Research on precarity in higher education has focused on how academics themselves experience this, but less is known about how staff precarity affects teaching and learning. This extended literature review explores how precarious working conditions affect practices aimed at supporting students' writing, such as teaching discipline-specific…

Despite the fact that precarious modes of employment have become increasingly common in academic careers, studies have shown that precarious contracts are often hidden and masked within higher education structures. This has important implications for the identities of those on such contracts. This paper uses Goffman's work on stigma, 'spoiled…

The increasing casualisation of academic labour over recent years has been noted across the global north. In the UK, this takes a number of forms, including fixed term, hourly paid and zero hours contracts. What tends to characterise them all, however, is a focus on the short-term. In this paper, we draw on a qualitative study with 20 UK-based…

Internationally, changes to university funding arrangements have put pressure on the workloads of tenured academic staff and increased the reliance on casual academics to backfill teaching and research positions. Limited research has focused on the effects of casualisation on research academics and the institutions in which they work. This paper…

There has been extensive research conducted into the plight of casual academic staff, the precarious nature of their work, their limited academic development opportunities, and their heightened risk of being positioned on the periphery of the workforce in academia. Institutions have attempted to mitigate this risk through the provision of academic…

This paper presents an empirical analysis of the supply-and-demand dynamics in the library and information science (LIS) academic market in China. This analysis is based on a broad concept of academic market and large-scale labor-market data. The authors find a shift in faculty positions, in which traditional positions in universities and research…

We examined perceptions of precarity in higher education by conducting interviews with a cohort of academics in Israel. The participants were 1.5 generation immigrants who were born in the former Soviet Union (FSU) and then moved to Israel as children or teenagers with their family, typically in the 1990s. Using a narrative research approach, we…

The main objective of current study was to determine the opinions of adjunct faculty members regarding the flexible and precariat form of employment policies at universities in Turkey. The research was conducted qualitatively. The participants were 16 adjunct faculty members who were chosen with purposive sampling method. An interview technique…

While most doctoral students aspire to become a full-time professor, many graduates with doctoral degrees may instead be employed in temporary positions as university teachers or researchers. The purpose of this paper is to assess the extent to which these early employment experiences differ for doctoral graduates of various fields of study, using…

The paper analyses how educators employed on non-permanent contracts in the non-compulsory education sector in Ireland have fared during the COVID-19 pandemic. These employees were starting from a low base in relation to the terms and conditions of their employment when their places of work dramatically pivoted online in March 2020. We argue the…

Continuous increase of global reliance on sessional staff in higher education has not been accompanied by the development of strategies to enhance quality learning and teaching or understanding the experiences of these staff. This has resulted in a general discontent among this category of academics. The growing importance of building respectful…

The increased reliance of universities on a pool of highly skilled but poorly paid casualised academic labour for teaching and research has emerged as a defining feature of higher education provision under neoliberal New Public Management. Based on seventeen visual timeline interviews with academics in the North East of England, this article…

There have been widespread changes to working arrangements and employment relationships, including significant decreases in continuing/full-time employment contracts. This trend is particularly notable in academia, with more universities relying on the expertise of sessional, teaching-focused academics. This qualitative study extends understanding…

The COVID-19 pandemic amplified existing inequities in higher education. This paper documents the stories of four precariously employed communication instructors in their transition to emergency remote teaching in March 2020. Through collaborative autoethnography, the instructors share their stories of reliance and compliance within the gig…

There is a growing divide between ongoing and precarious academics in Australia. Precarious academics are often exploited, underpaid, and have little hope of gaining permanency. In this article we offer suggestions to ongoing academics on how to improve the working lives and conditions of precarious colleagues. Our suggestions range from easy and…