Professor 'status' in the US and China

PROFESSOR STATUS IN THE US AND CHINA Name Institution Affiliation Course Date of Submission The culture of Chinese has deeply engrained dedication to learning its citizenry by placing high premium on books learning and formal education than other civilizations. Education in china was placed as a path to government career since they were determined to bureaucratic appointment, a path to prestige and authority by enabling men of humble birth to rise to the top. This is unlike in the US because leaders wished to develop well rounded citizens but there were other who advocated for more practical goals of learning modern science and technology to reform the country in countering western imperialism (Mohrman, Geng, & Wang, 2011). Attaining the status of a Professor one must sustain a distinguished track record of scholarly achievement within one university and academic discipline to be promoted from an associate professor. The position of professor is usually tenured but not for private and church affiliated institutions (BISO, 2010). The status of a professor is the highest of the standard academic ranks with advancement past the rank of professor involves administrative duties. There is no mandatory retirement age in this occupation and full professor in the US is around 55 years with only few people attains the position before attaining that age. Full professor earn on average 70% more than the associate professor in the same institution but those in private institutions earn less (Kim, 2012). Promotion of professors comes with increased administrative responsibilities which sometime reduces teaching or research expectation. The salaries of education professor in the US and that of china differ significantly in that a professor in china is among the lowest earners (Jaschic, 2012). Compensation of professors in the US in addition to those in senior levels have higher earning in terms of average faculty salaries based on purchasing power. The US has been ranked in the fourth position globally in regard to professor compensation (Mohrman, Geng, & Wang, 2011). Studies regarding faculty compensation have indicated that there is a wide comparison with the highest salaries being paid in western developed nations. The research methodology was on the basis of “purchasing power parity index” (PPP) where the salaries reflects what it takes to purchase similar products in different countries (Jaschic, 2012). This enabled to study countries with relatively low salaries in pure finance and also with low cost of living to be competitive with countries whose base salary is much higher. The comparison using PPP made it possible for countries such as South Africa to appear above the US (Guttenplan, 2012). The numbers used were based on full time position while excluding the adjuncts and this made the comparative position of the US higher while China fared poorly in the comparison of the study (Jaschik, 2013). The professional series in the US has three ranks which include the assistant professor, associate professor and a full professor. Each rank has steps starting with assistant professor I-IV, associate professor I-V, and professor I-IX. The assistant and associate professors are reviewed every two years while a professor is reviewed every three years. Their promotion is on the basis of merit requiring documentation and evaluation of research activities (González, Liu, & Shu, 2012). This process is undertaken at four key transitions from assistant professor to associate professor resulting to getting tenure, from associate professor to professor, and from professor IV to professor VI which is a major promotion and the final professor IX to above scale professor attained by a small number of faculty members. Faculty promotion in Chinese universities has been decentralized with each university having own criteria consistent with higher education regulation. There are about 13 step ranging from professor I-IV, associate professor V-VII, assistant professor VIII-X and teaching assistant XI-XIII and only few faculty members that reach full professor I, reserved for distinguished scholars. The criteria for promotion are detailed and specific which must be met in full because even the flexible track is not that flexible (González, Liu, & Shu, 2012). The promotion and merit in Chinese universities for faculty members is quite rigid since the requirements are very stressful for members to conform to performance expectations for their accomplishment to be recognized in a culture of scarcity due to the limited number of position above teaching assistant. This is the case of china which has seen many of its faculty academics moves to the US to acquire more education and higher compensation (Dehaas, 2012). The wide gap between professors at the top research universities and those working in colleges devoted mainly to teaching who constitute a majority of the academic work force relocate to the US to further their education in an effort to source more compensation. The salary scale for professors in the US pr ogresses from an annual salary of $54,800 for an assistant professor I t o an annual salary of $146,300 for a professor IX. However many faculty members have off-scale salaries implying a higher salary than the official salary for their rank and step because of the market demand to recruit and retain professors which has become more competitive. The off-scale salary has increased exponentially with the salary scale representing the minimum for each step. The step system is usually intact despite t he proliferation of off-scale salaries as transition from step to step is on the basis of merit. Compensation is a reflection of market value while the step reflects the merit. In this case the official salary for a professor III is $92,600 and for professor IV is $99,300. Therefore a faculty member who is a professor III and has an off-scale adjustment of $10,000 earns $ 102,600, and advance to professor IV raises the salary by $6,700 to $109,300 (González, Liu, & Shu, 2012). The faculty salaries in china are categorized into two; the base salary which is the amount fixed for each step and a variable amount determined by annual performance review. The base salary is paid by the government regardless of institution or discipline with some regional cost of living adjustments. The performance bonus is paid by the institutions, and is determined by system of work point quantifying faculty activities of the year (González, Liu, & Shu, 2012). The size of the bonus is dependent on the capacity of department as well as personal accomplishments by having revenue generating activities such as consultancy and research for business firms. This has created a large gap resulting from the dramatic differences of compensation for Chinese universities. The bonus is hard for some faculty members because the income is insecure making salaries to drop from year to year based on performance. China academic institutions perform poorly in terms of compensation with respect to international rating because the institutions were traditionally on the basis of securing power and authority in their unitary government. In an effort to compete with the developed states china has established many higher education institutions in addition to offering compensation to match other recognized institutions (Guttenplan, 2012). There are numerous factors that differ in these countries because in the US, the government does not control the higher education institutions while in china these institutions were controlled by the government and professors were employees of the government. This created the dispari...