Tenure

:See also: Land tenure

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Tenure commonly refers to academic tenure systems, in which professors (at the university level)—and in some jurisdictions schoolteachers (at primary or secondary school levels)—are granted the right not to be fired without cause after an initial probationary period. Tenure systems are usually justified by the claim that they provide academic freedom, by preventing instructors from being fired for openly disagreeing with authorities or popular opinion. Such systems may also have an economic rationale, similar to the rationale for senior partner positions in many law and accounting firms, in that employees who cannot be replaced may be more likely to give accurate assessments of more junior colleagues who might otherwise threaten their positions. Another reason tenure exists is that, in the realm of academic and intellectual pursuits, individuals may produce higher quality output when they have job security than when they don't. When they have the job security and autonomy of a tenured position, academics are able to pursue their own topics of interest, which they are usually more passionate about, and produce better results. Without job security, they will generally attempt to measure what pursuits they are "supposed to" follow, and in imitation of those guidelines, produce a lower quality of output.

Related Topics:
Academic - Professor - University - Schoolteacher - Primary - Secondary school - Academic freedom - Economic - Senior partner - Law - Accounting

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Academic tenure is politically unpopular in many places, where opponents charge that it removes incentives for its holders to be productive and unfairly relieves professors of the economic uncertainty felt by other workers. For these reasons, tenure was officially restructured in public universities in the United Kingdom by the Thatcher government in the 1980s, and has repeatedly come under attack at state universities in the United States. Many universities have also moved to supplement tenured professors with non-tenured s, who teach classes on a contract basis for relatively low wages and few benefits.

Related Topics:
Public universities - United Kingdom - Thatcher - 1980s - State universities - United States

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