Chinese universities embrace teaching professorships, with doubts

Chinese universities are increasingly offering academics a teaching-focused route to gaining a professorship, but with doubts about how widely the practice should be adopted.

China Pharmaceutical University, based in Nanjing, recently announced that it had appointed its first distinguished teaching professor, having announced the initiative in 2017 for teaching staff who had been deputy or associate professors for more than 10 years. Candidates selected for the scheme receive an additional annual allowance and the opportunity to conduct teaching and research projects at a provincial or state level, and after a three-year review, these candidates may be promoted to professor officially.

Many other institutions have created similar posts in recent years, in response to challenges to the prevailing practice that assesses academic staff predominantly using publishing metrics.

“There is a growing trend that many universities have launched pilot projects of teaching professors, and many teachers applied to and obtained this type of role,” Tang Jingtai, a professor in the School of Journalism at Fudan University, told Times Higher Education. “But I would say both its influence in academia and the recognition that these professors received have been limited.”

Professor Tang said that teaching and research are complementary to each other, and that “only first-class research can lead to first-class teaching, which again, will promote research to go deeper”.

“We should not simply blame academic papers for the impetuousness and eagerness for instant success in academia,” said Liu Qingsheng, a professor in the department of earth and atmospheric sciences at the China University of Geosciences in Wuhan. “Conducting studies and sharing results are closely related to the basic values of academic staff, including teaching, scientific research and social service.”

Professor Liu expressed concern that teaching professorships “could [send] a misleading message that academics do not need to do research in their areas”. But he pointed out that this promotion track could be very appropriate for teachers of mandatory public courses who may have fewer opportunities to conduct research.

Professor Tang shared the same view, saying “there is a need” for teaching professorships in subjects with a strong focus on practical application and less theoretical discussion, “but it is not necessary to expand it to all subjects and in all schools”.

karen.liu@timeshighereducation.com