Photo: IC

When Zhang Li (pseudonym) read an online post written by a former lecturer, she instantly identified with it. The 10,000 words, which explained the hardship and stress of writing high volumes of academic papers, were familiar to Zhang, who is also a lecturer.

"It is true that we work under a lot of pressure," Zhang told the Global Times.

She was far from the only person online supporting the writer, as a sea of comments showed their approval.

The writer that created the buzz, Yang Fei, was demoted from his lecturing position at the Business School of Hunan University, and became the school librarian in September. He had refused to publish academic papers as required.

Yang had not expected that his online writing would have such an impact. What began on October 4 as an exercise in venting frustration among his friends has exploded into the public sphere with over 9,800 comments and over 36,000 reposts as of Monday, which seemingly back Yang's key point: For university teachers, too much energy is spent on the number of academic papers they publish rather than the quality of their teaching, which can cause academic fraud.

Mountains of paperwork

When Yang Fei was reached by the Global Times, the 43-year-old had already said goodbye to his 10-year teaching job, and was working as a librarian. He said that his current job is comfortable, and the section on ancient books where he works is rarely visited by students, which gives him plenty of time to read and write. But unlike lecturers, who have few set office hours, he now must follow a strict 8:30 am to 5:30 pm work schedule. "I've never published any papers, even though it has been always required by the university. The previous punishment was salary deductions. But the new regulation became much harsher," Yang told the Global Times.

Yang said that when he tried to publish his works, editors of academic journals asked him to pay "page charges," which he refused to do because he regarded it as a form of bribery.

Hunan University told the Global Times via e-mail that about 100 teachers had been transferred to assistant positions since 2011, when the university adopted a contract-based employment system.

"We shoulder the responsibility of cultivating talent. It is therefore essential to build up a team of quality teachers. We have been working hard to ensure every teacher has made scientific achievements and follows a high standard of teaching. They should see themselves as specialists who offer tangible contributions," wrote the university.

Wang Hongcai, the director of the Institute of Education at Xiamen University, told the Global Times that publishing academic papers is a non-negotiable requirement. "On the one hand, it is important to have students' assessments of teachers. But peer evaluation is more significant and it is hard to carry out this evaluation without any academic papers."

Bleak academic prospects

According to Yang, the requirements of Hunan University are not at all strict, since it does not specifically demand set numbers of published papers. But for other lecturers, things look tougher.

As a lecturer in the department of electronic engineering, if Zhang Li wants to become an associate professor, she must complete four to five academic papers that are searchable on the Science Citation Index (SCI), even though the formal requirement is only one.

"It takes about a year to get a paper published on the SCI and it is hard to guarantee 100 hours every week for research, which is said to be the ideal period for a well-written paper, especially when you have to focus on your teaching in the daytime. Almost all my research work was done between dinner and midnight," Zhang said, adding that her weekends also have to be dedicated to science.

Yu Lijun, a professor with the University of International Business and Economics, told the Global Times that many worthless papers have been published because teachers were seeking promotions. "A huge number of papers are produced in China every year, but very few are of high quality. It should be considered fruitful if even one or two major breakthroughs could be achieved in one's life," Yu said, adding that teachers should conduct research first and later be awarded for their achievements, but at present the situation is the complete opposite.

Zhang also pointed out that there had been cases where scientific reports could not be replicated and only seemed to work in theory.

Of even greater concern, is the fact that many lecturers, desperate to publish sufficient papers, turn to agents who arrange "ghost writers" to write academic papers for them. Data released by a research group at Wuhan University showed that some 11.8 million people, including 1 million university teachers, are required to publish papers every year, but academic journals only published 2.48 million papers in 2008. This shortfall has prompted fake journals and unscrupulous teachers to fill the gap with plagiarism as well as papers that have been paid for. The illegal trade in fake academia was estimated to worth around 1 billion yuan in 2009.

In China, numerous websites claim that academic papers can be written by ghost writers and the agency could help publish them in a wide array of journals. One agent in Hubei Province told a Global Times reporter posing as a buyer that papers can be published in medical journals, and that it costs about 300 yuan for every 1,000 words published in provincial-level journals.

Awards replace 'iron bowl'

Several college teachers reached by the Global Times said they had accepted the necessity of the contract system and the removal of the "iron rice bowl" system, which ensured teachers' jobs were always stable.

Despite the emphasis on publishing papers, the education authorities have made teaching quality the center of a recent campaign. The Ministry of Education made it clear in 2012 that the most fundamental work of universities should be a focus on teaching undergraduates.

The recent Teachers' Day, which fell on September 10, saw over 100 university teachers awarded for their work. Two professors at Zhejiang University were given 1 million yuan ($164, 400) each as a reward for their decades of service. Nanjing University also gave 117 teachers awards from a total pool of over 3 million yuan.