A newly-published national education outline says Chinese schools need to tighten fund management in a bid to prevent financial risks.

The Outline of China's National Plan for Medium and Long-term Education Reform and Development (2010-2020) was published in full text on Thursday.

The outline says that a consultancy commission for higher education funding would be established to improve the supervision of fund distribution.

School financial and accounting systems would be tightened and internal auditing and control of fund use shall be improved, the outline says.

The post of chief accountant would be set up in colleges and universities, so as to raise the professional level of fund use and asset management. The chief accountants of public universities and colleges would be appointed by governments, it says.

After Jilin University was found to have a debt of as much as 3 billion yuan in 2007, university and college debt has drawn much public attention.

In the first half of 2009, the local audit office in Hangzhou City, east China's Zhejiang Province, disclosed that the city's five universities and colleges, including Zhejiang University City College and Hangzhou Normal University, had carried 1.311 billion yuan of debt by the end of 2008.

Among them, Zhejiang University City College had a debt of 828.51 million yuan. The college was in a swirl of controversy, after media reported that it attempted to sell land to get out of the debt.

Yang Jianhua, vice director of the Social Institute of Zhejiang Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, said that enrolment expansion and fund squandering left some universities and colleges debt-ridden.

"The government should launch a special audit on university's debt management, and strictly control university's infrastructure construction and debt scale," said Yang.

The outline says monitoring over fund spending would be stepped up.

It also says an evaluation mechanism for fund use shall be set up and funding of major projects be put under intensified evaluation and examination.

Management of state assets in schools would be tightened. The state assets allocation, use and disposal systems would be improved in schools, so as to prevent loss of state assets, it says.

The outline requires schools to be run without extravagance or waste.

(Xinhua News Agency July 30, 2010)