For centuries, academies of higher learning around the world have at times been subject to intense pressure to change such things as what is taught, how it is taught, who teaches it, and how the academies are run. While no academics in the United States have been burnt at the stake, American colleges and universities have, over the years, felt…

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…

Faculty members play a crucial role in higher education, contributing to knowledge dissemination and offering solutions to societal issues. However, policymakers often view higher education as an industry and overlook the consequences of funding cuts, neglecting the faculty's role in student success and institutional mission. Temporary faculty…

This research investigates the attitudes, working conditions, experiences, and job satisfaction of academic staff employed at offshore campuses. An online survey questionnaire was completed by 72 academic staff in 10 different countries, which included China, Malaysia, Qatar, the UAE, and Vietnam. It was found that the desire for adventure and…

Collective bargaining and faculty governance are sometimes perceived to be in conflict. Faculty members will debate about whether a specific issue--for example, program consolidations or early college/dual enrollment (where high school students earn college credits taking high school classes taught by high school teachers)--falls under governance…

Background/context: Over the past 40 years, the composition of the professoriate has changed substantially across all institutional types. Once predominantly tenure track, now nontenure-track faculty (NTTF) constitute more than 70% of the faculty. While these major changes have occurred, we know little about key stakeholders' views…

Background/Context: Faculty unionization is an important topic in modern higher education, but the history of the phenomenon has not yet been fully considered. This article brings together issues of professionalization and unionization and provides needed historical background to ongoing unionization efforts and debates. Purpose/Objective/Research…

The author begins by asserting that tenure does have a future, even though cultural and economic trends in American higher education have brought it to near annihilation in the past decade. She is sorry to say that it has survived these trends for one troubling reason--tenure is the ultimate employment perk for very successful members of the…

For those who still see tenure primarily as a form of job security, the larger economic context should be plain. No one, not even in the traditional professions, can any longer expect a fixed pattern of employment in the course of his or her lifetime. In this article, the author discusses how this generation is witnessing the merging of the…

The faculty of Curry College in 1974 voted unanimously to replace tenure with a type of term contract. Faculty perceptions of the good and bad aspects of the term contract system are presented. Academic freedom, job security, motivation, promotion criteria, and financial benefits are discussed. (MLW)

The president of Bloomfield College, New Jersey, reviews (1) general problems posed by the tenure system as conventionally interpreted at about 85 percent of our colleges and universities; (2) several alternatives to conventional tenure; and (3) some special problems facing small, private liberal arts colleges in financial exigency. (JT)

This paper, one in a series about the priorities of the professoriate, explores some creative employment practices which will stimulate campus discussions of faculty employment policies and practices in four areas: (1) alternative career paths, (2) workload and productivity, (3) peer review, and (4) academic freedom and employment security. In…