China highlights professional ethics of university faculty members

China will establish a disclosure mechanism to expose ethics violations by teaching staff in higher education, the Ministry of Education (MOE) said on Jan 27.

During the faculty recruitment process, a nationwide sex offender database will be checked to bar those unqualified from teaching jobs, said Ren Youqun, an MOE official in charge of teachers' work.

Ren made the announcement while briefing a press conference on the two latest documents concerning the management of teaching staff at China's universities and developments in the country's education reform and innovation.

Professional ethics have come first and foremost in faculty recruitment, the conferral of academic titles, teaching work placement, the selection of dissertation supervisors, teaching performance appraisals, and research fund applications at colleges and universities, said Ren.

Universities have been urged to institutionalize the dissemination of the country's history among teaching staff and to include the educators' code of ethics into faculty orientation and in-service training.