Academic labour markets in China: building excellence through competition

Along with the rapid massification of higher education in recent decades, there has been a steady development in the scale, qualifications, diversity and internationalisation of the academic workforce in China. To enhance universities’ international competitiveness and more effectively promote academic performance, the Chinese government has introduced tenure-track, ‘postdoctoral fellowship as teaching staff’, and incentive-based reforms. The new personnel system affords universities greater autonomy in making hiring, promotion and retention decisions, but it is criticised for exacerbating precariousness and having legitimacy flaws. Academics are also expressing growing discontent with some of the newly introduced career schemes, while some reward schemes have encouraged malpractice. This chapter explores these issues and discusses the challenges in China’s academic labour market; the over-emphasis on international peer-reviewed indexed publications in academic evaluations; the intense workload, pressure and administrative load that academics endure; and the imbalances between science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM) and non-STEMM disciplines.