Casualization of Academics in the Australian Higher Education: Is Teaching Quality at Risk? (original) (raw)
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How much is this number worth? Representations of academic casualisation in Australian universities
2018
Casualisation of the academic workforce in Australia has increasingly become a pointed issue of contestation between university managements and the union, the National Tertiary Education Union, during enterprise bargaining negotiations over the last decade. The Union has been concerned with the industrial injustice for long term insecurely employed academics, and its implications for the future academic workforce. Universities, on the other hand, had for a long time maintained that casualisation levels were not at a level detrimental to the sector and that casual employment brought benefits to both the incumbents and the university. However, by 2012, the rapid expansion of the sector, particularly in undergraduate enrolments, had meant the universities could no longer rely on expanding its casual academic workforce to meet its teaching needs. In the most recently completed rounds of enterprise bargaining around Australia, most university managements came to accept that something had...
Research and Development in Higher Education: (Re)Valuing Higher Education, 2018
This research paper was reviewed using a double blind peer review process that meets DIISR requirements. Two reviewers were appointed on the basis of their independence and they reviewed the full paper devoid of the authors' names and institutions in order to ensure objectivity and anonymity. Papers were reviewed according to specified criteria, including relevance to the conference theme and audience, soundness of the research methods and critical analysis, originality and contribution to scholarship, and clear and coherent presentation of the argument. Following review and acceptance, this full paper was presented at the international conference.
Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 2014
Universities in many countries are struggling to adapt to the competing forces of globalisation, new managerialism, entrepreneurialism and new technologies and quality agenda demands. Diminishing resources caused by restricted funding and an aging and diminishing academic workforce pose barriers. One solution to staffing shortages is the casualisation of academic teachers increasing causal or sessional teaching staff who take on significantly increased teaching responsibilities. This article explores the casualisation of university academics and reports on preliminary findings of a small scale sessional teacher development program that used data from a questionnaire on demographics of a small group of 22 sessional teaching staff employed at an Australian university. Results indicated that sessional staff believed they were effective university teachers yet their ongoing development was hampered by heavy teaching workloads, other employment and lack of time. The article concludes that universities, to provide quality outcomes for students, must address these factors.
2020
In recent years a new type of teaching-focused academic position has emerged in the university system, the 'Scholarly Teaching Fellow' (STF). These continuing positions are designed to replace casual teachers, and to enable a more 'sustained' engagement with scholarship as required under Commonwealth higher education standards. There has been a growing reliance on casual academics to deliver university courses, and the rise of the 'gig' academic has undermined scholarship as well as job security. In 2012 the sector's lead trade union, the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), proposed a novel approach to extend teaching capacity and provide job security for a portion of the estimated 50,000 casual university teaching staff. By creating a career path for the casual academics who currently perform the bulk of face-to-face teaching in Australian universities, it was envisaged that not only would casual academics benefit from enhanced job security, but that the employment of more continuing staff would improve teaching and learning and enhance the student experience. Between 2012 and 2015, industrial agreements negotiated between the NTEU and the majority of the sector's universities led to a commitment to create 850 positions for a new type of academic role: the Scholarly Teaching Fellow (STF). Around 800 of these positions had been created by August 2018. This research, funded as a 'Strategic Project' by the former Office of Learning and Teaching, examined the introduction of STFs into the Australian university system between 2013 and 2016. The project explored the impact of this new category of employment in Australian universities on the organisation and future prospects of academic work. Scholarly Teaching Fellows as a new category of employment in Australian Universities vi largely STFs and senior academic managers, and some extended discussion of findings through focus groups, sector engagement and project publications. Project outputs The project has generated a number of publications in both scholarly and popular outlets. In 2018, the research team presented three research papers at the annual conference of the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australia (HERDSA), held in Adelaide. One focused on the question of calculating rates of casualisation in the higher education sector, the second discussed interview material from the project and the third debated early outcomes of the STF initiative. These papers produced wide-ranging discussions at the conference, which proved very useful for the early analysis of the interview material; all three papers were refereed and later published by HERDSA, and are available through open access online (Broadbent, Brown, & Goodman, 2018; Dados, Junor, & Yasukawa, 2018; Yasukawa & Dados, 2018). Co-authors have also published a further book chapter on the issue of statistics in higher education (Dados, Goodman, & Yasukawa, 2019), and a journal article debating the STF initiative (under review in 2019). The research team also convened a plenary session at the annual meeting of The Australian Sociological Association in November 2018, which facilitated the presentation of research findings and a continuing engagement about the organisation of academic work. On 5 December 2018, the project convened a deliberative conference on initial research findings, held in Sydney with approximately 100 attendees. Participants received a draft copy of the research report in advance, enabling a rich engagement with the material during six workshops and two plenary sessions. Several more publications are anticipated, including a jointly authored journal article and a full-length monograph. The co-authors anticipate continuing to engage in scholarship around this important issue, particularly in relation to the teaching-research nexus. In addition to these scholarly publications and initiatives, more information about the project can be accessed at http://scholarlyteaching.net/. Key findings Rapid sector growth brings new risks and responsibilities. Falling per-student funding and high-stakes research metrics are reconfiguring the academic workforce. Australian academia is now deeply segmented, by role and mode of employment. Sector renewal has become a major concern, but also an opportunity. The STF role addresses casualisation by offering income security for (some) casual teaching staff. The STF role is being defined outside of the integrated academic career structure. STFs are being defined solely as teachers rather than as education-focused staff. STF teaching workload is unsustainable for academics and for the sector. STFs in many institutions are unable to seek promotion as education-focused staff. Scholarly Teaching Fellows as a new category of employment in Australian Universities vii STFs are unable to develop a research profile. Academic casualisation is a major problem but the STF initiative falls short as a solution, both qualitatively and quantitatively. As an alternative, education-and industry-focused academics can be recruited to Level A entry positions. There is a risk that the STF classification will be used as a 'Trojan Horse' to expand use of education-focused contracts. There is no consensus among university managers on the STF initiative: some see its benefits while others are more critical. There are numerous agencies that have responsibility and capacity to address the issues identified in this report.
Australian Academics, Teaching and Research: History, Vexed Issues and Potential Changes.
Teaching and Research in Contemporary Higher Education , 2014
The traditional expectation that academics in Australian universities divide their time roughly equally between teaching and research has become challenged. Australian universities have increased their use of specialised teaching-only and research-only positions, while academics in combined teaching and research positions include academics with only limited engagement in teaching or research. We examine the extent of the changes in academic work by presenting a historical account for the roles of teaching and research in Australian universities over the past 150 years, and more recent policy initiatives influencing the relative balance between teaching and research. Based on the CAP data, we argue that the relative engagement in teaching and research partly reflects individual interest and institutional emphasis on these activities.
Academic Casualization in Australia: Class Divisions in the University
Journal of Industrial Relations, 2010
... [email: Tony.Brown@uts.edu.au] Page 2. Journal of Industrial Relations 52(2) 170 ... But, the way it does this is by out-sourcing responsibilities and risks, thereby hollowing-out and casualizing the workplace (Jessop, 2002; Vosko, 2006). Its impact is thus more than material. ...
Casual University Work: Choice, Risk, Inequity and the Case for Regulation1
Australian universities now have a headcount casualisation rate near the national workforce average. Reasons for, and impacts of, this development are explored, and an argument is made for the role of industrial regulation in reconciling requirements for flexibility, security and equity in university employment. Responses to a large survey of casual academic and general staff suggest that this employment mode is a minority preference. Discrete groups of casual university staff, including those seeking university careers, those with other secure income sources, and students in transit to other careers, experience different forms and levels of insecurity and inequity. Appropriately targeted regulatory responses thus include criteria-based caps, a general staff conversion mechanism, a work value review, access to increments and service entitlements, and workplace representation rights.