Ministry urges colleges set up academic committees

The Ministry of Education released a regulation on Wednesday, urging colleges across China to set up academic committees as the supreme academic institution on campus.

The regulation effective on March 1 said college academic committees will have the right to evaluate, discuss, supervise, and make suggestions and decisions on academic affairs on campus.

Other college affairs like the establishment of new majors, the criteria for hiring new faculty members and the appraisal of academic research should also first be approved by the committee.

The regulation also said the committees should have at least 15 members, and half of them should be non-administrative professors from different specialties of the college. Only one-fourth of the committee members can be those in administrative positions.

All the committee members should be recommended and elected by basic-level teachers, while the chairman of the committee will be elected under the nomination of the college president.

Sun Xiaobing, director of the Education Ministry’s Department of Policies and Regulations, said this regulation is one of the steps the ministry takes to establish a modern university system and improve the governance of universities in China.

“By setting up academic committees, we hope that academic power can be separated and meanwhile cooperate with administrative power in Chinese colleges. Besides, teachers, researchers and students will also have a bigger say in academic affairs,” he said.