Development of Teachers in Universities
ZHU Yucheng
At present, the Up-or-Out rule has provoked a heated discussion in academic communities. However, with the in-depth reform, it has triggered a series of controversies. Specifically, first, multiple obstacles for the policy adaption has occurred. The Tenure-Track system has been implemented incompletely because of selectively drawing lessons from the rules. Second, contract revision lacks labor-management games, making young faculty of university have poor bargaining power. Third, the Up-or-Out rule emphasizes its screening role too much without sufficient support. Fourth, colleges and universities attach importance to the management “in” of faculty and ignore the guarantee of “out”. Fifth, the mandatory requirement of publication record has led to the borderless work culture and contributed to the spread of “Publish or perish”. Sixth, quantitative evaluation mechanism squeezes the space of peer review, the phenomenon of “international journals first” leads to the loss of academic autonomy. As such, six solutions are provided. First, the scope of implementation should be carefully determined to balance the interests of the elderly and newcomers with incremental reforms. Second, the labor-management game should be enhanced so that bargaining power of faculty could be improved. Third, talent cultivation and talent screening both should be considered. Fourth, the basic security system should be constructed to guarantee laid-off faculty could calmly seek other plans. Fifth, the competition culture of academic tournament should be diluted. Peer review which measures representative works of faculty should be improved. Sixth, the evaluation standard should be optimized to prevent the weakening of academic autonomy.
