Changing academic work in China: under the impact of academic promotion policy

Abstract

Chinese higher education system has been under transformation since 1980s with the introduction of market mechanisms. Academic profession in China has also been changing under the impact of various approaches of new public management. One important aspect is concerned with the performance-based academic promotion policy. This study explores how the current academic promotion policy affects academic work in China. As to gain an in-depth understanding, a single case design and new institutional theory are employed in this study. The research results show that under the impact of academic promotion policy, academics have internationalized their activities, put priority to research, been involved in social service, and improved the quality of research. Other findings of the study shows Chinese academics calls for fair and recognizable evaluation criteria of quality of academics performance. The imperfections of research groups and the conflicts of enforcing managerial activities in the case reflect the fact that academic profession in China is facing challenges of making a good use of managerial tools in the context of Chinese traditional culture.