China’s pioneering South University of Science and Technology has come under fire for appointing a board loaded with government and Communist Party officials despite pledging to maintain an independent administration and curriculum, the South China Morning Post reports. The newly opened university in Shenzhen is widely seen as a litmus test for higher-education reform in China as its outspoken president, Zhu Qingshi, has criticized national government meddling in universities. His battles with the Ministry of Education to obtain a license, ignore college-entrance-exam scores, and enroll the first 45 students in March drew national coverage.

Mr. Zhu defended the appointment of the mayor of Shenzhen,  Xu Qin, as board chairman at the inaugural July 16 meeting as “an inevitable choice under China’s reality” to give the board authority. However, online commentators mocked the decision, and Xiong Binqi, an analyst at the 21st Century Education Research Institute, highlighted the lack of faculty or student board members.