Written by Wen Caifei, reporter for China Science Daily
"Teacher, as soon as I entered, I was hired as an associate researcher. Does that mean I am already an associate professor?" asked a PhD student from a "Double First-Class" university in Beijing."Do you know what the next promotion is? It's associate professor!" His supervisor Wang Yue didn't have the heart to shatter the student's fantasy. In fact, this position is equivalent to an assistant professor, but with a seemingly "high-class" title."So, when an associate researcher becomes an associate professor...no, that doesn't make sense. I'm confused," the PhD student said."Non-promotion means you have to leave" is a common practice at foreign universities, usually from assistant professor to tenured associate professor. However, in China, there are many "academic ladder" levels.For example, some universities have a promotion path from assistant professor to associate professor to tenured associate professor, while others have a path from pre-appointed assistant professor to tenured assistant professor to tenured associate professor to tenured professor. Becoming a tenured associate professor from an assistant professor has become a much longer path.Recently, a "Double First-Class" university in Northeast China issued new regulations, stating that newly hired associate-level teachers who fail to be promoted to a tenured professor or higher within 6 years should apply to transfer to full-time research or experimental engineering positions, or their contracts will not be renewed. Another "Double First-Class" university in South China released a "pre-appointment-tenure" plan, which requires pre-appointed assistant professors and tenured associate professors to go through two rounds of non-promotion.The further reform of the "pre-appointment-tenure" system by universities has once again sparked heated discussions on this topic.Various titles lay the groundwork for academic advancement
In Wang Yue's view, there are two types of academic ladders.One type is the punitive "climbing the ladder". For example, between the assistant professor and tenured associate professor positions, there are additional layers of associate professor and tenured assistant professor. Regardless of whether teachers are willing or not, they have to strive for promotion; otherwise, they will fall into a "valley" due to the "non-promotion means you have to leave" policy.The other type is the incentive-based "climbing the ladder". For example, the recently launched "Wu Yuzhang Scholars" at Renmin University of China provides more rewards for tenure-track faculty, and without climbing the ladder, they will not be demoted. "The former should be a cause for concern. If scholars are constantly evaluated, they may only publish fragmented work instead of achieving significant results," Wang Yue pointed out.This is accompanied by various titles such as distinguished, approved, pre-appointed, high-level, and university-appointed...the titles created by universities themselves are increasingly confusing, to the point that some teachers have posted online: "You must be extra careful with any assistant professor titles."This practice of giving various titles to pre-appointments is not unique to Chinese universities; foreign universities do the same, although for different reasons. Why do Chinese universities have such a wide range of titles?This brings to mind the teacher recruitment system for postdoctoral researchers five or six years ago. A few "Double First-Class" universities in China "harvested" young scholars' academic achievements, but also eliminated a high proportion of them, resulting in criticism and dissatisfaction. Nowadays, the term "postdoctoral researcher" is rarely seen in university recruitment notices.Some universities also give young teachers the title of "Researcher X", but the academic qualifications required in recruitment are only at the level of assistant or associate professor. "Some major projects require a senior title to apply, so they give them the title of researcher X, so that they can apply for major projects as a senior researcher. This is very unfair to other universities' project competitions," said Wang Yue.Another reason is to satisfy the vanity of job seekers, just like printing "sales manager" on a business card, even though they are at most a senior salesperson, just to make them look more influential.Various titles have laid the groundwork for the addition of academic ladders. "For example, after being pre-appointed as an associate researcher, the next step is apparently associate professor. If relevant authorities don't stop the addition of academic ladder levels and fix the academic titles, who knows if there will be even more levels?" Wang Yue said.This is not the fault of the system itself."Pre-appointment-tenure" systems have been in place at American universities for over a hundred years. Except for a few top universities like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which use the promotion system of assistant professor, associate professor, tenured associate professor, and tenured professor, the majority of American universities have a promotion path of assistant professor, tenured associate professor, and tenured professor, with a total of two levels: tenured associate professor and tenured professor."Non-promotion means you have to leave" is an essential characteristic of this system, which mainly occurs when teachers are promoted from assistant professor to tenured associate professor. There are only one or two opportunities for promotion, and failing to get promoted means leaving the university or switching positions. Generally, it takes 6 to 8 years.In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Tsinghua University and Peking University pioneered the "pre-appointment-tenure" system in China. It was once considered the most important reform in Chinese universities in the past 20 years.
