The author has a good point that the lack of innovation greatly lies deeply in traditional Chinese culture of conformity, hierarchy, and respect for authority. One university is definitely not all it takes to reform the education system. We need less rules and disciplines, and more guarantee that creative and unique talents can go further and further before getting suffocated by pressure from their family who judge them by whether they can get a stable job and make good money, or pressure from making a life by taking the exams to earn a position in the government.
The picture here is not South USTC though. It says Southwest on the sign.