187Academic Freedom, Professionalization, and the Role of Faculty
Although the government role is important, academic freedom and professionaliza-
tion may have more to do with each and every college and university than with
government policies. Zhidong Hao (2015a) studied one university in Macau and
found that faculty are largely powerless in terms of curricular planning, recruitment
and promotion of faculty, recruitment of academic managers from department
chairs up to the deans and rectors, and involvement in the university budgeting, all
of which are indicators of academic freedom. In fact, this is not only an issue of a
lack of academic freedom, but one of de-professionalization. In other words, faculty
are losing their academic calling and professional autonomy, and they are more like
alienated workers in the manufacturing industry.
In another paper, Zhidong Hao (2015b) points out that professors play not only
academic roles of teaching, research, and service but also political roles of the
organic (serving the government, business corporations, and established social
movements), professional (keeping a distance to politics), and critical (of the powers
that be). Most professors play the organic and professional roles, and few play a
critical role. They are encouraged to play the organic role to the government, but
their other roles are greatly hampered. When two professors were dismissed in 2014
for allegedly political reasons, that means their critical role is in jeopardy. And if the
process of dismissal was lacking in faculty participation, as it was the case with these
two professors, their academic freedom is in jeopardy (see Zhidong Hao 2014 ).
Professors’ academic freedom and role playing is hampered by the global trends
of corporatization and commercialization (C&C) (Zhidong Hao 2015b). University
managers are increasingly seeing themselves as CEOs of a corporation, faculty as
increasingly seen as workers, and students as customers. The traditional idea of the
university as a community of scholars and relationship between professor and stu-
dent as partners in learning is being lost. C&C are also infringing on academic
freedom and de-professionalizing the faculty.
As Xie Anbang ( 2010 ) points out, universities in Macau need to develop a set of
principles of academic autonomy and freedom, a culture that can resist the pressures
from outside so that professors can do their job in a more relaxed environment.
Professor Xie does not elaborate on what he means here, but the implication is obvi-
ous. More studies are needed on the issues of academic freedom and professional-
ization of faculty. We will discuss what needs to be done below.
What Needs to Be Done in the Future
First, researchers have to continue to study how the colleges and universities in
Macau define their mission. Policymakers and higher education practitioners need to
pay more attention to the trend of vocationalization and the need of at least general
education in humanities and social sciences. As David Chan ( 2008 :28, 30) points
10 What It Is Like and What Needs to Be Done: A Status Report on Higher Education...