Emeritus Prof Christopher May2d ago

Universities key resource (even it top management sometimes seem to deny it) is their staff, you can tell a lot about shifts in activity by the character of staff employed across Higher Education.

In response to shifts in funding, universities are slowly moving more staff on to teaching only contracts while also reducing the number on 'full' academic contracts, (while also keeping more people on temporary contracts).

Its a further intensification of academic work.

#universities #politics

Show threadCybermatron2d ago
@ChrisMayLA6 What few people talk about is also how this does not work with the academic calendar. My Uni only teaches from mid -September to the end of March. My colleague on a 100% teaching contract therefore has to do 90% of their work (save for some marking and dissertation supervision) in 7.5 months. That is a massive physical and mental health challenge.
Show threadCybermatron2d ago
@ChrisMayLA6 Of course, Unis@have long wanted to fit a third semester into the summer (some already do). But that would be the end of research-focused universities as we know it. Maybe that is the longterm strategy?
Show threadCybermatron2d ago
@ChrisMayLA6 Also, the people doing these teaching-only jobs mostly WANT to do research and are taking these jobs in order to get a foot in the door, hoping for a better position next time. But the longer they stay in teaching-only jobs, the less likely it is that they will have the time to do the kind of research that will make them eligible for a full teaching/research post. We are destroying young academics‘ careers almost from the outset to feed the machine.
Show thread🟥 Eveline Sulman 🇳🇱🇪🇺🇺🇦2d ago
@TheCybermatron @ChrisMayLA6 VU university and other Dutch universities have now implemented teaching career tracks: you can make it to full professor with a focus on teaching. And yes, that includes research, but with lower criteria for output and higher criteria for teaching and education management.
Show threadCybermatron
@EvelineSulman @ChrisMayLA6 We have that too and I’m not dissing it. At least a teaching focus now doesn’t disadvantage you as much as it used to in terms of career progression. But in reality, the teaching track is not most people’s first choice, I think. It’s what they do when they can’t get a teaching/research position or when they are buried in teaching by their institution.
Mar 21 at 11:32amWeb
Show threadCybermatron2d ago
@EvelineSulman @ChrisMayLA6 There are definitely people, who just or mostly want to teach, but in my experience most academics still (also) want to do research and would prefer to be given more of an opportunity to do it.
Show thread🟥 Eveline Sulman 🇳🇱🇪🇺🇺🇦2d ago
@TheCybermatron @ChrisMayLA6 that's true. We have now 2 voluntary teaching careers out of 70 or so. Both women, by the way, although I know of a few men in a teaching career in other faculties.