On September 1st each year, the new school semester begins on the mainland. Recently, there has been online buzz about Dalian University of Science and Technology not paying its faculty for months, with a frozen total amount exceeding 3.5 billion yuan, plunging into financial crisis just before the school year starts. Some netizens remarked that the public welfare nature of education has been eroded by profit-driven capitalism, ultimately sacrificing the rights of teachers and students.
In recent days, a netizen posted that all staff at Dalian University of Science and Technology have had their salaries suspended, causing concern. The situation escalated due to a letter titled “A Letter to All Faculty and Staff” from the university being caught in a whirlwind of public opinion. The letter revealed that without any legal documents or notices received by any of the school’s relevant accounts, they were frozen by the Dalian Intermediate People’s Court, resulting in the non-payment of staff salaries in July, leading to a potential halt in operations at the start of the school year. The school responded by stating that the union would provide all faculty and staff with temporary hardship subsidies and condolence subsidies.
Public information shows that Dalian University of Science and Technology is located in the Lushun Economic Development Zone of Dalian City, Liaoning Province, and is a privately-run university in the field of science and engineering. The university was established in July 2002, formerly known as the Information Engineering College of Dalian Jiaotong University. It is an independent college jointly organized by Dalian Railway Institute and Dalian Sunshine Century Education Industry Investment Co., Ltd. In 2011, the school was restructured as a private undergraduate university, Dalian University of Science and Technology. As of June 2025, the school has 7 secondary colleges and 5 teaching units, offering 35 undergraduate majors and 4 associate degree majors.
The fee announcement of Dalian University of Science and Technology shows that the annual tuition for undergraduate majors ranges from 26,000 yuan to 28,000 yuan, while the fee for associate degrees is 18,000 yuan per year. In the admission notice, it is required to pay the tuition within 10 days after receiving the notification. On August 17, the official WeChat account of Dalian University of Science and Technology released the enrollment information for 2025, with over 2,900 new undergraduate students being admitted from 22 provinces nationwide. The current student population of the school is approximately 12,000.
The behind-the-scenes company of Dalian University of Science and Technology is Dalian Sunshine Century Education, with Gao Xiaohan as the legal representative, who is currently embroiled in legal disputes. Gao Xiaohan has 22 records of restricted high-consumption orders, mainly concentrated in financial loan contract disputes, debt transfer disputes, and pawn disputes.
Moreover, according to Tianyancha data, Dalian University of Science and Technology has 2 records of executed persons, with a total execution amount exceeding 230 million yuan; there are a total of 35 historical executed person records with a total execution amount exceeding 3.5 billion yuan. The most recent record is a restored execution information added on August 4th, with the enforcement target exceeding 130 million yuan, and the enforcing court being the Dalian Intermediate People’s Court of Liaoning Province.
Nevertheless, the school continues to collect tuition fees from new students and has released the 2025 recruitment plan, hiring 42 full-time teachers, academic leaders, counselors, etc.
A resident of Dalian, Chen Hao (pseudonym), expressed to Da Ji Yuan, “Education is a major national livelihood matter, not a tool for capital gains. A privately-run university that has been established for 23 years, with an annual tuition income close to 300 million yuan, how could it accumulate so much debt that even salaries of school staff cannot be paid? When will the university be able to repay its debts?”
Chen Hao believes, “The key figure, Gao Xiaohan, is embroiled in lawsuits and has multiple records of restricted high-consumption orders, with significant debts accumulated outside. Now that the court has targeted the school accounts and funds under his name, it may have frozen the tuition fees paid by students, making the students the scapegoats.”
Some netizens expressed concern that “private universities cannot function without big entrepreneurs’ investments, like Zhejiang University and Ningbo University, which are backed by entrepreneurial investments.”
Others feared that “today’s education is distorted, with the devaluation of undergraduate degrees. Even university graduates struggle to find jobs; not everyone can engage in research and development, with many ending up in production or working as laborers.”
Another netizen pointed out, “With debts amounting to 35 billion yuan and considering the high tuition fees and large student population, serious doubts arise about the misuse of tuition fees, perhaps to cover debts of related companies.”