China Daily today carried an article on a new professional ethics code "to guide professors to take the right approach in their careers." The article mentions sexual harassment and profiting from plagiarism, but the list of forbidden behaviors frontloads quite different concerns.Seven behaviors that are strictly forbidden for university instructors:
• Harming the interests of the nation, the university or the students.
• Making remarks or performing deeds that are against the Party's principles and policies in teaching.
• Committing academic cheating such as plagiarizing or copying others' academic achievements; or misusing research funds or academic resources.
• Having part-time jobs off campus that affect teaching duties on campus.
• Playing favorites and committing irregularities in recruitment, examinations, student rewards and postgraduate recommendations.
• Taking bribes from students or parents.
• Sexually harassing students or having improper relations with students.
If it's in the English edition of the China Daily ("Connecting China Connecting the World"), this is no internal document but intended for a wide audience - not just academics but their foreign interlocutors. But I'm struck also by something mentioned further down in the article:
The regulations echo the requirements President Xi Jinping issued for teachers when he visited Beijing Normal University in September, the ministry said.
The president said teachers should encourage faith and belief, have good standards and a solid base of knowledge, and be kind to students.
"Faith and belief"? What could that be about? Not religion, clearly, but what? Perhaps something like what those folks in Colorado who think the new AP History curriculum sows seeds of unpatriotic cynicism and lack of respect for authority are concerned about...?
