Research On Faculty Salary System Of U.S.Public Research University

Since China devised the strategy to develop double first-rate universities by the end of 2015,it is essential to attract groups of high level staff from international academic market and to manage first-rate faculty as to implement the strategy.The faculty development largely relies on the exploitation and mobilization of human resources,taking the salary system as most important part.However,there exists many problems in China's current faculty salary mechanism in higher education,for instance,the settings of salary level separating from the market lacks external competitiveness,leading to the brain drain of excellent scholars;the salary variances among universities require sound internal reasons,for some general universities offer much higher salaries than that of top schools,contributing to the disorder of talent mobility;inside the university teachers' salary disparities between individuals,most teachers are unsatisfied with their salary and unfairness leads to decreased motivation.The urgent needs for talents and the poor salary mechanism widen the huge gap.China is desperate for a whole set of notion and mechanism for scholars' salary which correspond to the characteristics of academic staff and the discipline of academic career development.The Opinions on Deepening the Reform of Talent Development of institutional mechanisms,a document issued by Chinese Communist Party Central Committee in 2016,focused on the improvement of income allocation policy for researchers as well.Recently,China calls for comprehensive market-oriented reform of public institution,thus the personnel management of colleges and universities also need to introduce more marketization and compensation system.Just as the Opinions pointed out that the reform need to highlight the basic principles of market orientation,to explore distribution methods like high-level personnel agreement wage system,to improve the high-level talent supply and demand,payment and competitive mechanism,to strengthen management notion of market-oriented reform.Nevertheless,as government institutions,universities in China are unavailable to carry out practical experience and mature theory basis of wage formation mechanism in the market-oriented system.Corresponding to the two targets of strategy requirement of double first-rate universities and exploration of market-oriented salary mechanism,this thesis researched on public research universities in the United States which boasted mature experience of academic marketization operation.In the hope that through a systematically interpretation of historical evolution,current running status,the key influence factor of the salary system and the compensation mechanism,this paper explored the intrinsic mechanism of faculty salary settings and adjustment mechanism in American public research universities,to supply some practical policy recommendation corresponding to the current situation in China.The paper carried out System Analysis and empirical analysis on three issues:1.the influence factors of the overall faculty salary level in American public research universities and the internal mechanism of salary discrepancy formation,i.e.,the external influence mechanism of faculty salary;2.the influence factors of individual faculty salary level in American public research universities and the internal mechanism of salary discrepancy formation,i.e.,the internal influence mechanism of faculty salary;3.according to the summary through historical evolution of salary system and analyses on the current situation of the compensation mechanism,probe into the key factors promoting salary settings and adjustment,and perform deep analysis into the specific influence and implement approach of the key factors.By performing historical summary,case studies,empirical analysis and interview survey,the thesis carried out systematic research on the salary mechanism in American universities and made main findings as follow:1.the overall faculty salary level in American public research universities is closely related to the academic level and attribute of that university;the overall faculty salary level in public research universities is in a positive correlation with the school's academic ranking,the state income per capita and local urbanization development level;the academic strength and local economic development level are the two influencing factors account for the salary discrepancies among universities;2.academic title,subject,the number of citations,the number of years after graduation account for the significant influence factors in individual faculty salary inside the university,while the number of published papers,administrative duties,gender,and doctoral degrees are not that influential,which showcase that public research universities paid more attention to the teachers' academic influence than the number of published papers,and the consideration on seniority reflecting the protection function of salary on scholars;3.finance,academics and power promote American public universities to operate salary mechanism as the three key factors.Diversified sources of funding system provide the salary setting and adjustment with security and flexibility of capital base,meanwhile the autonomy of capital development to some extent also made the settings of salary freer.Academic connotation and its evaluation system contribute to the internal salary settings.Historically,the fulfilment of academic connotations and academic professionalization development promote the faculty salary level.The separation of the connotation of the academic work and academic staff of layered structure further the salary discrepancy between faculties.Based on current observations,academic work evaluation system is the center of the internal salary mechanism in universities,directing the promotion of the teachers' salary and performance salary.The power distribution system balance notions for different interests behind salary mechanism implementation.The current internal multiple shared governance model within American public research universities are effective diversions for salary mechanism from the two aspects of "administration" and "academics" as well as the two targets of "efficiency" and "qualification",making the different direction of notions harmony for synergistic effects.Based on the systematic interpretation and in-depth analysis on the salary settings and adjustment mechanism in American public research universities,the paper focused on three problems generally occurred in China's research universities:1.the overall faculty salary level too low,the discrepancy between individuals too large;2.the salary structures too complex to understand,while the affordable basic salary too low;3.the funding source remaining single,salary settings lack autonomy.Thus the research made some constructive advice:1.significantly improve the overall faculty salary levels,while stabilize and enhance the attractiveness of academic professions;2.Simplify the salary structure,increase the proportion of affordable basic salary,strengthen the flexibility and diversity of salary settings and performance evaluation on the classification of talent management notions;3.properly introduce market mechanism,and expand the autonomy of university salary allocation.