Personnel reform, prepared for one year has finally kicked off. Employment advertisement for 95 professors from home and abroad has been going on the website of Peking University (www.puk.edu.cn) since April 6, said Zhou Yueming, head of the personnel section of Peking University.

12 professors in physics, 11 in information sciences, eight in mathematics and six in chemistry are to join the faculty of Peking University which does not openly recruit associate professors.

This is the first time for the top university in China to recruit openly and collectively professors. The recruitment is to realize the goal of personnel reform: to introduce competition mechanism into employment and promotion.

Peking University's requirements on job candidates are: having excellent academic style and teaching virtue and excellent teaching, scientific research and social service performance as the post in Peking University required. They must be an excellent scholars widely acknowledged by insiders at home and abroad with marked research achievements and able to complete the teaching smoothly. Job candidates not from Peking University should have earned the highest degree in their respective disciplines with advanced professional technique (including exceptionally excellent ones); pacesetters in the field with good health, and normally younger than 50.

To put it in a nutshell, Zhou Yueming is "in the hope to introduce leaders of subjects".

Professor's job in Peking University is not necessarily "iron bowl". According to the Peking University's plan, associate professors, once promoted to professors, will acquire long-term post the duration of which depends on whether the employees can abide by the "rule of the game" in Peking University. For example, whether they can meet the university's requirement at the beginning of the contractual period. If so, "they can be employed to retirement", said Zhou.

Peking University has formulated strict evaluation procedure, and set the principle of "being rather short than inferior". Zhou also stressed, if applicants of high quality are not in the minority, the university will consider to expand the employment.

"This is the first time for Peking University to openly recruit professors and we can not estimate the result at present", said Zhou, "we will run trials gradually in the hope of attracting more excellent talents to teach in Peking University."

(People's Daily April 15, 2004)