Colleges to establish academic committees

The Ministry of Education is promoting the establishment of academic committees in colleges and universities, but experts have expressed concern that the committees may face challenges from college administrative departments.

According to a regulation released by the Ministry of Education on Wednesday, all colleges and universities are urged to set up academic committees to function as independent and supreme academic institutions on campus.

The regulation, which will take effect on March 1, said the committees will have the right to evaluate, discuss, supervise and make suggestions and decisions on academic affairs.

This will include the establishment of new majors, criteria for hiring faculty members and appraisals of academic research.

Sun Xiaobing, director of the ministry's Department of Policies and Regulations, said the regulation is a new step in establishing a modern university system and will improve their operation after universities were asked to draft charters.

Six universities, including Renmin University of China, Shanghai International Studies University and Wuhan University of Technology, had formulated charters by November.

The charters are aimed at ensuring the autonomy of universities, as well as strengthening internal supervision.

"By setting up academic committees, we hope that academic power can be separated and cooperate with administrative power in Chinese colleges," Sun said.

The regulation said college academic committees should have at least 15 members, half of whom should be non-administrative professors from different specialties.

Only a quarter of the committee members can also hold administrative positions.

All committee members should be recommended and elected by teachers, while the chairman of the committee will be elected based on the nomination of the college president.

"The design of academic committees will also ensure that teachers, researchers and students have a bigger say in academic affairs," Sun said.

However, experts said academic committees still have some obstacles to overcome.

Lao Kaisheng, president of the Chinese National Association for Educational Policy and Law Research, said one of the big challenges that committees might face is how to handle their dealings with the university's administrative body.

"During the process of running and governing a university, an interest group may have formed from within the administrative body, and the group may have disputes with professors and the academic committee comprised of professors," he said.

Such a group could hinder the committee from exercising its powers, he added.

Although it is the first time the ministry released such a regulation, some universities, including Tsinghua University and Peking University, have long had their own academic committees.

Peking University, for example, passed the first charter on an academic committee of its own in 1979, and its committee even has student members.

The academic committee of Tsinghua University has been established for some time. It is divided into five groups, including an ethnic group, a scientific research group and a discipline planning group.

Ouyang Minggao, vice-chairman of the academic committee of Tsinghua University, said 90 percent of its members are professors who have no administrative positions, and the five groups hold meetings on the basis of their own needs to discuss issues and make decisions on matters for which they are responsible.

"With the release of the regulation, the supreme status of the academic committee, as well as its election process, the responsibilities and the operation system are more clear and specified," he said.