Knowledge slaves: the plight of China’s college lecturers

(Ecns.cn)--China's young college lecturers are under mounting pressure from stressful workloads, low incomes and low social status, according to a survey by China Youth Daily.

The survey was carried out among 5,138 lecturers under the age of 40 who work at colleges and universities in Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Xi'an and Guangzhou.

About 72.3 percent of the respondents said the pressure from their jobs was "great," while 36.3 percent of those said the pressure was "tremendous."

"The pressure mainly comes from backbreaking research work," explains Lian Si, who led one of the survey teams. "Most schools use research projects and publications as standards for promotion. But 78.1 percent of lecturers complain they are too busy for research that may or may not get published in academic journals."

The survey found that during the past three years, 20.5 percent of liberal arts lecturers had no articles listed on the Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index (CSSCI), a program that elects sources from more than 2,700 Chinese academic journals. Many leading universities and institutes use the CSSCI as a basis for the evaluation of academic achievements.

The situation is even worse for science teachers: 92.5 percent of those surveyed had yet to be included in the Science Citation Index (SCI), 85.5 percent hadn't been included in the Engineering Index (EI), and 83.2 percent hadn't published any works independently.

With "publish or perish" a hidden rule, Peng Feng (alias), a 33-year-old lecturer at a key university in Beijing, tells China Youth Daily that "if a lecturer can't move up to associate professor at a school within five years, they will probably not survive as a teacher there."

Peng, who has worked at the school for more than four years, plans to have six of his papers indexed by the CSSCI within three years so he can get promoted.

"Few teachers became professors before they turn 40," Peng says, adding that about two-thirds of his lecturer colleagues are around the same age as him. But "without the title of professor, I have less access to research funds and academic resources."

According to the survey, annual research funding for more than 60 lecturers was less than 50,000 yuan; about 61.5 percent of the teachers polled had never received a penny of funding from their schools.

"Many college lecturers are pressed for money, even though they appear to have glamorous profiles," explains Peng.

The survey found that despite some intangible benefits, lecturers are generally poorly paid. Average annual incomes were mostly below 50,000 yuan (US$8,000), while only 10 percent earned more than 70,000.

"Young lecturers are mostly inexperienced, making it hard for them to apply for research funds. And with the increasing pressure of buying homes, raising kids and supporting elders, many of them are forced to take various part-time jobs to cover expenses," says Lian Si. "About 14.3 percent of the respondents said income from odd jobs was their main source of finance."

Because of "pressures from life, many young lecturers are reduced from 'intellectual aristocrats' to 'knowledge slaves'," he adds.

About 84.5 percent of the 5,138 respondents said they belonged to the middle and lower socio-economic groups, while 13.7 percent said they were at the bottom of society. Only 0.8 percent said they had made it to the upper class