高等教育慈善信托捐赠的国际实践与中国探索——兼论中国高校基金会的责任与挑战

International Practice and China’s Exploration on Promoting Donations to Higher Education through Charitable Trusts——Chinese University Foundations’Responsibilities and Challenges Lie Ahead

在国际高等教育捐赠实践中,以慈善信托方式对大学开展捐赠是社会力量支持大学建设、维持大学收入稳定和抗击财务风险的有效工具。与国际上较为成熟和发达的高等教育慈善信托捐赠相比,我国的高教慈善信托捐赠仍处于发展起步阶段,有很大增长空间和发展潜力。但其发展面临一些制度瓶颈,包括促进慈善信托捐赠的关键税收优惠法规政策缺位,国家对慈善信托监管体系尚未理顺,以及教育公益慈善组织市场化程度较低等。本文认为,中国高校基金会因其公益慈善社会组织和高等教育行业机构的双重身份,具有一般社会组织和信托金融机构所不具备的独特优势,有条件、有责任深入参与教育慈善信托业务,探索通过“第三次分配”引导和撬动广泛的社会慈善资源支持高等教育发展的新路径,推动中国特色世界一流大学建设。为便利高校基金会参与慈善信托,本文还基于长期实践和研究观察,从完善法律法规、理顺监管机制以及推动高校基金会市场化改革等方面提出了一些政策建议。

In international higher education philanthropy,donating to universities through charitable trusts has been an effective way for society to support university development and to help maintain university income in the face of economic and financial risks.Compared with the active and mature charitable trust donations to higher education worldwide,China’s charitable trust donations to higher education are still in an early stage of development,and there is great room for growth.However,its growth and development face a series of institutional bottlenecks,including the absence of tax exemption laws and policies to promote charitable trust donations,the state’s unsettled regulatory framework over charitable trusts,and the low degree of marketization in higher-education charitable organizations.This study argues that China’s pubic university foundations have unique comparative advantages in terms of promoting donations to higher education through charitable trusts,compared to financial institutions and other social organizations,based on their dual identities as NGOs as well as institutions in the higher education industry.Thus,they bear the responsibilities to guide and leverage extensive charitable resources to support China’s higher education,and to support efforts of building world-class universities with Chinese characteristics by participating in and facilitating the set-up of charitable trusts with educational philanthropy purposes in China’s institutional environment.In order to facilitate the participation of university foundations in charitable trust donations,this study also puts forward some policy suggestions from the aspects of improving laws and regulations,rationalizing the regulatory mechanism and promoting market-oriented reforms of university foundations based on authors’long-term practice,observation,and research.