Academic holiday Spring Festival plan

Although there is still a long way to go between academic sabbatical and scientists in China, it is no stranger to the scientific community in China. The typical event is the "Chunhui Plan" set up by the Ministry of Education of China 1996, that is, "flexible introduction" by taking advantage of the academic leave of overseas talents. At the end of 2000, the "Chunhui Plan" for overseas students to return to China on academic leave was added.

The "Spring Festival travel rush Plan" is actively promoted by government departments, with warm details: the Ministry of Education provides a certain amount of incentive allowance and subsidy funds for colleges and universities to implement the work project of returning overseas students. The employment period of overseas students in domestic universities is from 6 months to 1 year.

In the summary of 10, the "Chunhui Plan" wrote: * * * sponsored overseas students 140 groups, 12000 people returned to China for short-term work.

Perhaps I have tasted the sweetness of going abroad on academic leave. The first batch of colleges and universities that were included in the pilot program of academic leave for overseas students in the "Chunhui Plan" can also be regarded as the pioneers of the domestic academic leave system. Although the relevant departments did not put forward specific measures, Tsinghua University and Beijing Normal University put forward the academic vacation system around 2004.

"At least in terms of rules and regulations, it is the right of professors to put forward academic vacations, which is an improvement!" Lin Jie is an optimistic advocate. "Academic leave is usually after six to seven years of work. At this time, the title of the work is also on. It may take years to get a higher title. So this time is suitable for holiday charging. "

He Yuqi, a professor at Harvard University, told SciDev. Net's blog that he insisted on walking with graduate students every day during his academic sabbatical: I took a sabbatical at MIT 1987. Every morning, I park my car at Harvard University and let the graduate students walk with me for two miles in turn, and walk to MIT. In this way, I spend an hour and a half discussing your research progress at least once or twice a week.

Li, a researcher at the Institute of Science and Technology Policy and Management Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, also highly praised the academic vacation. At present, some scientific research institutions are keeping up with social hotspots or international hotspots, which leads researchers to only consider very practical problems and follow the hotspots, so they have no time to calm down and think. "The accumulation of disciplines will become thinner and thinner. Researchers sometimes just need to jump out of the usual thinking, methods and paths. " Li said to him.

However, academic sabbatical is far from scientists in China.

If some colleges and universities announced the implementation of academic vacation system in 2004, it has been five years since 2009, but no one in China has really enjoyed academic vacation. The 0 12000 of "Chunhui Plan" should be a ratio that academic circles can't pass.

Money is tight?

"The implementation of academic leave is mainly a matter of resources. Who will pay for this holiday? The implementation of this system in China mainly depends on whether each scientific research unit or university can have the economic strength to support this kind of vacation. " Xu Yangsheng, assistant president of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and vice president of Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said in an interview with Science News.

Lin Jie made an in-depth study of academic leave in the United States, and he recognized the American practice that the funds for academic leave should be mainly borne by schools or supported by some foundation projects. Lin Jie suggested that academic leave can even be used as an integral part of teacher development, and part of the funds for teacher development can be used as support.

Academician Xu Yangsheng put forward the possibility of broadening the sources of funds. For example, one can be paid by the "sending unit", one by my own research funds, or by the "receiving unit". He thinks it is more reasonable to send half of the unit and pay the other half by my research fund or "receiving unit".

Academic leave has different regulations on personal income, such as halving wages and canceling class fees. In short, personal income is lower than during the working period.

However, the income problem has not attracted much attention from the respondents, and the visiting scholar system that has been implemented in China for many years does not seem to be hindered because domestic institutions have to bear the basic salary of sending scholars.

Regret the implementation rules

The Institute of Policy of Chinese Academy of Sciences officially put forward academic leave at around 200 1, but it has never been actually put into practice, which is roughly the same as many other scientific research institutes. In Li's view, the reason is very simple, that is, there are no implementation rules. As an operable system, academic leave is not only a simple question of how long researchers will leave, but also requires various supporting measures.

The approval process of academic leave in western countries is as follows: teachers who intend to do so need to submit a detailed plan in advance, and after obtaining the consent of department leaders and deans, send it to the teacher evaluation Committee in charge of academic leave affairs for discussion and approval, and finally submit it to the principal and the board of directors for approval. Some universities will limit the number of teachers who enjoy academic leave every year; Some universities make corresponding regulations according to their budgets.

"The first is how to consider the management. If a unit really realizes the importance of talents, it can even take a compulsory vacation. The key is that it can be operated in the early stage and evaluated in the later stage. For example, a professor intends to take an academic vacation, and the submitted plan is to write a monograph, which can be used as an assessment object when canceling the vacation. " Li said to him.

Long Yuan Man, a professor in the Department of Ecology and Advanced Chemistry at the University of Chicago, told reporters that in the United States, only tenured professors are eligible for academic leave. With the tenure system, professors will naturally cherish the opportunity of their academic leave and use this time to accumulate for their long-term academic career without short-term assessment in terms of semester or academic year. He said, "Generally speaking, young and middle-aged scientists in America will cherish this opportunity. I have never seen people who come to our laboratory to do academics lazy to leave. "

For colleges and universities, whether teachers can be allowed is also a very realistic problem. Foreign universities generally adopt modular teaching, that is, combining a single teaching activity of a major into different thematic teaching units. A module is usually a teaching unit, with a total of 4~8 semester weeks. In addition to scientific research, the teaching tasks of domestic college teachers are also very heavy, especially once they undertake the teaching tasks of undergraduates, it is a long teaching process, and it is difficult to really break away from academic exchanges for a period of time.

"Because of the heavy teaching tasks, it is difficult for many teachers to take academic leave at the same time. Our college has always wanted to implement academic vacations, but it was not implemented because it was difficult to balance. " Cao Guangfu, dean of the School of Mathematics and Information Science of Guangzhou University, told Science News.

Hugh, or not?

People who are qualified to take vacations but are not prepared to use such resources shake their heads at the mention of academic vacations, and unfavorable factors such as management system, supporting measures and working environment blurt out.

"Scholars themselves don't pay attention to academic vacations!" Li did not hesitate to express his opinion.

But she also believes that some professors may be reluctant to take academic leave, "because it involves the evaluation system and academic environment, which is very complicated."

There are more reasons why front-line personnel can't finish their vacation. A researcher of the Chinese Academy of Sciences who did not want to be named analyzed that researchers who have worked for a certain number of years and produced results are busy running projects. Hidden rules are shaped in such a small circle of a big project, and it is difficult to integrate into such a circle. If you leave, not to mention a year, you may be absent from several important occasions, and you may be kicked out of the "application game" of a project.

Huang Annian, a retired professor of Beijing Normal University, once published the article "Tutor's Academic Vacation and Postgraduate Training" on his blog of Science Network. The old professor took pains to remind the school that it is necessary to deal with the relationship between academic leave of tutors and not letting graduate students "herd sheep" and to have practical rectification measures for those tutors who "herd sheep" excessively.

Li thinks that one of the reasons why he can't take a vacation is that the whole academic environment has not yet been reached. A research topic may have a great impact because of the departure of an important researcher. Many research institutions in the United States have good research teams with similar research levels. The departure of one person in the team will not have much impact on the research.

Vacation or rest?

Selina Sima, an educational researcher at the University of Chicago, once investigated the application for academic leave approved by a public university in the United States for three academic years, and found that teachers put academic research first, regardless of the expected or actual goal of academic leave.

In an interview with Science News, most domestic scholars also believe that academic vacations should be for academic purposes, not personal relaxation.

But in the Chinese context, "vacation" is more related to the semantics of "rest".

From the Internet, you can browse the Notice on Organizing Experts' Academic Vacation and Investigation Activities in 2008 issued by Qingdao, to the effect that young and middle-aged experts who have made outstanding contributions in the country or province can participate in this vacation and investigation for 8 days, and the vacation and investigation route is Yunnan Line (Kunming, Dali, Lijiang, Yulong Snow Mountain, Shangri-La, Lugu Lake, etc. ).

"I am opposed to pure vacation, because academic research is a very flexible job. If you want to do research at a certain stage, you can concentrate on it. If you don't want to do it, you can take a break without administrative arrangements. " Cao Guangfu said.

Jia, a professor at the School of Science of China Agricultural University, believes that the translation of the term academic holiday is inaccurate and prone to ambiguity.

Xu Yangsheng specially explained the concept of academic vacation. "Academic vacation is not a vacation, nor is it because of job burnout, but is determined by the nature of academic development itself."

Mechanism improvement

Although academic leave has been implemented in western countries for one hundred years, there are still many problems. For example, 199 1, M. Richard Rose, president of Rochester Institute of Technology in the United States, took a four-month leave to do research for government departments. Although his vacation was confidential, it caused controversy after it was disclosed. The school board set up a special review team, and the findings were true, so Ross resigned. Since the mid-1990s, more and more legislators have been critical of academic leave, and those school administrators who are determined to reform also advocate reviewing this system.

"Academic leave should be a basic right that all in-service teachers can enjoy. In order to make this system effective, it is necessary for colleges and universities in China to strengthen the application and evaluation of academic vacations. " Lin Jie said.

There are also some universities whose academic leave system has not produced the expected high income. For example, Louisiana, which has the most perfect laws on academic leave for teachers in public universities in the United States, spends a lot of money on academic leave for teachers every year. However, statistics show that only about 59% teachers in this state return to their original schools after their vacations. Therefore, students and the public have not benefited much from academic vacations.

"But foreign countries are not denying this system, but thinking about how to improve it!" Li said to him.