Party should be more creative in attracting university faculty: expert
Prominent Chinese university teachers, especially with overseas degrees, are less inclined to join the Communist Party of China (CPC), the State-owned newspaper People's Daily said Thursday.
Analysts said the Party should develop better and more creative ways to convince more young teachers to join.
After interviewing faculty from over 20 universities about the Party and its ideology, the newspaper found that it is difficult to attract young teachers to the Party.
"It is difficult to recruit academic leaders or prominent teachers with advanced educational attainment, especially those with overseas degrees," it said.
Wu Wenjun, a vice Party chief at the Beijing Institute of Technology, agrees, telling the Global Times Thursday that many young and middle-aged teachers, including department heads, are less willing to join the Party.
"In our school, most teachers, who are CPC members, joined the Party when they were university students. Those who failed to join the Party at a younger age are often less willing to do so since they consider it not necessary," said Wu.
Party membership is often regarded as an advantage by university graduates in seeking employment, but may not be a prerequisite to getting promoted at a university, according to Wu.
Wu added that even though the school's Party branch constantly encourages them to join the Party, they usually decline, claiming they're focused on research and have no time to attend Party lectures.
There are over 3.9 million CPC members in 2,529 Chinese universities, over half of which are faculty members, People's Daily reported.
The newspaper also said the Party, whose role has been weakened, must find ways of becoming more influential and persuasive on campuses.
"Chinese universities usually put more emphasis on academics and officials should stress that the Party building is the basis of ideology," Wu said.
"Chinese universities should be more creative in promoting the Party so that more overseas-educated teachers would agree to join the Party," Wang Huiyao, vice president of the Chinese Overseas-Educated Scholars Association, told the Global Times.
Wang added that it also takes time for them to know and join the Party.
According to the newspaper, the Party office in Xiamen University in Fujian Province is in the process of recruiting top academics, engineers and management staff. Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed the role of non-CPC intellectuals at a united front work meeting in May, asking authorities to befriend and recruit more of them.
Xi said that the Party should reach out to overseas-educated Chinese, together with prominent people in new media and business, especially young entrepreneurs.
