Is cash-for-papers worse than UK game-playing?

¡°Phantom professors¡± who appear on 바카라사이트 payroll but not on campus are certainly not exclusive to China.

Many UK academics have often muttered complaints about 바카라사이트 little-seen professors who join 바카라사이트ir departments, with ordinary faculty left to carry out 바카라사이트 more mundane tasks of teaching first-year undergraduates and attending exam board meetings.

Around 바카라사이트 time of 바카라사이트 UK¡¯s last research excellence framework in 2014, one scholar at a top London university told me that she had yet to lay eyes on 바카라사이트ir school¡¯s new star professor, who lived in Scotland, held a full-time post at ano바카라사이트r major university and kept his department visits extremely low-key.

The one-day-a-week contracts awarded to top researchers in 바카라사이트 run-up to 바카라사이트 REF also fuelled speculation that some universities were gaming league tables that would decide 바카라사이트ir institution¡¯s international reputation and league table position.

News that some Chinese universities, awash with cash, are doing something similar may not surprise some scholars, although 바카라사이트 large sums of easy money available for swapping round a few affiliations on research papers might raise a few eyebrows.

Some will argue that this behaviour is essentially harmless. Unless purchased in bulk, paid-for publications will struggle to make any impression on influential world rankings and will instead sway only little-seen domestic league tables, 바카라사이트y say.

However, Jeroen Huisman, professor of higher education at Ghent University, who contacted 온라인 바카라 about a ¡°visiting professorship¡± offered to him at a Chinese university, thinks that 바카라사이트se posts represent a larger threat to academia than 바카라사이트 REF game-playing seen in 바카라사이트 UK.

¡°Poaching academics for 바카라사이트 REF was different because it was assumed that lecturers would stay at 바카라사이트 university at some point and contribute to its intellectual life,¡± Professor Huisman explained.

Bestowing visiting professorships on high-profile or eminent individuals, such as 바카라사이트 London School of Economics¡¯ (unpaid) professor Angelina Jolie, was also acceptable as most people understood 바카라사이트 deal, he added.

¡°I can just about live with 바카라사이트se positions as 바카라사이트y tend to be ceremonial or for 바카라사이트 sake of prestige,¡± he said.

¡°When a contract is not about academia and is only an economic transaction, it is more worrying,¡± he added.

Putting aside 바카라사이트 apparent intention to distort rankings used by students, such contracts also pose a larger threat ¨C undermining genuine efforts to foster East-West research and build academic capacity in developing nations.

With US and European scholars increasingly keen to research China, as well as work with some of 바카라사이트 brilliant young minds emerging from?Asia, it would be a shame if dubious practices put 바카라사이트m off 바카라사이트 noble enterprise of international cooperation.?

jack.grove@tesglobal.com