Evaluators should beware of simply wearing a "hat"

Source: China Youth Daily

If you want to judge the "duan position" of a scientific researcher simply and quickly, you can see its "hat" and know: whether it is the "Yangtze River" above the head, or the "Yellow River" in hand; whether it is pregnant with "Chu Tian" or stepping on "Taishan"...

The "hat" here is the "title".

In recent years, the relevant departments of the state and various provinces and cities have launched their own talent plans, and various "hats" have also come. The "hat" has sent a number of "benefits" to scientific researchers, and has made great contributions to attracting and cultivating innovative talents. In many universities and research institutes, the "hat" is the "hard currency" that many researchers are scrambling, but the negative effects brought about by too many "hats" are becoming increasingly prominent.

"Hats" become "hard currency" for researchers to obtain resources

According to incomplete statistics, there are currently nearly 20 talent programs at the national level: "Outstanding Youth Science Fund" (commonly known as "Jieqing"), "Excellent Youth Science Fund" (referred to as "Youqing"), "Yangtze River Scholars" (referred to as "Yangtze River"), "Young Yangtze River Scholars" (commonly known as "Little Yangtze River"),"New Century Excellent Talents Support Program", "Ten Thousand People Plan", "Innovative Talent Promotion Plan" and so on.

There are no less than 100 talent programs at the provincial and municipal levels and at all levels of schools. According to incomplete statistics, there are at least 27 provincial and municipal talent programs such as "Taishan Scholars" and "Zhongyuan Scholars", and 79 university-level talent programs such as "Yellow River Scholars" and "Kunlun Scholars".

In other words, these more than 100 innovative talent programs at all levels in the country correspond to more than 100 "hats".

"The 'hat' not only reflects the recognition of an individual's academic ability, but more importantly, the recognition of personal value." The staff of the human resources department of a 211 university in Jiangsu Province told the China Youth Daily China Youth Online reporter, "To put it bluntly, the talent 'hats' that are now recognized as 'Yangtze River' and 'JieQing' can be said to be the 'hard currency' in the talent market, and are an extremely valuable reference for measuring the level of talents." ”

For young researchers, these "hats" have almost become a necessity for their scientific research work.

Wang Yongtian, director of the Department of Information and Electronics at Beijing Institute of Technology, told the China Youth Daily China Youth Online reporter, "If young teachers do not grasp the 'hat', they may be affected when they stay in school." If it weren't for 'Qingqian', he would have to get a 'youqing' and 'youth Yangtze River', and get a "hat", and his treatment would have been greatly improved, and it might have doubled more than once. ”

The reason for this, Nantong University President Shi Weidong believes that at present, most colleges and universities are based on the classification of "talent hats", to determine the annual salary of the introduction of talents, scientific research start-up funds, supporting policies, etc., such as Yangtze River scholars, national Jieqing, the annual salary has reached 800,000 to 1.2 million yuan, while the salary of ordinary professors is only about 150,000 to 200,000 yuan a year; at the same time, the current focal point is different, the talent title is different, some experts and scholars take this title to take another title. Driven by the dual drive of talent projects and talent treatment, it is not surprising to chase the talent "hat".

More "hats" become "double-edged swords"

It is understood that many talent programs have restrictions on the age of the applicants, such as the age of the national "young thousand" declarants is not more than 40 years old; the declaration of the national "excellent youth", generally males are not more than 38 years old, women are not more than 40 years old; declaring "Yangtze River scholars", science and engineering fields are generally not more than 45 years old... "It can be said that young scientific researchers are forced to play short and fast, quickly publish papers, and get projects, which is very stressful. Wang Yongtian said.

Yang Huayong, director of the State Key Laboratory of Fluid Power and Electromechanical Systems of Zhejiang University, as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a distinguished professor of Yangtze River Scholars, has not only applied for "hats", but also seen and evaluated many "hats". In his view, there are too many "hats", which have a great impact on researchers in the golden age group of 35 to 45 years old. "The more 'hats' are definitely more competitive, but they need to be busy writing materials and preparing for the defense, applying for 'Jie Qing', and applying for 'Yangtze River' the next year.

Not long ago, Li Yanrong, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and president of Sichuan University, said in an interview with the China Youth Daily and China Youth Online reporter that at present, there are many names for the introduction of talents in colleges and universities, and there are too many talent titles. "The golden time for young scientific and technological talents to devote themselves to research is generally 30 to 45 years old, and they apply for different talent plans every year, many of which are talent plans and talent titles of the same magnitude, which takes a lot of energy and wastes a lot of time." He said.

This is also criticized by many scientific and technological people, for individual researchers, the "hat" is easy to mislead the direction of their work and its attitude, with a bias of "rhythm". For the rapid development of education and science and technology, it is obviously also unfavorable.

"It's easy to get big projects when you get a 'hat', and the 'hat' is a bunch of strings, and you can get more research funds." Han Shen (pseudonym), a lecturer at a provincial university in Shandong Province, told China Youth Daily and China Youth Online reporter, "Scholars on the general national key university platform are more likely to get the 'hat', and they get more scientific research funds, or even more than they can spend, while provincial universities and local universities are more difficult." ”

In addition, Han Shen believes that if only the "hat" is used as a simple evaluation indicator, it will aggravate the abnormal flow of talents between universities. "Because it is impossible to create 'hat' talents in a short period of time, but the development of the school is not waiting for people, they can only go to high prices to recruit people, and some places even take the 'talent introduction' work as an indicator task to complete, especially the cross-regional talent competition."

Beware of simply wearing a "hat"

It is undeniable that the "hat" plays a role in motivating and rewarding researchers. But how to unify management and reasonably evaluate the "hat"? This has become a hot spot for many people in the scientific and technological circles.

Li Yanrong believes that at present, there are many types of talents introduced, especially there are more "hats" of the same type or the same magnitude, and the higher-level departments should merge this or restrict the application, "for example, if you apply for this plan, you can't and don't have to report another one", which can create a clean environment for researchers to concentrate on research.

And for the way to evaluate talents simply with "hats", in Han Shen's view, it should also be changed. He revealed to reporters that whether or not to be rated as a "hat" today, in the case of similar academic level, the situation of obtaining resources varies greatly.

A scholar from one of the top domestic universities that Han Shen knew, because he did not declare a "Yangtze River Scholar" in his unit, jumped to another slightly weaker university, and became a "Yangtze River Scholar", "because the school also needs a 'hat' to decorate the façade, and will use huge resources to help him."

"Some teachers have similar scientific research levels, but just because they are older, they can't be rated as a 'hat', so that the difference in scientific research treatment is very large, but in fact, do they really have such a big gap?" Zhao Ji, president of Northeastern University, also believes that we should not simply talk about talents with "hats", and the construction of talent teams should focus on the whole, provide them with a good environment, and cannot deform development.

The key crux of the "hat" problem, Shi Daning, dean of the School of Science of Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, believes that it lies in the evaluation criteria for scientific and technological talents. "The fundamental criterion for selecting talent programs should be innovation ability and potential, not simply looking at indicators."

In Shi Daning's view, the correct evaluation should be based on the different nature of scientific research activities, the use of corresponding standards, classified evaluation. "But now no matter what you do, you often look at the number of papers, impact factors, patents and other digital indicators." This has led many researchers to one-sidedly pursue the number of papers and avoid research directions that are difficult to produce rapid results, which is not conducive to achieving major breakthroughs in prospective basic research.

Shi Daning suggested that it is necessary to promote the "de-profitization" of talent titles, cut off the chain of interests behind talent titles, and decouple discipline settings, key discipline selections, scientific research start-up funds, personal promotions, and academic achievement evaluations from talent titles, and restore talent titles to a scientific honor that reflects scientific research contributions and academic capabilities. Guide scientific research talents from the source to no longer grab the "hat".

For young scientific and technological talents, Li Yanrong also suggested that they should not spend too much energy on the same magnitude of talent plans, do not pursue to wear so many "hats", but should concentrate on research, you can apply for higher-level talent plans to improve yourself. (Reporters Sun Qingling and Ye Yuting)