China Youth Daily: Why Young Researchers Are Passionate about Chasing "Hats"

The talent "hat" that is hotly discussed in the technology industry mainly refers to talent programs and research projects funded by talents. The purpose of talent programs is to care for, select, and support talents, while research projects provide research funding for outstanding scientific and technological talents, playing a role in cultivating and motivating them

The talent "hat" that is hotly discussed in the technology industry mainly refers to talent programs and research projects funded by talents. The purpose of talent programs is to care for, select, and support talents, while research projects provide research funding for outstanding scientific and technological talents, playing a role in cultivating and motivating them. These policies have played an irreplaceable and important role in the construction of China's scientific and technological talent team, and a large number of outstanding scientists have emerged in various talent programs.

However, some talent plans and projects have been given too many additional benefits unrelated to their policy objectives and positioning during the use process, distorting the original policy intention. Many young researchers feel that "hats flying all over the sky" has become one of the persistent diseases that make it difficult for researchers to concentrate and engage in scientific research; Liu Yun, a professor of the School of Public Policy and Management of the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, believes that the original intention of the establishment of talent titles was in line with the needs of the time, and the current problem is "alienation".

The Opinions on Deepening the Reform of Project Evaluation, Talent Evaluation, and Institutional Evaluation issued by the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council in 2018, in response to prominent issues such as "too many hats" for talents, "one size fits all standards", and disconnection between evaluation and use, propose not to use honorary titles of talents as restrictive conditions for undertaking various national science and technology plan projects, obtaining national science and technology awards, evaluating professional titles, hiring positions, and determining salary and benefits, Returning talent titles to their academic and honorary essence, avoiding simple and direct connection with material interests; Strengthening the main body position of talent evaluation in employers, not only determining salary and benefits based on academic titles and talent titles, but also allocating academic resources

In recent years, relevant departments have also introduced a series of reform measures related to cleaning up the "hat" of talents. In 2020, the Ministry of Education issued several opinions on the correct understanding and standardized use of university talent titles, which mentioned that teaching evaluation and subject evaluation should adhere to a comprehensive evaluation of the quality of the teaching staff, not use talent titles and quantities as direct basis for evaluation, and reduce the direct connection between evaluation results and academic resource allocation. In the same year, the Ministry of Science and Technology and other four departments issued the "Notice on Continuously Carrying out the Special Action to Reduce the Burden of Scientific Research Personnel and Stimulate Innovation Vitality", which mentioned the use of talent "hats" as evaluation indicators in scientific and technological evaluation activities, and the direct linkage between talent "hats" and material interests.

The implementation of policies has achieved certain results, such as the cleaning up of the practice of using talent "hats" as evaluation indicators by the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the cancellation of the entry for filling in talent titles in the evaluation of national science and technology plan projects. The fifth round of subject evaluation work plan of the Ministry of Education proposes to evaluate teachers not only based on their academic qualifications and professional titles, but also without setting talent "hat" indicators to avoid the practice of one-sided evaluation of academic level based on academic titles. In Liu Yun's view, there has been phased progress in breaking the "four only" policy, but the "historical inertia" of the "only hat" issue still exists in the recruitment and employment of employers, especially some universities.

Why is the "hat" still flying? Recently, a reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Network conducted a frontline research on the issue of alienation in the use of talent titles.

Some "hats" have become "magnets" for resource allocation

Young researchers use the term "Matthew effect of resources" to describe the impact of "hats" on the allocation of scientific and technological resources. A scientific researcher who has participated in project review work stated that although the requirement of not relying solely on "hats" has been clearly stated in the review rules of science and technology plan projects, there are still differences in the evaluation results of experts, as "it is easier to undertake large projects after having a" hat ".

Wen Wu is 36 years old and an assistant researcher. Since 2019, he has been applying for a certain science fund project for four consecutive years, but all have failed. Due to the lack of his own projects and funding, he mocked himself as a "research migrant worker" and said, "70% to 80% of the young people around me have this feeling, perhaps more broadly.

Young people, if they cannot obtain a 'hat', their development in all aspects will be affected. With a 'hat', their professional titles, benefits, and resource allocation will all be tilted towards them, "Liu Yun said.

A technology evaluation policy researcher who did not want to be named analyzed that the reason why research institutions are willing to offer various special preferential policies to hire "hat talents" is because "as long as this person is introduced, it is equivalent to introducing the resources behind him", and the projects and funds they can bring often play a key role in making research institutions stand out in superior assessment and evaluation. Introducing "hat talent" is actually introducing a "chip" to compete for rankings and resources. In order to gain more support from superiors, most scientific research units are either actively or forced to participate in the "battle for talent".

Some researchers have reported that the phenomenon of "robbing people" is more common in universities. Although the policy explicitly requires that the number and level of "hats" should no longer be filled in evaluation activities such as subject evaluation, when it comes to the iconic projects, awards, and representative works filled in the current subject evaluation, a director of the Science and Technology Department of a southern university admitted that they still believe that "hat talents" should have a "higher probability of obtaining" and "the ability to obtain resources must be valued by schools".

Some people believe that the inertia of 'hat only' is also related to the excessive discourse power of 'hat talents'. The ability to acquire resources is often sought after. Li Li, who is engaged in research related to science and technology policies at a university in Beijing, said that after obtaining a "hat", he is also more likely to become a person who evaluates the "hat", resulting in research resources being monopolized in the "hat" circle.

The "hat" can continuously attract more resources like a "magnet", forming the "Matthew effect" mentioned by Wen Wu - allowing researchers to have more research resources, and correspondingly, less.

The aforementioned policy researchers, who do not want to be named, believe that the emergence of "hats flying all over the sky" is largely related to the government's evaluation standards and usage methods for outstanding talents. Due to the relative lack of credible talent evaluation channels such as academic evaluation and market evaluation, the so-called "hat talents", which are supported by national talent plans and talent technology projects, have become a crucial benchmark for governments at all levels to judge whether a person is an excellent talent. The allocation of scientific and technological resources and policy support are tilted towards them, leading to excessive accumulation of resources towards "hat talents", Make it a "magnet" for resources, thereby exacerbating the resource gap between "hat talents" and non "hat talents", and exacerbating the trend of "chasing hats, grabbing hats".

He analyzed that in this environment, "hats" have become the "passport" of the academic workplace, to some extent, hindering the academic growth of young talents. If young people want to make progress, they have to "step on a bit to compete for hats", "produce results as soon as possible" and "do some short-term projects as soon as possible" before the age limit for applying for various "hats", which brings unreasonable application pressure and burden. And this is obviously not conducive to researchers' dedicated research and overcoming difficulties, nor does it meet the development needs of high-level technology self-reliance and self-improvement.

Some 'hats' have become' passes' in the academic workplace

Young professor Wang Feng joined a certain university in 2021 and his career development was "very smooth". He believes that "getting a 'hat' as soon as he returns to China" played a crucial role in it. He said that six months after receiving the "hat" of a certain national level talent, he was awarded the position of professor through the "green channel" from an assistant researcher.

After Wang Feng joined a domestic university, he judged that "having a title would lead to better development" and carefully prepared an application for "several months".

While waiting, he saw people posting and reporting on social media, and Wang Feng thought he had "hung up" for a while. He was very frustrated - "Without a hat, it would be difficult to apply for projects and evaluate professional titles. More importantly, he believes that if one year's evaluation is not satisfactory, the next year's "re evaluation" will require a considerable amount of time and effort. Therefore, after receiving the news of being "rated", he felt relieved.

Li Qingshan, a 37 year old associate professor at a university in Beijing, was filled with admiration and envy upon hearing this story. He has successively applied for national level fund projects and a high-level talent support plan for a certain country for many years. The age limits for males in these two declarations are 38 and 40, respectively, indicating that there is not much time left for them to compete for hats.

Li Qingshan learned that in the universities where he works, with a "hat", he can be directly recognized as a high-level talent. However, if he has not yet obtained a "hat", he can only be selected for the lower level talent program of his unit. Compared to people with "hats," he not only feels "without status," but also has "multiplied differences" in treatment.

In his view, a "hat" is like a "passport" to the academic workplace. If you don't get various "hats" by stepping on them, it's difficult to open up the upward path of the academic workplace.

Wei Shijie and Zhang Wenxia, researchers at the China Academy of Science and Technology Development Strategy, mentioned in their analysis of the article "Explorations, Issues, and Policy Suggestions for National Research Institutions to Support Young Researchers to Concentrate on Research" that currently, China's science and technology planning projects, talent plans, and science and technology rewards have formed a path that needs to be "eliminated and upgraded" to a certain extent, and young researchers must step by step solve each problem, The path of scientific research can only be smooth. If a young scientific researcher fails to achieve a high starting point (i.e. obtain a high-level talent "hat") in the early stages of their career, it is difficult to achieve a "turnaround" in their subsequent career. Therefore, young scientific researchers must participate in intense resource competition from the beginning, and under enormous internal pressure and anxiety, it is difficult to grow slowly in their own way and pace.

Li Qingshan believes that 'hats' can screen out some excellent people, but' it's not normal for everyone to compete for hats'.

Liu Yun analyzed that it is precisely because the presence or absence of a "hat" can bring significant differences to the development of researchers in various aspects, and many young people still believe that the "hat" is worth fighting for. But in fact, compared with the large group of young scientific researchers, the number of talent "hats" is very limited. "There are more monks than porridge", and everyone wants to compete, which ultimately leads to the rhythm of "chasing hats" "disturbing the natural growth law of talent".

The ruler for evaluating diverse talents should be 'hard'

Liu Yun believes that the alienated use of talent titles is a manifestation that talent work and research management concepts have not kept up with the pace of development of the times, and relevant policies need to be adjusted. The government can commend scientific and technological talents who have made outstanding contributions, but the task of granting academic honors to scientific researchers should be entrusted to the academic community. He said that employers should take on the responsibility of selecting and employing individuals as legal entities, and should not use "hats" as the only criterion for measuring talent.

Li Qingshan believes that to make the ruler of the "hat" appear less effective, it is necessary for other talents to evaluate the "ruler" harder.

He observed some positive changes, such as some units having begun to reform and broaden talent evaluation channels, incorporating social services, teaching achievements, and technological achievements into the talent evaluation system. However, during implementation, these evaluation channels have not yet received widespread recognition like "hats". Taking his own research field of air pollution as an example, the proportion of social technology services is very large. "Since the beginning of this year, I have served five or six steel mills, more than ten coking factories, and more than ten brick factories." However, due to the lack of a mature system for evaluating the effectiveness of technology services, his work achievements cannot prove his ability well, let alone obtain career promotion opportunities or more scientific research resources through this.

How to make the "ruler" of other evaluations harder? Experts suggest increasing evaluation channels, fully leveraging the role of academic communities and industry associations, and establishing a diversified evaluation system beyond the government evaluation system. Some researchers have also proposed that the proportion of non hat rated experts in project evaluation should be increased.

At the same time, Liu Yun suggested that the function of national level talent honor titles should be adjusted to recognize individuals who have made outstanding contributions, which can be "selected several times a year" to serve as a "role model". He also suggested that national talent research projects targeting young people should avoid being labeled as "national brand" to avoid being mistaken by society and employers as "talent hat".

Li Li believes that significantly reducing the number of "hats" may serve as a "palliative" option, so that most young people may be able to "rest assured" and return to their academic aspirations; By adjusting the evaluation system and diluting or even canceling the "added value" corresponding to talent plans and scientific research projects, the "root cause" solution to the "hat only" problem is the solution.

(Wang Feng, Li Qingshan, Wen Wu, and Li Li are pseudonyms)

Column Editor in Chief: Qin Hong Text Editor: Yang Rong Inscription Source: Image Insect Image Editor: Da Xi

Source: Author: China Youth Daily

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