介绍:
Students and netizens are collectively petitioning against the dismissal of one female teacher at Tsinghua University.
Fang Yanhua was employed at Tsinghua's Department of Foreign Languages, and praised by her students.
However, Tsinghua claimed the teacher was fired according to the contract which requires her to do research and publish enough academic papers during the period of 9 years or else the school would not extend her contract.
Her students shout out on Weibo: "She put her heart and soul into teaching – this is why she did not have enough time for research."
(QD)Zhou Dawei said on Weibo;
"This issue directly relates to a university phenomenon; the majority of teachers all do research but don't care about teaching. So who is responsible for educating China's students? You talk about how to get China's universities up in the rankings with the international ones, well, how about starting by properly teaching your students! There is no lack of good teachers, but there are also a lot of good-for-nothings who just want to get their names out there. Please, let the good teachers stay, to prevent students from fleeing the classrooms."
(JA)Qin Yaqing from China Foreign Affairs University was quoted by people.com:
The aim of the "up or out" policy is to encourage competition among teachers and drive teachers' dynamics. Because a good teacher should be balanced on both academic research and teaching skills. If a teacher is not good enough on both fronts, Qsinghua has every reason to fire the teacher according to the rules.
(ZL)Nanjing Library's weibo account argues:
The school rule is a double edged sword. On one hand, it encourages the teachers to produce good academic papers which will in turn benefit their teaching; but on the other, it might be misleading as the utilitarian will exploit this policy by devoting their time to publishing their papers while ignoring the teaching.
--------------------------
Notes:
-At Tsinghua, but also at China's other universities, bureaucracy is often prioritized over education- teachers are required to invest a certain amount of time in research and might lose their jobs if they do not do so.
There are no official statements from the university on the online protest or the dismissal of the teacher on Tsinghua's website, nor on its official Weibo account.
-The teachers did not make enough academic publications during the past few years. She said she didn't take special notice of the terms listed in her contract with the school.
----------------
(QD)Wang Zhongdi comments on zqb.com:
Even in the same school, teachers in different majors have different teaching tasks. For example, language teachers normally have more classes than teachers in scientific areas, and have more homework to check. As a result, language teachers have less time to do research and write academic papers. If the school assess all the teachers with the same standard, it would be unfair for some teachers in certain areas.
(ZL)Another commentary said on xinhuanet.com:
There is nothing wrong with the policy, but how the policy is implemented. Chinese universities rigidly implement the policy by promoting teachers depending on whether their academic papers are published or not and how many are published, rather than evaluating the quality of the paper.
(JA)Bing Qi said on qianlong.com:
For students, what they care about is the quality of teaching. But they have no say in the university's assessment of teachers. It would not be a complete system if the main participants in the education can't be part of the assessment process.
