A Study On The Promotion System Of American University Teachers

The United States has the largest and well-developed higher education system, and gathers a lot of World Class Universities. One the one hand, it is due to the developed economy; on the other hand, American universities and colleges attach great importance to faculties and other researchers or academic staffs, thus boast teams of high-level and well-trained faculties. The properties of the universities as the academic organization determine that Faculty Promotion System is at the core position of the Faculty Personnel Policies and Academic Career System. The Faculty Promotion System is of great importance to exert influence upon faculty motivation, working morale, improvement of the teaching quality, advancement of academic research. Faculty Promotion and Tenure System has formed a sound and normative mechanism in most universities and colleges in the United States.On this dissertation, I introduced and described the common and general practices of the Faculty Promotion System in American universities and colleges. And then I conducted an in-depth analysis of the Faculty Promotion System of the College of William and Mary by the investigation of the questionnaires, online and face to face interviews of selected faculties in the College of William and Mary. After that, I summarized and analyzed the experiences and practice of the Faculty Promotion System in American universities and colleges, for the expectation of providing reference and enlightenment for the Faculty Promotion in Chinese universities and colleges.There is an introduction and four main chapters which composed the dissertation. The introduction elaborated the significance, methods and techniques of the research, and the literature review at home and abroad. In chapter one, concepts relevant were defined in details, and philosophy of faculty promotion were interpreted which established the theoretical basis for the research. In chapter two, I analyzed the policies and practices of faculty promotion from the perspective of promotion criteria, procedures, assessment subjects and methods, etc. In chapter three, first I investigated the variables such as sex, ethnicity (race) and nationality on the impact on faculty promotion. Then after the online and face to face interviews were completed, I analyzed the impartiality and rationality of faculty promotion practices of the College of William and Mary from the prospective of faculties. Chapter four is the summary of the experience of faculty promotion of American universities and colleges, and enlightenment for faculty promotion in Chinese universities and colleges.