College Teachers' Titles System Research

How to use professional titles as a qualification acknowledgement and a basis for position assignment is a critical issue in the reform of institutions of higher learning. Investigation into the issue contributes to the improvement of personnel system and the development of education management theories as well as their applications. By employing such methodologies as historical analysis, comparison analysis and theoretical analysis, and drawing on tools from New Institutionalism, this thesis presents a systematic study on problems existing in professional-title-related assessment and employment work and examines factors shaping the reform of professional-title system of institutions of higher learning in China, such as motivation, path selection and object planning. By doing so, it hopes to reveal the causes of those problems and introduce professional-title management mechanisms both at home and abroad. It also makes some suggestions to the reform, with the author's own work experience as a point of departure.The thesis starts with clarification of concepts relevant to professional-title-related assessment and employment work, followed by review of evolution of professional-title system since the establishment of the People's Republic of China. Besides, it analyzes the causes why reforms in the past produced little substantial result, with Institutional Logic and Path Dependence as its theoretical basis, two theories from New Institutionalism. In the following part, the thesis gives a detailed introduction about professional-title-related assessment and employment work in institutions of higher learning and summarizes its main features. In order to further the discussion and to provide more valuable information for reform in domestic institutions of higher learning, this thesis introduces and compares professional-title mechanisms both at home and abroad. In addition, it analyzes the current domestic mechanism and proposes new ideas for its reform. This thesis also summarizes and discusses several key issues in current mechanism, and analyzes as well necessity and feasibility to reform. Strategies are also proposed as to the reform.