A Study On The Faculty Engagement In U.S. Research Universities

As the primary personnel resource in universities or institutes, the faculties takethe tasks of training students, innovating and developing disciplines, scientificresearch, social service and international communication. In universities, thehigh-level teacher team is necessary to cultivate the first-rate men, and to obtainhigh-level scientific achievements that can be used for economic development, whichis beneficial to a boost of integrated nation power. The standard and rational system offaculty engagement is a basic guarantee for research universities in introducing andretaining the excellent teachers, and building the high-level teacher team, and instudent training and scientific research.Now, there is a huge distance in overall strength between the researchuniversities in China and the first-rate universities in the world. Especially, the highereducation in United States is very success in student training, faculty introducing,scientific innovation and so on. Undoubtedly, this benefited from the developed andperfect system of faculty engagement in universities in United States. This successfulmodel of personnel management in USA is very valuable to learn for our highereducation. In this dissertation, originating from the existing problems of personnelmanagement in our research universities, the faculty engagement system in USA isinvestigated through analyzing its constitutive segments involving circulation andregulation, etc., and then some primary characteristics and beneficial principles aresummed up to provide references for innovating the faculty engagement system in ourresearch universities.Faculty engagement is a very complex system of personnel management inuniversities, involving position setup, faculty engagement, faculty promotion, facultyperception, faculty salary and welfare, etc. The faculty engagement in universities inUSA will be investigated from its each segment. However, there are numerousresearch universities in USA, which are different in teaching and researchmanagement. In this dissertation, only the general substances of the facultyengagement in U.S. universities will be focused on, and the specific characteristics ofeach university will be excluded. The dissertation consists of five chapters:First chapter introduces the research background and research significance, theresearch development in the world, the main content, research methods and innovation.Second chapter introduces the formation and foundation of the facultyengagement in U.S. universities, and the faculty engagement before and afterAmerican Association of University Professors, and analyzes the development of thefaculty engagement in U.S. universities and the relevant effect factors.Third chapter investigates the constitution of the faculty engagement in U.S.universities, involving position setup, engagement procedure, perception index, tenurereview, promotion system and salary status, etc.Fourth chapter analyzes the existing problems and the relevant managementchanges about the tenure system and the “inbreeding” phenomenon in U.S. researchuniversities.Fifth chapter sums up some experiences and inspirations of the facultyengagement in U.S. research universities, which will be beneficial to the personnelmanagement in our research universities.