Schools Rely Less On Tenure Track

In 30 years, the share of non-tenure track faculty on college campuses in the U.S. increased by more than 50 percent.

From 1975 to 2005, the share of part-time and full-time non-tenure-track faculty in all U.S. degree-granting institutions jumped from 43 percent to 68 percent, according to figures from a report by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP).

While increasing numbers of non-tenured faculty may be the norm at other colleges, Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) consists mostly of professors with tenure or those who are on the path to tenure.

“It’s quite the opposite at Harvard,” said Brian W. Casey, the FAS associate dean for academic affairs. “There was a conscious decision around the year 2000 to expand the tenured ranks.”

Tenured or tenure-track professors make up 62 percent of the Faculty at Harvard.

Though Harvard might claim to contradict the study’s trend, John W. Curtis, one of the report’s authors, said that universities like Harvard have a lot of teaching done by graduate students.

“It’s becoming much more common for graduate students to become the sole instructor and the more of a shift in that direction, the more that grad students are being treated as part-time faculty,” said Curtis, who is the AAUP’s director of research and public policy.

While this pattern is believed to be particularly prevalent at research universities, like Harvard, Curtis said that specific data on courses taught primarily by graduate students is not yet available.

In addition to graduate students, Harvard’s FAS employs 325 lecturers and preceptors throughout its departments.

Employing faculty with short-term contracts allows universities to more easily change teachers and the courses offered to meet their needs, Casey said.

“Most of our non-tenured positions are brought in to support upper faculty and to enrich and deepen course offerings,” he said.

Curtis said the expansion of contingent faculty was a source of concern. Non-tenure-track faculty, including graduate students, often don’t have as much time to devote to students. And their students can have difficulty finding mentors and getting recommendations when faculty may not remain at the university for a long time,

Another major concern for organizations like the AAUP and the American Federation of Teachers is that a lack of tenure puts a “constraint on academic freedom.”

“If a faculty member is worried about being rehired, that kind of person is going to be less likely to tackle courses that are controversial,” Curtis said. “Grad students have the added vulnerability that they may be putting their student status in jeopardy.”