is very different indeed.

结果当场宣布，并报到省教育厅。老校长说，哪像现在，要数论文，个人还得填写一堆表格。

He also described as "ridiculous" the way in which some academic titles were conferred.

老校长听说了现在有关评报职称的事，表示有些做法显得很荒谬。

In one example from several years ago, he recalled hearing about several associate professors in search of promotion who spent a month of their summer holiday vacation attending English classes. Those who attended the classes passed the exam. However, one professor, who did not take the classes, yet had a better overall command of English, only scored 55.

几年前，一帮副教授要评职称。这群平时根本不用英语也不会说的人，暑期突击苦战一个月，职称考试一一过关；唯独一位英语好的副教授，没参加辅导班，结果考了55分。

"How could they possibly assess university professors solely on their exam performance?" he exclaimed.

他们居然用应试教育的方式来考核大学教授！老校长不禁感叹。

He added that modern universities and their individual departments are under pressure to generate revenue. As a result, in order to help achieve this, there is a tendency among professors to offer lavish dinners and gifts, accept commissions, or worse. When faced with such commercial pressures, professors are unable to devote themselves to genuine research.

这些年，院系有了创收任务，教授们有了压力，请客送礼、拿回扣开始司空见惯，甚至出现更出轨的事情。有了对经济的追求，教授们已经无法潜心于真正的研究。

The former president believes that the serious issue of academic work has become commercialized. "Academics today attach little importance to making contributions in their field," he said. "They are more concerned with winning funding and programs."

老校长表示，学术工作这么严肃的东西一下子变得商业化了。没有人看学术贡献怎么样，只要能拉到项目、能拉到钱就是有本事。

Not surprisingly in such an environment, modern university presidents are largely assessed on how much scientific research funding their university has won.

在这样的环境下，大学一年能拉到多少科研经费成为今天大学校长工作的重中之重，也就不足为怪了。

However, only two decades ago, the former president, then president of his university, said that he was more concerned with the quality of the education provided by his university than with financial considerations. He concluded that immediate action was necessary to redress the balance.

可就在20年前，这位昔日的校长关注的还是教学质量的提升，对于科研经费并没有概念。老校长表示，如今需要采取行动在二者之间取得平衡了。

"If money is the only consideration, both the education system and the country will be harmed," he said. "The education system should consider introducing reasonable salaries and making them public."

一味钻进钱眼中肯定害了教育也害了国家。他说，在制度设计层面多考虑报酬的公开、合理总是应该的吧。

However, according to some, merely publishing professors' salaries would only tell part of the story. One netizen who calls himself "Zhanzhangdaheng" wrote that, as a professor of bridge engineering, he earns 200,000 yuan (US$31,454, including duty allowance and bonuses), per year. He also receives an annual fund of around three million yuan (US$471,809) for his research subjects.

不过，也有网友回应，单纯地公开教授的薪酬只能说明部分问题。网友站长大亨称自己是一所大学的教授，专业是桥梁工程。每年制度内的收入20万元左右（当然还包括岗位津贴和奖金），课题经费平均每年300万元左右。

"It's not sufficient to see how much I earn," he wrote. "You should also be aware of how much effort I've put in. For almost ten years, holidays and weekends have been alien concepts to me."

你不要看我钱多，但你知道我付出多少，我将近10年几乎从没有休假和周末的概念。站长大亨说。

There are professors whose salaries are much lower. In general, they tend to work in traditional subjects for an average yearly salary of not less than 100,000 yuan (US$15,727).

拿得比较少的教授也有，就是一些传统学科，但这些教授平均年薪也不会少于10万元。

For netizen "xinr2010", money is just a symptom of an underlying problem. "The problem is not whether these professors are rich or poor, but the reason underlying the phenomenon," he wrote. "The most disappointing aspect is that professors who devote themselves to teaching and scientific research are poor; perhaps most infuriatingly, those who neither teach nor undertake scientific research are rich."

网友xinr2010则表示，钱只是一个表象，并非问题本质所在。问题不在于教授的穷富，而是穷富的原因。最让人寒心的是认真教学、认真科研的同时也是穷教授；最让人愤怒的是不教学不科研的却是富教授。

However, commentator Zhang Pengjie believes that it's unreasonable to keep all professors at the same income level. But he, like netizen "xinr2010", also feels there are wider issues involved. "If those professors are poor because their subjects are ignored and few tasks or programs are available for them, these things will need to be addressed," he said.

与网友xinr2010一样，时评作者张鹏杰也认为这里涉及到的问题远不止于此。不过，在他看来，教授收入没有理由必须步调统一、水平一致，但是教授穷、教授苦，却是因为学科不受重视，缺课题，少项目，那就值得关注了。