Research on the Problems and Measures of the Construction of "Double-Qualified"Faculty in Independent Colleges

 

Luo Wenhui, Zheng Yaping

 

Zhijiang College of zhejiang University of Technology

958, Yuezhou Road,Keqiao, Shaoxing,Zhejiang, China

1317360753@qq.com, zyp@zjut.edu.cn

 

 

 

Abstract

 

The "double-qualified" faculty is an important guarantee and strategy for independent colleges to build applied universities and cultivate advanced applied talents. The core characteristics of "double-quality" teachers are reflected in their dual abilities and qualities.In the process of transforming and upgrading the ability of teachers in independent colleges, there are some problems, such as the "dual" differentiation of the capacity structure of teachers, the low practical ability of full-time teachers, and the lack of institutional guarantee for the transformation. This paper suggests that independent colleges should flexibly employ diversified teachers, cultivate full-time teachers' transformation, mold "school-enterprise cooperation community" to realize "faculty education" for both sides, and build a security framework for "double-qualified" teacher development system .

 

Keywords-"Double-Qualified" Faculty; Independent College; Application-Oriented University Construction; Cooperation Between Colleges and Enterprises

 

1. Introduction

 

In October 2015, the Ministry of Education, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance jointly issued the Guiding Opinions on Guiding Some Local General Undergraduate Universities to Transform into Applied-oriented Universities, which clearly puts forward "Promoting the transforming universities to transfer the idea of running schools into serving local economic and social development and to transfer into cultivating applied-oriented talents". As a young local undergraduate college, in order to meet the needs of economic and social development, the independent college establishes the orientation of the construction of application-oriented Colleges and universities. It is not only the need of structural adjustment of higher education in China from the "national perspective",but also the only way to return to the beginning and seek for characteristics development. At the National Education Conference in September this year, great importance was attached to the construction of the teaching faculty, which was regarded as the most important basic work. Teachers were regarded as the first resource for the development of education."Double-qualified" teaching staff is an important guarantee for independent colleges to build application oriented universities and train advanced applied talents. However, at present, the pace of the construction of "double-qualified" teachers lags far behind the needs of the construction and development of independent colleges , which has become one of the main problems restricting the transformation and development of independent colleges.

 

2. The Core Elements and Logic of the Construction of "Double-Qualified" Faculty in Independent Colleges

 

Since the 90s of last century, the discussion of concept of "double qualified" faculty has never been interrupted. However, there are different opinions on this concept in the expression of educational administrative departments in policy documents, the discussion of academic circles, and the understanding of universities in practice, , and yet, no unified understanding has been formed. The absence of national standards and the difference standards between colleges make the logical starting point of the research on the theory and policy of "double-qualified" faculty unclear, which affects the practice of the construction of "double-qualified" faculty.

 

2.1.Competence and Quality: the Core Elements of "Double-Qualified" Faculty

 

As for "double-qualified" faculty, there are many expressions, such as "double certificate theory", "double Title theory", "double identity theory", "double quality theory" and "double source theory", which can be basically divided into the following categories:

Firstly, from the perspective of explicit characteristics, it has the rigid requirement of "double qualifications", or both academic certificates and technical grade certificates, or dual titles of academic series and technical series. This understanding is usually adopted in the practice of identifying the qualifications of "double-qualified" faculty in independent colleges. Its definition is clear and easy to implement. But the definition ignores the common problems in reality: sometimes the qualifications and competencies are not matched and unequal.

Secondly, from the perspective of internal characteristics, individuals should have dual abilities and qualities, which have different applications in different contexts. For example, professional knowledge and skills are required in the professional field, theoretical teaching ability and practical teaching ability are required in the teaching field, and theoretical research ability and practical application ability are required in the research field. Wang Yicheng, who first put forward the concept of "double-qualified" faculty, defined the "teacher&engineer" model, focusing on the improvement of teachers' competence and quality. Ye Xiaoming considered that "Double-qualified" should be the individual standard of teachers, which emphasizes skills and ability. Although this point of view grasps the essential characteristics of "double-qualified" faculty, it is difficult to measure and define them with clear quantitative criteria in practice.

Thirdly, from the point of view of the source structure, if a college's teaching team has its own teaching and research teachers, as well as senior technical talents from enterprises and institutions, it can also be defined that the college has its own "double-qualified" faculty. This viewpoint pays attention to the structure of the faculty and does not emphasize the comprehensive ability of the individual teachers. It is a realistic reflect of the construction of the "double-qualified" faculty in independent colleges at the primary period.

Fourthly, from a comprehensive perspective,some people think that "double-qualified" faculty should have both "double qualifications" and "double certificates"; others think that for the"double-qualified" teachers team ,there should be "double sources", and for individual,one should have"double-quality ability". There are differences between the above views because of different perspectives, lack of unified standards or evaluation indicators, and no one can fully explain the connotation and extension of "double-qualified" faculty, whose concepts still need to be further scientific and systematic.

To sum up, the definition of "double-qualified" faculty in this paper refers to teachers with dual abilities and qualities, which means, individual teachers not only have systematic and solid professional theoretical knowledge and higher level of  teaching skills, but also have rich practical experience and noble professional accomplishment; they are not only competent for theoretical teaching, but also for practical teaching.Based on the preconception that the ability and quality of  individual internalization are more important for talents cultivation, this paper does not include "double certificates" or "double professional titles" in the identification . This paper argues that such a definition is more in line with the current situation and development of the construction of "double-qualified" faculty in independent colleges.

 

2.2. Application-Oriented Construction: the Logical Start for the Construction of "Double-Qualified" Faculty

 

Although the concept of "double-qualified" faculty is not clear and mostly used in the context of vocational education, the construction of "double-qualified" faculty is an inevitable choice for the construction of teachers in Independent Colleges in the internal and external background. From the external context, it is needed for independent colleges in the construction of application-oriented universities and the cultivation of applied-oriented talents. According to statistics, , there are 265 independent colleges in China until May 31, 2017, accounting for about 9.08% of the national institutions of higher education. After nearly 20 years of development, the number of independent colleges has been basically stable, but if we want to continue to develop, we must find a correct position, highlight the characteristics and  compete differently. At the local level, more than 20 provinces (districts and municipalities) including Zhejiang, Guangdong, Henan, Liaoning, Jilin and Yunnan have issued documents to guide the transformation of some general undergraduate colleges and universities into application-oriented ones. More than 300 applied-oriented undergraduate Colleges and universities have been selected nationwide to carry out transformation reform pilot projects. Some of the independent colleges are among the pilot reforms, such as Zhijiang College of Zhejiang University of Technology, Dongfang College of Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics, Bowen College of Lanzhou Jiaotong University and College of Technology and Engineering of Lanzhou University of Technology in Gansu Province. Application-oriented transformation and cultivation of applied talents have become the general consensus of the development direction of independent colleges. However, how to transform and how to cultivate applied talents are the complicated problems, in which the transformation of teachers' ability and quality is the foundation.

In fact, the orientation of running independent colleges and training talents has always focused on adapting to local economic and social development. Taking Zhejiang Province as an example, from the analysis of talent cultivation orientation of 21 independent colleges in Zhejiang Province (see Table 1),it is easy to find that all independent colleges have clearly put forward the aim of cultivation of applied-oriented talents.It can be seen that, unlike other academic undergraduate universities in training academic talents and higher vocational colleges in training technical and skilled talents, the orientation of applied undergraduate talents training is to highlight the advantages,which is the only way to survive from competition, while the construction of "double-qualified"faculty is a effective aspect.

From the internal environment, the construction of "double-qualified" teachers is a breakthrough in the connotation development of independent colleges. Under the background of deepening supply-side reform, independent colleges can achieve sustainable development only by continuously improving their connotation and quality, and the "soft rib" of "double-qualified" teachers has become a bottleneck problem to be solved urgently. At present, the structure of knowledge, ability and quality of most teachers in independent colleges are still in the discrete stage, which has not reached the level of integration and practicality. Under the inertial thinking of traditional subject teaching, the teaching of "integration of theory and practice" is a challenge for teachers, and the theoretical teaching and practical guidance for students are pale and weak. The improvement of competence and quality is even more impossible.The independent colleges are advocated to train advanced applied talents to meet the needs of economic and social development, and to improve students' technical application ability and innovative practical ability.

 

 

Table 1. The orientation of talent training in independent collegesZhejiang Province

 

 

3. Major problems in the construction of the "double-qualified" faculty in independent colleges.

 

Competencies is the core of "double-qualified" teaching staff. Nevertheless, the currently competencies structure of "double-qualified" faculty in independent colleges shows "dual" division that the individual teachers 'competence quality appears low practicality.  From the perspective of teachers' professional development, it is urgent to strengthen the institutional guarantee system to support teachers to improve their competence quality and complete the transformation.

 

3.1. "Dual" division of teachers' ability and quality structure

 

On the whole, the teaching staff of independent colleges presents a structure of "dual" division, therefore, the competencies quality of the teaching staff seems to be "dualistic" differentiation generally. On one hand, full-time teachers of independent colleges, graduating of master's and doctor's degree from mother colleges and universities, mostly, have solid academic skills, but limited working experience and practical skills. Hence, it is highly possible for them to encounter the difficulties of "passive water, rootless wood". Besides, they lack the foundation and motive force of serving regional economy. On the other hand, introducing senior managers or technical backbone of enterprises and institutions, which has abundant working experience and practical skills, as part-time teachers, indeed infuse new blood into teaching activities. However, due to the weak theoretical basis, relatively limited teaching ability, and heavy work tasks, the introduced talents   could hardly have a deep impact on students. The situation of complementary cooperation between full-time teachers and part-time ones has not been formed. For example, In 2018, A independent college has nearly 400 full-time teachers, while part-time teachers were less than 50. Such a polarized "dual" teaching team can not meet the requirements of the constructing independent colleges and training applied talents. In the teaching staff of independent colleges, the competencies and quality of this two kinds of faculty,  which influence students through teaching activities, show a “dual polarization” state of theorizing and practising. It is obvious that theorization occupies the upper hand.

The reason lies in the "hereditary genes" of host universities. Considering many factors such as teacher qualification certificate, high education level, high professional title leads to the inflexibility of independent college’s policies and institutional mechanisms. Unlike other private colleges and universities, It is difficult for independent college to introduction "double-qualified" teachers without relaxing the employment system or promoting the internal competition mechanism. Based on the teaching tasks of semester or academic year, short-term employment and short-term salary could hardly make it easier to introducing part-time talents. 

 

3.2. Low practical ability of full-time teacher

 

Teachers in independent colleges are mainly self-employed full-time teachers, so the competence and quality of these teachers play a leading role in the quality of education and teaching. In order to promote the construction of "double-qualified" teachers, most independent colleges have carried out relevant qualification confirmation work for full-time teachers. However, to making the identification work  quantifiable and less controversial, many independent colleges have chosen the relatively simple and intuitive elements such as certificates, experience and qualifications as the identification criteria. As mentioned above, the “from school to school” teachers will not encounter too many difficulties in certificate examination, title evaluation and so on. But in the area of professional skills, professional qualifications and other abilities, they are difficult to achieve the level of vocational guidance, operation and training, and even will be out of touch with the actual needs of society. That is to say, most of the full-time teachers in independent colleges have advantages in theoretical ability quality, but their low practical ability quality can not meet the requirements of social and economic development of students' quality development needs. For example, B College stipulates that apart from a series of professional qualifications of teachers, achieving an extra professional qualification certificate can be awarded as a "double-qualified" teacher.

Although it also stipulates the time limit for enterprises to work, the social benefits of scientific research achievements, and the conditions for teachers to participate in competitions and win awards, which have the same effect as the certificate of professional qualification, the acquisition of professional qualification certificates is obviously more convenient. Whether teachers' practical operation and practical guidance ability can be effectively improved remains to be discussed. The goal of forcing teachers to improve their practical ability quality through practical assessment has not been achieved.

The main reason for the above problems is that the logic of the establishment of the "double-qualified" teacher qualification criteria in most independent colleges, which is far from the goal of the construction of applied universities and the cultivation of applied talents. Teachers apply for "double-qualified" teacher qualification with the need of job promotion or higher-level assessment. The recognition criteria also make them spend more time on textual research, rather than improving the ability of instructing students in practice. In addition, teachers are short of the place to practice  or corresponding higher level of technical guidance. The cooperation between independent colleges and enterprises often pays more attention on students' practical training and other teaching activities, ignoring the need for teachers to study advanced modern technology and management experience in enterprises. Furthermore, according to  attach great importance to efficiency, few enterprises are willing to take the social responsibility and take part in the personnel training of independent colleges. Even if the mode of school-enterprise cooperation take accounts, enterprises are unwilling to invite teachers into enterprises to participate in practical exercises or give technical guidance. For on thing, they are afraid of leaking business secrets or core technologies of enterprises. For another, they are afraid of affecting the timeliness of enterprises' production and operation activities. The different of interest between schools and enterprises leads to the inability to expand the scope and depth of school-enterprise cooperation, as well as the achievement of mutual benefit.

 

3.3. Lack of institutional guarantee for the transformation of teachers' competence and quality

 

Institutional system guarantee such as assessment and incentive, as external factors in the transformation of teachers' competence and quality development, play a guiding role of "baton", which is of great practical significance. The present situation of the "dual" division and the insufficient practicality "double-qualified" teachers makes it imperative for the transformation of teachers' competence and quality. However, the process of "double qualification" teachers' dynamic transformation and development is limited due to the absence of assessment, incentive and training systems. For instance, the personnel department of C independent college stipulates that teachers of professional courses and basic courses, whose under 45-years old, are required to practice for three to six months in enterprises and institutions within five years at least, in principle. Priority should be given to professional title assessment and backbone teacher selection with subsidizing 5 class a performance points in 5 years with .

Apart from whether the duration of practical exercise can meet the needs of teachers' practical ability and quality improvement or not, this regulation does not specify the requirements of assessment and incentive, only requires the total amount of teachers' practice. This provision does not provide guidance and arrangement on how to practice, and lacks the content of responsibilities and rights that make teachers practice deeply in enterprises in a planned, targeted and hierarchical way. Besides,It is difficult to calculate the workload, performance and remuneration during the period of on-the-job training in enterprises. It is difficult to calculate the workload, performance and remuneration during the period of on-the-job training. In addition, "priority" can hardly be put into practice from a quantitative point of view, and it is difficult to stimulate teachers' enthusiasm to improve their practical ability.

The deficiency of system guarantee is a lack of understanding and attention to the construction of "double-qualified" teachers at the national level and at the level of independent colleges in reality. At the national level, there is no unified definition and standard for "double-qualified" teachers and no corresponding qualification certification system. Independent colleges fail to consider the issue of "double qualification" teaching staff from the perspective of top-level design. Most of them feel that taking corresponding measures of "double-qualified" teachers has been a matter of trial and error. To fulfilling the requirements of education administrative departments, based on the simple understanding, simple actions and quantitative figures are adopted with relatively passive progress.

 

4. Measures for Improving the Competency and Quality of "Double-Qualified" Faculty in Independent Colleges

 

The transformation and upgrading of the competence and quality of the "double-qualified" faculty is a systematic project. We should not only pay attention to the structure of the teachers' group, but also to the improvement of the individual competence and quality of the teachers,and establish a assurance system.

 

4.1. System Construction: a Guarantee Framework for Improving the Competency of "Double-Qualified" Faculty

 

The transformation and improvement of the competence and quality of "double-qualified" faculty need a strong institutional guarantee framework to achieve effective results. Firstly, the concept of "double-qualified" faculty should be clarified from the national level, and corresponding policies should be issued to encourage the transformation and development of teachers into "double-qualified" faculty, which should be included in the assessment of colleges. Secondly, independent colleges should deeply realize that the construction of "double-qualified" faculty is a key to realize the construction of application-oriented colleges. They should be considered at the strategic level related to the development of colleges, do a good job in top-level design, and establish and improve a institutional system that helps the transformation.For instance,independent colleges should cooperate with leading enterprises, trade associations and industrial bases to establish characteristic industrial colleges. They should work with enterprises with disciplines development, develop project-based courses development,teaching and scientific research teams building, practical teaching platforms building, technological innovation institutions setting up, which are conducive to the development of students and teachers.And then make the transformation and development of faculty a self-conscious action.

 

4.2. Self Cultivation: the Internal Driving Force for Improving the Competence and Quality of "Double-Qualified" Faculty

 

The stability of the existing full-time teachers in independent colleges determines that it is still an important way to foster the transformation of teachers to "double-qualified" and improve the apply-oriented competence. Independent colleges should start with the analysis of the age structure, educational background structure, professional structure and academic relationship structure of the teaching staff. And make a reasonable school-based training system which contains training projects of teachers’ professional lifetime in order to promote teachers to learn professional theoretical knowledge, strengthen professional and practical ability.In order to embody the competency and quality of "application-oriented" faculty, we can further promote the circulation of talents between schools and enterprises with the help of local government, and relate the qualification of "double-qualified" faculty with their professional titles, performance appraisal, welfare and opportunities for further study, so as to exert the enthusiasm of teachers to to take part in on-the-job training, project and technology tackling, training and management consultation and other activities.

 

4.3. Flexible Introduction: a Fast Way to Improve the Competence and Quality of  "Double-Qualified" Faculty

 

Independent colleges should also follow the principle of "employing talents without restriction" in introducing teachers. different ways of employment should be adopted for different types of teachers. For newly-introduced full-time teachers, strict admission system should be formulated, and professional standards should be established in three dimensions: technical skills, practical ability and teaching ability, so that new teachers can basically possess the competence quality of "double-qualified" teachers at the beginning of their employment, and at the same time force the existing teachers stay competitive. But for part-time teachers, we should take the initiative to bring in those who are beneficial for school-enterprise cooperation and talent cultivation, so that talents with both professional operation skills and teaching abilities can participate in all aspects of talent cultivation in independent colleges, stimulate the vitality of teachers' team, and promote full-time and part-time teachers to learn from each other.Of course, independent colleges should also pay attention to the standardization of part-time employment, sign employment contracts, reduce temporary part-time tasks, improve the treatment of part-time teachers, strengthen humanistic care and organize exchanges and cooperation between part-time teachers and full-time teachers, so as to help the part-time teachers to gradually understand and identify with the school's philosophy, orientation and culture,to improve their sense of teaching responsibility and the theoretical literacy of education.

 

4.4. College-Enterprise Cooperation Community: an Effective Form of "Double-Qualified" Faculty Competence and Quality Improvement

 

In the common case of the low quality of teachers' practical ability in independent colleges, establishing a "college-enterprise cooperation community"is an effective way to promote cooperation colleges and enterprises and to improve the competence and Quality quality of "double-qualified" faculty.This community relies on the following measures: Firstly, college-enterprise cooperation organizations, including schools, industry-enterprise organizations and relevant government departments, should be established, which are specially responsible for the operation of college-enterprise cooperation. So as to formulate cooperation charters and clarify the relationship between responsibilities and rights of all parties,promoting a long-term cooperation mechanism.In this organization, the role of the government can not be ignored. In the past, college-enterprise cooperation was not deep enough because that the government did not really play the role connection in college-enterprise cooperation. Therefore, we should actively strive for the support of government policies and funds,in order to provide necessary guarantee for the deepening of college-enterprise cooperation.Secondly, we should explore further face-to-face cooperation mode with enterprises, such as jointly formulating personnel training programs, implementing "dual professional leaders" and "one lesson, two teachers"project, and providing platforms and opportunities for teachers to participate in enterprise technological innovation, project designing, joint applying for programs, and joint guidance of students' practical activities. So that to update teachers' knowledge framework,enhance their technical skills,and also meets the demands of enterprises' efficiency.Finally, the advantages of both sides should be shared by establishing and expanding the practice bases inside and outside colleges to make long-term stable cooperation.Generally speaking, the in-depth cooperation mode of "two-teacher co-education" benefits from the flexible talent management system of two-way circulation between colleges and enterprises. In other words, college and enterprise should participate in the whole process of talent cultivation to meet the needs of social economics and industrial development,and eventually realize the role exchange and development of both sides.

 

 

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