The concept of the “academic profession” first appeared in a 1942 work by Logan Wilson entitled The Academic Man, in which he raised the “question of the existence of the academic profession” from the perspective of the professional sociology. In 1991–1993, Ernest Boyer, the President of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in the United States, led scholars in 14 countries and regions in conducting the first international survey on the academic profession, furthering cooperative international research on the academic profession; in the wake of these efforts, a number of introductory papers achieved publication in Mainland China. In early November 2004, Paris played host to the initial conference for the second global survey and research project on the academic profession, jointly sponsored by a group of prestigious international professors from the United States, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, and the Netherlands who had previously participated in the initial cooperative study; relevant scholars from 14 countries who had participated in the first international survey were all invited to attend. The countries and regions participating in this cooperative international project soared, ultimately extending to 18 countries as well as the Hong Kong region, encompassing Asia, Africa, South America, North America, Europe, and Oceania, and in 2014, the conclusions of the project were finalized. As the Principal Investigator of the Mainland China research team, I myself officially launched this study at Huazhong University of Science and Technology on January 5, 2005, and by the fall of 2007, we had completed a questionnaire survey of 4,200 faculty members at 70 institutions of higher education in 11 provinces nationwide (the same questionnaires were used in different countries around the world, but the languages used differed), for which 3,612 valid questionnaires from 68 institutions of higher education were ultimately recovered. Like the other nations participating in the project, we collectively used an international survey database for data stemming from 18 countries worldwide as well as the Hong Kong region. The second global survey and research project on the academic profession, which drew the participation of the Mainland China research team, has been quite influential around the world, giving rise to a plentiful series of research achievements. The researchers in Mainland China who had thus participated over the long haul in the first international research project on higher education field with its scale and contributed data from the empirical study in China. It was also at the prompting of this cooperative international project that studies on the academic profession in Mainland China exuberantly sprang forth: a number of surveys on the state of development of the academic profession with indigenized significance were systematically launched, and a flurry of research achievements gushed forth, continuing to offer Chinese experiences to the study and development of the international academic profession. The third cooperative global research project on the academic profession was launched in 2014 on the foundation of the second round of efforts: to date, questionnaire surveys have been completed in more than 20 countries, and the establishment of an international database is now underway, to carry out international comparative research. I served as the cooperating Principal Investigator for the Academic Profession In Knowledge Society (APIKS), the third international survey and research project—China Study. So far, APIKS is in the process.
In order to present the outstanding achievements of Mainland China in the study of the academic profession to international academia, and promote the further internationalization of indigenous Chinese research, five published Chinese-language papers written on the basis of survey studies on the academic profession in Mainland China were painstakingly selected for collective translation and publication in this special issue. The selection of the papers was informed by the following criteria: First, that they consisted of a quantified empirical research paper; second, that they are sourced from a scholar at a prestigious institution for research on higher education; and third, that the publishing Chinese-language periodical wields important influence.
I personally wrote the paper “Faculty Development in Chinese Universities: An Analysis of the 2014 Faculty Survey in China.” Mainland China joined the second international survey and study on the academic profession in late 2004, but the survey of university faculty in Mainland China was completed in 2007. Given that the series of changes experienced by higher education in China, stemming from both within and outside the higher education system, have greatly influenced the course of professional development of university faculty in China, the research team I led conducted another survey of university faculty on a national scale in 2014, so as to further understand the changes to faculty communities at Chinese universities, as well as their state of development. The above paper systematically introduces the study design, recovered sample, and state of distribution for this national survey, and engages in systematic analysis and discussion on the basis of the data obtained in the survey with respect to the three areas of the personal and familial circumstances of university faculty, the current state of work and development for university faculty, as well as the opinions of university faculty on evaluations and their job satisfaction, deriving a number of valuable study conclusions featuring the indigenous characteristics of Mainland China, while also bearing signs of international generality. In the wake of this paper, our research team produced an abundant series of studies, promoting surveys and research on the academic profession on a national scale.
The paper “The Choice of Academic Profession: Class Taste or Personal Opportunities” was written by Professor Yan Guangcai 阎光才 of the Institute of Higher Education of East China Normal University in Shanghai. The paper analyzes the choice of the academic profession and fluctuations between social classes from a historical perspective, and raises an interesting question: “To what extent does the choice of the academic profession for Chinese scholars stem from class taste, or from personal opportunities?” The author then proceeds to use his self-compiled survey data on the academic profession in China to explore the intrinsic relationships between the three factors of “the choice of the academic profession,” “class taste,” and “personal opportunities,” revealing the mechanisms of social and personal choice underlying the academic profession in China, and enriching our understanding of the connotations of the academic profession, environments and mechanisms of the cultivation of talent, as well as educational equity and other overarching topics.
Professor Bao Wei 鲍威 et al of the Graduate School of Education at Peking University used the “To Be or Not to Be an Academic: The Academic Profession Intentions of Ph.D. Students and Influencing Factors” to answer the question of “whether [a Chinese doctoral student] will choose the academic profession.” In terms of the topic of research, this paper could serve as a companion piece to the second paper. In the wake of the development of the knowledge economy, changes to the academic labor market, as well as the increasing diversification of motivations for attending school, the spillover of the employment inclinations of doctoral students from academic sectors into nonacademic sectors has become a general global phenomenon. This paper adopts standardized empirical research methods, utilizing the data from a survey of the state of development of doctoral students at 24 universities conducted by the author’s team in 2016 to analyze the factors influencing aspirations to academic employment among doctoral students in the areas of demographic characteristics, family social background, human capital, academic interest and enthusiasm, et cetera. The study conclusions help us to consider the intrinsic logic of the professional redistribution of holders of doctorates as well as the relevant policy significance.
The two papers “Do Returnee Faculty Promote the Internationalization of Higher Education?” by Yu li 余荔 and “How Does Training Abroad Affect Faculty Income?” by Zhang Qinggen 张青根 focus on the issue of the development of the academic profession in the context of the internationalization of higher education. The internationalization of higher education is already taking place on the seven levels of the world, regions, countries, sectors, institutions of higher education, colleges and departments, and individuals: herein, the individual level, which chiefly revolves around faculty members and students, has drawn the most attention, and international accomplishments have become an important aspect of the specialized development of faculty members. The strategy for the establishment of “Double First-Class Universities” in Chinese higher education also articulates the developmental objectives of enhancing international academic influence and standards of internationalized administration at China’s finest universities as quickly as possible. The founding of “Double First-Class” universities requires the creation of a qualified faculty cohort of first-class academic influence and competitiveness internationally, so as to foster innovative talents of high caliber and international vision. The majority of the world’s first-class universities have undergone a process of development involving the gradual internationalization of qualified faculty. The internationalization of a qualified faculty cohort is not only a shared characteristic among high-level universities, but also a fundamental guarantee and an essential path for Chinese universities to follow as they move toward higher standards and even into the first ranks of the world. However, the most effective avenues for improving the international accomplishments of faculty members are learning in the field and cultural immersion, and at least two pathways are available: The first is to go abroad to obtain an advanced degree, and return home after completing one’s studies, becoming an “overseas returnee faculty member”; the second is to go abroad to engage in further education, scholarly visits, or research of a non-work nature without conferral of a degree,” becoming a “faculty member with further education abroad.” These two papers follow the two pathways described above on the basis of data from the Faculty Survey in China, adopting strictly standardized empirical research methods to explore the core questions of “Do Returnee Faculty Promote the Internationalization of Higher Education?” and “How Does Training Abroad Affect Faculty Income?” These two papers provide empirical support for the state and universities with respect to the attraction and cultivation of advanced academic talent, as well as in the course of promoting the internationalization of higher education.
Research on the academic profession is in the ascendant in Mainland China. A Mainland China research team completed the third national survey of university faculty in late 2018 and are now pursuing the concrete research work; and increasing numbers of scholars are participating in-depth in the project APIKS.
I am profoundly grateful to Professor Gerard A. Postiglione for inviting me to participate in the Changing Academic Profession (CAP) project in November 2004, and giving me the opportunity to become the Principal Investigator of Mainland China research team for this international project in cooperation with many other nations, as well as the opportunity to work with the prestigious scholars of higher education and sociologists of education of several dozen countries. I would also like to thank Professor Postiglione for inviting me to serve as a guest editor for this special issue on the “Academic Profession,” giving me an opportunity to carefully pore over the relevant research achievements of a multitude of Chinese scholars and learn about the experts and scholars who have made great contributions to the field of research on the academic profession in Mainland China, as well as their research work.
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Shen Hong
Shen Hong 沈红 is a Professor and Chair at Southern University of Science and Technology, China.