In that time of controversy, "Tsai Yuan-pei could be said to have been the least controversial personality," says Ambrose King in the book Daxue de Linian (The Idea of the University). In his hands, Beida became a real university, a center for new culture and modern thinking in China. But Tsai did not belong only to Beida; he also belonged to a larger academic and cultural community.
但是在那段時期中，「蔡元培可以說是最少爭議性的人物」，金耀基在《大學之理念》一書中說，北大在他手中成為真正的大學，成為中國現代新思想新文化的重鎮；但他不只屬於北大，而是屬於整個學術文化界。