The Study On The Academic Evaluation Regulations Of The Universities In Republic Of China

The Universities have to accomplish their tasks in a principle frame, which acts as the foundation of the academic management and the guarantee of the research activities. The academic evaluation is important for evaluating the academic research quality, examining the scholars'academic results, distributing the academic resources and promoting the development of academic activities. This dissertation tried to hold the academic evaluation regulations in the Universities within the period of the Republic of China with the models of systematic research and focus research on the base of the previous research results of the regulations system of that period, and study the history of development, not only perform the historical study, but also analyse the developing process, the content, the characteristics and the problems within that period, in order to reveal the enlightenment to the reform of the regulations of current university academic evaluation.This dissertation has been divided into six chapters. The first chapter analysed the basic theories of the academic evaluation regulations in Universities, which was consisted of the significance of "academy" and the relevant concepts of "evaluation", "academic evaluation", "regulation" and "academic evaluation regulation", including the function of academic evaluation and the composition factors of the regulation. Those introductions acted as the foundation of the studies on the academic evaluation regulations of Universities in Republic of China. Moreover, it was necessary to make sense of the relevant conceptions, which were helpful to identify the content, sphere and the key problems of the studies.The second chapter introduced the historical evolution of the academic evaluation regulations of university in Republic of China, analysed the developing process of the regulations, which was followed by the conclusion that the academic evaluation regulations of university in Republic of China had covered the beginning period started from the end of Tsing Dynasty, the growing period started from the beginning of Republic of China to 1930s, and the matured period during the Anti-Japanese War. At the end of Tsing Dynasty, the Universities in China began their developing process without any academic evaluation regulation. A few regulations just existed in the recruitment of professors and academic awarding. At the starting period of the Republic of China, the Northern Government proclaimed a series of laws and regulations that are relevant to the academic evaluation regulations of Universities, but because of the chaos of society and the insufficiency of academic results, the regulations did not performed all the time. After the establishment of Nanjing Kuomingtang Government, the government strengthened the management of academic evaluation regulations of Universities, setting up the Academia Sinica and the Committee of Academia Sinica. During the Anti-Japanese War, the government built the Academic Reviewing Committee of National Administration of Education in 1940, which perfected the academic evaluation regulations of Universities gradually. The committee of National Administration of Education focused on the evaluation and awarding to the specific academic results, but the committee of Academia Sinica on the conclusive evaluation of the scholars'academic results and entitled the qualified scholars with the respected academic positions and glories such as the committee member or the member of the Academia Sinica.The third chapter analysed the academic evaluation regulations of university in Republic of China, which was the core of this dissertation, including the discussion on the organisations, regulations, evaluating methods and application of the evaluation results. The academic evaluation in Universities should be executed by the isolated institutes, such as the university-based, government-based, citizen evaluation institutes and some that were established by the academic groups. The methods applied by the academic evaluation regulations of university in Republic of China included the peer review and academic reports. Moreover, a set of regulations had been established within the academic evaluation regulations of university in Republic of China, which constrained the sphere of academic evaluation and regulated the criteria and procedures of academic evaluation. The results of academic evaluation can be applied in the academic management on many aspects, and the awarding to the researchers should be based on the corresponding regulations to evaluate and review the researchers'results. Therefore, this dissertation analysed the application of academic evaluation results with the examples of recruitment of university teachers and the academic awarding.The fourth chapter analysed the essential characteristics. This dissertation revealed that the academic evaluation regulations of university in Republic of China took academy as the value orientation, which manifested the spirit of academy, insisted the academic standard and abode by the laws of academic development; on the other hand, academic evaluation regulations of university in Republic of China was established by the government, so that the academic evaluation institutes and regulations were proclaimed by the government, and were funded by the public finance. Moreover, the academic evaluation regulations were mainly performed by the scholars, and the university professors participated in the academic evaluation activities in the form of evaluation committees and professors associations, even though they worked in the government-based institutes. Additionally, the hosts of the academic evaluation activities were the peers in academia, who could evaluate the researchers'results and achievements by the strict criteria of academy. Therefore, the performance of academic evaluation regulations of university in Republic of China was oriented to the academic researchers.The fifth chapter analysed the deficiencies of academic evaluation regulations of university in Republic of China. Since the regulations were established by the government, they were inevitable to be disturbed by some political factors, and interfered the researchers'academic freedom. The professionalism of academic research drove the scholars who were in the academy system to be restricted by many kinds of academic evaluation regulations. Peer reviewing was selected as the main form of academic evaluation regulations of university in Republic of China, the evaluation panels were usually fixed due to the limited sphere of experts for selection. Furthermore, most of the evaluation panels were composed by the great masters in the specific fields, whose function in academic evaluation was usually restricted by their knowledge structure and research experiences. Additionally, due to the insufficiency of necessary avoidance system, some unfair phenomena such as the same evaluator and candidate were existed in the academic evaluation regulations in Republic of China, which were against the principle of fairness. On the other hand, the experts were easy to be interfered by their own academic achievement, interests, morality level and so on, but the academic evaluation regulations in Republic of China did not contain the solving methods to these problems. The essential deficiencies of peer reviewing were harmful to the innovation in academic research, which could lead to the Mathew Effect in academic evaluation activities.The sixth chapter mainly explored the significance for reference to the current reform of academic evaluation regulations of Universities. This dissertation reveals that on the theoretical layer of academic evaluation, the current reform of academic evaluation regulations of Universities must return to the academic orientation, which asks for identifying of academic evaluation, promoting the academic research, encouraging the academic innovation, abiding by the evaluation principles of science, development, democracy and fairness, applying the results of academic evaluation rationally, and evading the utilitarian orientation in academic evaluation. Judging from the forming layer of academic evaluation principles, the reform needs to insist on the academic standard, no matter in selecting the academic evaluation content, designing the criteria or applying the academic evaluation methods. The academic evaluation regulations of university in Republic of China revealed that the perfect insurance system was the indispensable factor for the academic evaluation regulations, which were able to insure the objectivity and impartiality. Therefore, the current government should strengthen the construction of academic evaluation insurance system, strengthen the administration on selection of the panels, the designing of procedures and the results of evaluation, regulate the academic evaluation activities by evaluation legislation, and promote the inspection by the academic peers to the academic evaluation by spread the academic criticism widely.