In some countries (for example Germany) academic tenure most of the time means a life-long position and a certain degree of freedom. In other countries (for example Australia) academic "tenure" in many universities means a position continuing based on performance, funding and other considerations. In countries like Russia "tenure" often provides only a small fraction of a typical academic salary, and the bulk has to be earned via grants/contracts etc. In time more and more places seem to weaken or even remove tenure. Do you think tenure will be completely abolished in the future? Should it?
I have actually just written a chapter about the changing nature of the profession for an upcoming book on early career academic experience, and found some very interesting thinking on the topic. I will note some of my learning and thinking below.
This is a topic of huge debate in the current HE context, and needs review moving forward. Ferdinand Prondzynski (Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland) wrote on the casualisation of the academic workforce on his blog in April of 2010 (see universitydiary link attached). In it he gives a well considered account of both sides of the casualisation debate looking at the benefits and pitfalls of moves towards less permanent academic roles. While he acknowledges the need to be realistic in moving forward, he emphasises the need to implement more appropriate systems and structures in the hiring and development of academics under new models.
He asserts (and I strongly agree) that current models have occurred somewhat haphazardly as institutions attempt to adapt to rapid changes in the market and policy of higher education, but notes that these 'just in time approaches' are not sustainable. In their 2007 article 'Sustaining academic life - a case for applying principles of social sustainability to the academic profession' Hammond and Churchman (below - emeraldinsight) critique current employment and development practices in the HE sector through an analysis of Barron and Guantlett's principles of social sustainability (reference below). In this analysis they demonstrated that current practices are not sustainable and outlined moves that can be made to develop better practice (linked to five practices of social sustainability - equity, diversity, interconnectedness, democracy and governance and quality of life.
To answer your question, I believe that current practice is not sustainable. In Australia we are dealing with cuts of around $2.4billion, and changes really are afoot - the sector is scrambling to adapt, some are doing well and some are not. We are seeing increasing rates of mental health problems in academics, growing concern around academic workloads, and deterioration in job satisfaction. These changes are across the board in permanent and casual roles.
The roles that academics undertake will need to be analysed and discussed openly in future planning if sustainability is to be attained. I am not sure whether the tenured academic will or should be abolished. It appears to me that these individuals (and I am one of them) can be community capacity builders in the new world order, but that they need to be supported for this to happen. Likewise casual staff need support in being brought into the academic community in order to build the best learning communities.
So in short I don't know yet if there is an answer to this question. But thank you for opening the debate.
References:
Barron, L. & Gauntlett, E. (2002). Model of social sustainability. Housing and Sustainable Communities Indicators Project, Perth: Western Australian Council of Social Service.
Hammond, C. & Churchman, D. (2008). Sustaining academic life: A case for applying principles of social sustainability to the academic profession. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 9(3), 235-245.
Von Prondzynski, F. (2010). The casualisation of the academic profession. A University Blog: Diary of life and strategy inside and outside the university, April 27. Retrieved from: http://universitydiary.wordpress.com/2010/04/27/the-casualisation-of-the-academic-profession/.
http://universitydiary.wordpress.com/2010/04/27/the-casualisation-of-the-academic-profession/
No worries Alexander. I think it was slight overkill, but with it relating so closely to my research I thought, why not put my two cents in the debate. What are your thoughts on the topic?
That's a rather nontrivial question. In general, it is understandable that in our rapidly changing world, academia will have to be able to adapt extremely quickly in order to survive. Expanding massively open online education, shrinking public funding, outsourcing are just some of the challenges facing academia, with more to come soon.
Being able to rapidly shed/reorganise/restructure stuff is becoming very important. The only potential problem with this arrangement is that universities may miss out on excellent academics who value stability or have family commitments, so they can't change countries every time their contract expiries. On the other hand there seem to be more than enough excellent educators and researchers who are flexible enough for casual/contractual careers, so right now there is no problem here. Will it become an issue in the future, and can it lead to overall decline in the academic teaching and research quality? Hard to tell now.
My concern from my neck of the woods is that urgency can over ride structure in supporting casualisation. While I do not work within organising levels and so cannot account for future planning as such, this is a concern that I have moving forward.
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