Study On The Multidimensional Welfare Measurement And Relevant Policy Support Of Young Teachers In Higher Education

Young teachers in higher education institutions are entrusted with the significant mission of carrying and spreading social civilization and guiding social development, therefore, it is one of the constant objectives for both young teachers and administrators to improve their welfare to promise the best efficiency. There is no denying that one necessary prerequisite for improving welfare and making relevant policy is to carry out a comprehensive and objective assessment among the young teachers.The traditional welfare measuring methods, however, are restricted to some monist assessment formats with economic welfare or subjective well-being. In this case, the existing measuring information is likely to be disqualified by subjectivity and one-sidedness, thus leading to controversial or even contrary results of assessment. What's more, traditional welfare measurements tend to lay emphasis on qualitative or quantitative description of young teacher's welfare from the perspective of results, neglecting their subjectivity in pursuing welfare. As an exciting avenue for further research, to present their multidimensional welfare demands at the level of both process and result can not only provide comprehensive and abundant data for welfare-improvement policy making but also be of some help in remedying the deficiency of traditional welfare measuring methods.Amartya Sen, a Nobel laureate in economics who excels in criticizing tradition, reinterpreting the connotation of welfare and constructing a broader welfare measurement criteria system, has formulated and developed the multidimensional welfare theory under the context of the Capability approach. According to Professor Sen, welfare is people's capability of expanding real freedom. Terms like "functions" and "capabilities" are proposed to reflect people's actualized and potential welfare within multidimension. Sen's welfare theory covers various motivations which are personally meaningful to individuals, and pays special attention to real freedom and subjectivity from the angle of capabilities. While making up insufficiencies which lie in the traditional researching about welfare, it is generally acknowledged as a new development of welfare theories.Based on the capability approach, this research conducts in-depth interviews and quantitative analysis, concluding the crucial welfare factors within the range of functional space and capabilities space for young teachers in higher education. Accordingly, then a questionnaire survey with 931 young teachers is carried out, of which data is analyzed by means of quantitative statistics, hence the absolute level and relative disparity of this group's multidimensional welfare are measured and compared. Finally, a conclusion is arrived, which uncovers the defects of existing systematical defects and puts forward a public policy framework for improving the multidimensional welfare of young teachers in higher education.This research shows that the functional space welfare universally cherished by the participants includes working condition, housing condition, emotional support, health and leisure, while the valued capabilities space welfare ranges from economic freedom, professional skills, political rights and interests to social opportunities. The measuring results of multidimensional welfare's absolute level suggest that young teachers in higher education are moderately well-off when examined from the angle of functional space welfare or total welfare, but they are extremely short of capabilities space welfare which embodies real freedom. An analysis of the results multidimensional welfare's relative disparity reveals that the functional space welfare and total welfare is evenly distributed in compensation of each dimension, whereas a dramatic disparity in capabilities space welfare is caught among the individuals, with a combined effect from personal characteristics and environmental factors. The welfare plight of this group is a consequence of excessive marketization and bureaucracy mode in universities and colleges, therefore, to improve their multidimensional welfare, the only way out is to promote the reform of de-administration in higher education when ensuring limited intervention of market in the field of higher education.In terms of theory, as it materializes the abstract Capability theory into a practical framework of welfare analysis, this research also extends the research object of Capability theory. In practical terms, this practice provides not only assessment tool and reference policies for multidimensional welfare analysis of young teachers in higher education, but also a useful reference for study other groups'multidimensional welfare.