Protection of Teachers' Rights in "Promotion or Departure" Systemin Colleges and Universities: Dilemma and Road to Cracking

Abstract

As the "promotion or departure" policy becomes the mainstream system for faculty appointments in higher education institutions in China, the issue of rights and interests protection for public university teachers has become increasingly prominent and urgent in personnel system reform and related legislation. When examined through the lens of theoretical research and judicial practice, the main challenges and embarrassment faced by university teachers in China regarding the protection of their rights and interests are as follows: ambiguity in the legal status of teachers under "promotion or departure" employment contracts; a lack of equal participation rights for teachers when signing contracts; and obstructed channels for teachers to seek remedies for their rights during the fulfillment of contracts. These issues are primarily caused the alienation of academic tournaments, including by the vagueness of relevant legal content in university personnel management, unclear boundaries of university autonomy, and the deviation from the intended values of the "promotion or departure" system. To address the challenges of rights and interests protection for university teachers under the "promotion or departure" policy, the solutions of the optimization of academic ecology include: at the national level, clarifying the legal nature of "promotion or departure" employment contracts as "labor contracts with administrative elements, " reconstructing the legal identity of university teachers as "special workers with both public and private rights, " and improving the related legal system for faculty appointments; at the university level, reshaping the value of the "promotion or departure" system, fully leveraging its incentive and promotion functions, optimizing the content of the "promotion or departure" system, and strengthening the system for the protection of teachers' rights and interests.

Keywords

• "promotion or departure"
• college teachers
• protection of teacher's rights and interests
• contract of appointment
• teacher appointment