Top academics slam elite honor for using fraud and PR tactics
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Veteran scholars have accused research institutions and universities of using underhand tactics to help their candidates win the nation's top academic title in order to boost their own prestige and value, the China Youth Daily reported Wednesday.
In China, the title of "Academician" is the most prestigious that a scholar can attain, and can only be granted by the Chinese Academy of Sciences or the Chinese Academy of Engineering. Academicians reportedly receive an annual bonus of 100,000 yuan ($15,240) and are even provided with apartments and cars in certain provinces.
Institutions or universities that employ Academicians are also more likely to be granted key national projects along with huge funds, the report said.
Chen Yuntai, a 71-year-old member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference - and an Academician himself - said during a panel discussion Tuesday that many candidates vying for the title try to build connections with academics with voting power in order to win the honor.
"Some institutions even attribute another person's academic achievements to their candidate in order to help him or her win the title," Chen said.
"Elections for Academicians are no longer about candidates," Wang Mengshu, an Academician who is currently a professor at Beijing Jiaotong University, told the Global Times Wednesday.
"In order to win the title, many institutions will overstate their candidates' research achievements and woo the media," said Wang.
Shao Guopei, the former head of the Anhui-based Electronic Engineering Institute, said during the discussion that it was "shocking" how some Academician candidates could "win" up to six national-level research awards in a matter of a few years, while researchers could only win one or two such awards in the past.
Wang's opinion echoed that of Zuo Tiechuan, another CPPCC member and a professor at the Beijing University of Technology.
"It's said that a candidate has to spend several million yuan if he wants to be an Academician," Zuo said to the China Youth Daily.
"The public relation tactics adopted in Academician elections damage the current academic atmosphere and are detrimental to the nation's scientific research," Xia Xueluan, a sociologist at Peking University, told the Global Times.
In February this year, the Ministry of Science and Technology withdrew the State Science and Technology Progress Second Prize given to Li Liansheng, a former professor at Xi'an Jiaotong University, for academic fraud.
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