Research On Contractual Relationship Between Public Higher Institutions And Teachers

Public higher institutions have implemented the teacher appointment system over 20 years in China. Substantially, the target of the teacher appointment system is to establish contract relationship between higher institutions and teachers. Nevertheless, the current system has not truly set up the contract relationship between institutions and teachers, which behaves as freedom of teacher's flow, the characteristic of "status system" and administrative features of inner management in higher institutions. The reasons lie in that the essential points of the contract relationship are not thoroughly understood and that its relationships with inner and outer system environment.As knowledge propagators and academic researchers, teachers in higher institutions belong to the group of high human capital. The relationships between teachers and institutions are transaction relationships that base on the knowleged-agented human capital. From the point of view of modern contract economics, transaction occurring leads to transaction cost and contract is the way to govern transaction, thereby, the transaction cost decides the choice of contract relationship. The transaction cost between higher institutions and teacher includes five categories: information searching cost, measuring cost, supervising cost, operation cost and other cost. The five categories may compose one variable-definition cost of teacher human capital property rights. Some rules could be deduced from the variable: when the transaction cost is in high level, the contract relationship will be a typical relation-typed contract relationship; when the transaction cost is in low level that will be a formal-typed contract relationship. Along with the cost level lowered, the typical relation-typed contract relationship is converted to fully formal-typed one.For reasons that teacher labors have the characteristics of complexity, creativity, high responsibility, risk uniqueness and teacher human capital property rights have characteristics of naturalness of individual occupancy, employment increment, property rights handicapped self-debasement, value-realizing autonomy and income long term, the measuring and supervising costs are naturally high. Questionnaire survey results show, that not only measuring and supervising costs are not lessened but also lots of other costs are derived, simultaneously, costs induced by institutions administrative power generalization are considerable. Although few higher institutions defined extraordinary detailed in teacher appointment contracts, in general most of appointment contracts had shortcomings: narrow contracts range, simple and little contracts content, vague contracts definition, thorough definitions to institutions' rights and teachers' obligations, unilateral definitions to teachers' rights and institutions' obligations, uneven status of two parties in contracts. Thereby, the contract relationship between institutions and teachers in China accords with the model derivation which belongs to typical relation-typed one.The essence of teacher appointment system i s to set up contract relationship between higher institutions and teachers according to which the two parties' behavior is ruled and specified and otherwise unwritten or conventional management style is abandoned. So the contract relationship to be established belongs to the formal-typed one. The transformation is in need of sustenance from inner and outer system environment. Due to the facts that in institutions' inner management, traditional "status person" staffing system has not yet be broken, evaluation mechanism is not reasonable, treaty parties is lack of treaty consciousness and contract's effectiveness is low, the transaction cost is high between institutions and teachers. Thus, only can relation-typed contracts be chosen. If formal-typed contract relationship is set up, teacher group organizations and system of social security must be further consummated, inner and outer constrain mechanism to teachers must be e stablished and consummated, moreover, information s creening and e valuation mechanisms to teachers must be established and consummated.