In recent years, the Chinese Communist Party has continuously strengthened ideological control over teachers and students in universities, with counselors being the first line of defense in this regard. Universities have implemented strict assessment and deduction policies for counselors, leading to protests and dissatisfaction among grassroots counselors.
Recently, the first inspection team of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee inspected Changshu Institute of Technology in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. The institute introduced the counselor assessment for the 2023-2024 academic year, which was criticized as an “unreasonable assessment plan.” “All counselors have repeatedly protested against the ‘Changshu Institute of Technology Counselor Assessment Method for 2024 August Edition’ to the school and related departments, but the school stated that the protest is ineffective. There’s no way to voice opposition against these arbitrary clauses,” an informant told the Epoch Times.
A recent audio recording obtained by the Epoch Times revealed that the basis for universities’ introduction of counselor assessment documents lies in the Chinese Communist Party’s Ministry of Education Order No. 43 and related documents, including the newly issued “Comprehensive Action Plan for Enhancing the Construction of a New Era of University Counselors” by the Central Education Working Leading Group, which is a confidential document that is not publicly available.
Investigations by Epoch Times reporters found that many universities are currently taking action. For instance, on October 29, Xi’an Jiaotong Construction Engineering Institute held a special conference convened by the Party Committee to strengthen the construction of the counselor team in accordance with the “Counselor Team Construction Action Plan”.
Counselors hold a unique position in Chinese universities under the rule of the Communist Party and are considered a political tool. In September 2017, the State Council of the People’s Republic of China issued Ministry Order No. 43, titled “Regulations on the Construction of the Counselor Team in Ordinary Institutions of Higher Learning,” outlining nine major functions of counselors, including ideological and theoretical education, party and class building, network ideological and political education, campus crisis event response, as well as daily student affairs management, psychological health education and counseling.
The Counselor Assessment Method for 2024 (No. 13) introduced by Changshu Institute of Technology in August this year added a tenth criterion – the assessment of counselors’ professional qualities. This includes tests on counselor knowledge, participating in counselor competitions, and weekly work recording on the “Smart Student Affairs Platform System” as key evaluation references.
Informants informed the Epoch Times that the so-called Smart Student Affairs System is a 24-hour monitoring software that tracks the actions of counselors and students, breaching privacy. The system monitors counselors and students’ every move, from clocking in at work within 1 kilometer of the school to tracking students’ running distances through the App.
The informant further revealed that Changshu Institute of Technology invested heavily in bidding for the “Smart Student Affairs” App from relevant background companies to monitor students and teachers’ locations. The App monitors students’ exercise status and ideological and political awareness, forcing students to learn and understand red political classics, thus brainwashing them ideologically. It also monitors students’ family economic situations, class attendance, and their interactions with other individuals.
According to documents, the total score for assessment is 100 points, including performance assessment and evaluation assessment, with scores below 60 considered as failing. The evaluation results of all counselors are recorded. Counselors ranking in the bottom 10% for the year will receive educational reminders from the Department of Student Affairs and the Party Committee of the school. If a counselor ranks in the bottom 10% for two consecutive years, they cannot apply for further education or promotion in the following year. If the rank is in the bottom 10% for three consecutive years, the case will be handled by the school’s Counselor Work Leading Group and submitted to the school.