Chinese university department head's fatal stabbing prompts debate over promotion equality for junior staff

The alleged stabbing murder of a department head at one of China’s top universities by a junior teacher has exposed a system which many claim exploits young staff.

Jiang Wenhua, a teacher at Fudan University, one of the top five universities in China, allegedly killed his boss Wang Yongzhen, head of the School of Mathematical Sciences, on campus on June 7.

Shanghai police said that initial investigations showed that Jiang, who was arrested at the scene, held a grudge over “work affairs”.

“I have been framed a lot of times and I have received vicious treatment in the department,” Jiang told officers when subdued outside the office, according to a video taken during the arrest.

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Following the incident there has been widespread speculation that Jiang, 39, who got his PhD from the New Jersey-based Rutgers University, held a grudge against Wang because he had worked at Fudan for five years but had missed out on promotion to an associate professor position and was at risk of losing his job.

According to a statement released by the university last week, Jiang was first hired in 2016 as a researcher. Three years later, when his contract expired, the maths department evaluated him as unqualified and decided against keeping him in the role. But the school then gave Jiang a one-year contract and renewed it again at the end of last year.

People familiar with the case have alleged that on the day of the killing, Jiang was told by Wang that he would be fired.

The university has denied this version of events and said that Jiang’s contract had not expired and that there had been no discussions between the two men about Jiang’s role being terminated.

Police are still investigating the case, but many people have suggested that China’s university tenure-track appointment system, which Jiang’s contract was based on, is to blame.

Experts said this system, introduced from the US about a decade ago, has been used by domestic schools unfairly and has placed tremendous pressure on junior-level teachers at universities.

Under the system, young researchers work for a period of six or seven years before being reviewed for a tenured professorship.

Those who do not pass the review, are automatically fired instead of being allowed to continue on in other roles as often happens at universities elsewhere in the world, with the system being called “up or out” in China.

At most of China’s top universities academic staff are hired using this system, in contrast to the previous situation where every teacher held a permanent job, known in China as “iron rice bowls”.

“The tenure-track system itself is good and the great achievements made by American universities is partly thanks to this system,” said a professor from a Shanghai university, who did not want to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue.

“However, it has been abused by some domestic universities in China.

“Those schools hired dozens of candidates to compete for just one tenured position. The candidates called themselves academic migrant workers and said they don’t have any dignity or job security,” said the academic.

“While universities in the US carefully selected and hired a small number of candidates for the tenure-track system, so there is a high possibility that a candidate will stay in the end, in China there is a high possibility that a candidate will have to leave due to the low selection rate,” he said.

Since the most important standard in this job assessment is about published research papers, the young researchers must produce as many high-quality papers as they can, he said.

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“So the biggest winner is the university. Its ranking has been lifted because of many high-level research papers."

"But the candidates whose value has been completely extracted by the university still have to leave,” said the Shanghai professor.

Wuhan University was criticised at the end of 2018 after it was revealed that only six out of 48 candidates passed evaluation to become tenured associate professors.

According to a 2020 survey by the National Governance Weekly of 3,000 university teachers aged below 45, promotion and published papers are their major sources of stress.

Some 57 per cent said their work status is 996, referring to working 9am to 9pm, six days a week. Some 12 per cent said their work is even more exhausting than 996.

John Gong, a professor of economics at the University of International Business and Economics, said it’s necessary to have the tenure-track system for China’s universities.

“Without screening of talent, we can’t build world-class universities,” Gong told the South China Morning Post. “Not everyone is suitable for doing research work. Only the most creative and the most diligent people who love doing science exploration can stay.”

He said at the university where he works, the passing rate for young faculty to the tenured professorship is 70 per cent.

“I heard that in some domestic universities, only one out of 10 can stay. I think if the school can’t offer enough tenured positions, they shouldn’t hire so many candidates,” said Gong.

Those failing to pass the review and gain tenure usually go to work at lower-level universities or to work in the business sector, consulting firms or think tanks, he said.

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A professor at a university in Xian said the passing rate at her school is high, but to her knowledge, the proportion is low in universities in southeastern and southern China as those developed regions are more attractive to younger academics.

The professor, who also preferred to be anonymous, said she has to cope with a lot of time-consuming non-academic-related paperwork and performance appraisals.

“I believe young teachers have more difficulties and challenges than me in this regard,” she told the Post.

“So there is no problem with this up-or-out system, but we should give the candidates more support to let them do their academic research in a relaxed and free environment where they can feel dignity.”

This article was first published in South China Morning Post.