Impending Personnel System Reform Rocks Peking University

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, June 27, 2003

Impending Personnel System Reform Rocks Peking University

The prestigious Peking University, (or Beijing University, widely known as "Beida"), lately released a draft plan for public comments and suggestions on the university's reform of teacher employment and promotion systems. The reform, the most radical of its kind since the last one conducted 86 years ago, has drawn wide social attention.

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Plan

"The ultimate objective of Beida's reform is that every lifetime professor in the university is first-class scholar", declared Min Weifang, Party secretary of the university.

According to the university's authoritative interpretations, the basic features of the reform plan can be summed up as follows: (1) teachers are employed and moved to work at different levels of work post; (2) an ending elimination system will be instituted for different branches of learning which do not have much prospect for development; (3) a competition mechanism from outside will be introduced for personnel employment and promotion; (4) in principle, no students of Beida will be directly recruited into the teaching staff upon their graduation; (5) posts for teachers are divided into two kinds: teaching and research, and full-time teaching; (6) a judges' panel of professors will be set up for teacher employment and promotion.

In the opinion of the university leaders, all these are typical practices in foreign universities, no matter whether they are first class or third class. But Beida aims to make itself first-class.

"As one of the oldest and most prestigious universities of China, Beida should make sure that all its professors are, at least at home, first-class scholars in their fields of learning, and should not rest content with being first-class scholars of average level, for you must bear in mind that all Harvard professors are world first-class scholars", said Zhang Weiying, professor of Guanghua School of Management of Peking University.

"Since I became president of the university, I have received many letters from our students each year who complain about incompetent teachers", said Beida President Xu Zhihong, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. "Our commitment to society is letting best students receive best education, which can hardly be guaranteed if we lack an excellent teaching staff. In fact, teaching problems are in some ways covered up by the good quality of students".

Zhang Weiying explained further, "We must admit that some of our professors can by no means be called "distinguished" even within the domestic academic circles. A basic judgment of the university shows that among current professors some are indeed distinguished, some are basically satisfactory, but some others are unqualified". "In many faculties 80 percent academic achievements and fame are created by 20 percent excellent teachers". "Our undergraduates, each picked out from among a thousand if not ten thousand, are best students not only in China, but also in world universities as well, so society naturally has the right to demand that each teacher of Bedai is the best in China".

Fund

Before the start of the reform, from 1999 to 2001 the state granted Beida an extra fund of 1.8 billion yuan in support of the university's development, which was used to substantially increase the wage of each teacher. An ordinary teacher might find nothing improper in Beida's taking the money, but university leaders are grilled by the sum - the 1.8 billion yuan has all been spent and if Beida wants more money from the central revenue, it must do some practical thing. "If we fail to improve our image on society through making our university first-class, state support to us can hardly maintain its present volume, in that case, our development will face greater difficulties", said Zhang.

In view of this, they launched the personnel system reform aimed to encourage competition and promote the flow of personnel, at a moment when Beida faced greatest difficulty in reform -high-ranking academic posts are filled by and large and not a single high-paid teacher is willing to leave.

Debate

With the rage of the rampant disease of SARS being gradually cooled down since mid-May, the campus of Beida has been seething, like hot pod, with heated debate over reform. Each of the six major contents of the reform plan was subjected to severe criticism but it was also strongly defended. The most concentrated opposite opinion was related to the social sciences department. A teacher questioned: "could it be that our department was to be transformed into an East Asian department like that in US universities?" The sharpest opposite opinion was expressed in this question: "Is it to reform, or castrate Beida?" This is a question concerning the life or death of Chinese culture, a question confronting the Chinese nation. The last opposite opinion, which raises the matter to the level of principle, was its accusation of the current reform plan of being law-breaking. Although in the first round of debate, there were many critical opinions, expression of support constituted the mainstream.

To win more support, the three key figures of Beida reform, president Xu Zhihong, Party secretary Min Weifang and management professor Zhang Weiying made frequent appearances in the past weak to answer questions and dispel doubts about their plans. "We have to pay a cost for the reform, but I firmly believe that the benefit from reform will outdo the cost and we have the courage to pay necessary costs", said Min. "Without reform, there won't be any big problems with Beida in five years. On the strength of its existing foundation, I believe Beida will remain first class in many of its disciplines at home, but the point is how will it go in the next five years? Or even the next ten years?" Xu remarked. Now the second round of discussion of the plan is still under way and Xu told the reporter frankly, "The current plan is far from being perfect, and it may remain as that when the draft is finalized. But there are only two roads for reform: Either go ahead with it, or not do so.".

By PD Online Staff Member Li Heng

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