부산대학교 도서관

This study provides empirical evidences on the differentiation of the academic community amid the latest classified reform of faculty evaluation, highlighted by up-or-out policy in the non-research university context in China. The systematic data analysis sketches out faculty’s segmentation and four characterizations including academic bureaucrats, academic elites, academic weight-bearers, and academic realists were taxonomized accordingly. By distinguishing the “powerful minority” and the “powerless majority” in the academic community, the paper indicated that there exist heterogeneous interpretations of faculty evaluation policies departure from faculty’s perception toward their academic identity and trajectory. The findings of this research contribute to extant studies and provide insights that social interactions take place not only between faculty policies and the academic community but also among heterogeneous academic professional groups, which can be profoundly utilized to enhance faculty’s sense making of evaluation policies and adopt more rational strategies. It also suggests that under the dual managerial structure of Chinese universities, the segmentation of the academic community may continue to be intensified along with the changing faculty evaluation policies.