College Teachers' Appointment System

By combing through the historical development of teacher appointment system in higher education institutions (HEI) in China, and a comparative study on teacher appointment systems in developed countries like U.S.A., Germany, Japan and South Korea, this paper is to give a comprehensive elaboration of teacher accreditation and appointment systems in higher education institutions, and to explore principles and practices that may be applied in the context of China. With an intensive analysis of the implementation of Teacher Appointment System in Jiangsu HEIs, problems existed in current Teacher Appointment System of Chinese HEIs will be identified, which leads to proposals on approaches to address the challenges.It is to be argued that the current Professional Qualification Accreditation System for HEI teachers, which is individual-qualification oriented, should be replaced by a Teacher Appointment System which is job-requirement oriented. This transformation has to be facilitated by employing a teacher appraisal system which involves both academic evaluation from internal and external, and instruction evaluation from internal. A staff employment plan need to be well designed by higher education institutions based on the requirement from the aspects of instruction, research and disciplinary advancement. Vacant teaching placement need to be publicized, employment information of professors and associate professors should be accessible from both within and out of the institutions. HEIs should be fully entitled of the decision-making of employment of candidate professors and associate professors who success in the well designed selection and appointment procedure. Employment contract should be signed between higher education institutions and appointed teachers on the footing of equality and will. The appointed professor or associate professors can enjoy treatment concerned only in the period of appointment. Professors or associate professors who have finished their terms of appointment should compete together with other teachers for corresponding posts. Professors or associate professors who have finished their terms of appointment but have not yet obtained new appointment should enjoy treatment concerned according to newly appointed posts. There will be no existence of credentials for professors or associate professors outside college or university, there will only be credentials for professors or associate professors whose terms of appointment are clear and definite.