Should We Do Away with Tenure in Higher Education?
Sreedhari Desai
Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior & Crist W. Blackwell Scholar
A North Carolina state law presented last Tuesday would prevent faculty in North Carolina's public colleges from achieving tenure if they are appointed after July 2024. If this bill comes to be passed, there would be some serious implications for UNC, an institution whose motto is “lux and libertas,” and that claims to “embrace an unwavering commitment to excellence as one of the world's great research universities.”
The Oxford English Dictionary describes tenure as "guaranteed permanent employment... following a probationary period". Although it is ubiquitous in many fields (such as the court and medicine), it is most frequently linked with education since it is an important (though contentious) component of US academic culture.
The tenure system was developed early in the 20th century as a means of preserving academic freedom and guaranteeing that faculty members could undertake research and voice their viewpoints without fear of retaliation. There are many benefits to society of the tenure practice. It is a crucial component of the academic community that supports intellectual curiosity, academic independence, and the pursuit of knowledge. Tenure permits faculty members to investigate contentious or unconventional ideas and topics without worrying about dismissal on account of presenting unpopular viewpoints. Tenure promotes the kind of free-flowing debate that is necessary for an open society.
Tenure may also make education cheaper and more affordable. Assuming that scholars are financially risk-averse individuals would imply that they would value lifetime employment even if it meant getting paid significantly less than the market rates. Indeed, often professors with PhDs in domains such as engineering, science, and business are likely to be paid more if they apply for jobs in the industry. A trade-off between job security and higher pay would be attractive to risk-averse academicians, and in turn, would ensure that the costs of education do not skyrocket any more than they already have.
Note that not all faculty hired in tenure-track academic jobs ultimately receive tenure. Only those professors who achieve excellence in research and teaching are granted tenure. This guarantees that our students are taught by scholars who are world-class researchers, and specialists in their chosen fields, offering students tremendous advantages.
The promise of tenure helps assistant professors acquire work habits that help them achieve this difficult goal. These habits then become a way of life and persist post-tenure, and sometimes post-retirement as well. Tenure, thus, shapes the work behaviors of professors for life.
At the macro level, tenure must be granted to enable institutions to recruit and retain competent faculty members. As mentioned earlier, academics are strongly motivated to pursue their careers by the potential of employment security, especially those who have expended a lot of time and money on obtaining advanced degrees and developing their research agendas. Without the chance to earn tenure, many gifted academics would be hesitant to dedicate their careers to higher education and specialization.
For universities, tenure also offers long-term stability. Tenured faculty members are more likely to commit to long-term employment with their institutions, ensuring continuity and institutional memory. Furthermore, tenure can support academic achievement by enabling institutions to draw in and keep the most gifted and successful researchers, who can boost the institution’s reputation and financial support.
According to critics, tenure can defeat its very purported goals. For example, tenure incentivizes Assistant Professors to get their papers published in top-tier journals, which often favor existing research paradigms. True but that’s why we need tenure! Tenure frees up professors to challenge the very research paradigms and academic systems that helped them achieve tenure.
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Another argument against the tenure process is that it is riddled with favoritism, bias, and politicking. But this simply means we need to ensure that the tenure process is made more transparent, consistent, free from bias, and contestable, as in the case of Nikole Hannah-Jones who was initially denied a tenured position by the UNC-Chapel Hill board of trustees. In the case of Hannah-Jones, many tenured professors throughout the university raised a hue and cry, and along with students and the media, collectively succeeded in arm-twisting the board to reconsider their decision.
Critics also argue that tenured professors may develop a sense of entitlement and become complacent or unproductive.?They assert as well that tenure may make it challenging to dismiss troublesome or underperforming academic members. The majority of tenured faculty, however, in my experience, are devoted experts in the humanities and sciences. It is only a handful that end up abusing the trust and faith placed in them.
Regarding the productivity of tenured professors, research suggests either a moderately positive correlation between the rate of productivity (as measured by the number of journal articles and book chapters published) before tenure and after tenure, or a slightly negative correlation. But let’s put that into perspective. Pre-tenure, there are minimal service expectations on faculty. Once tenured, service demands go up considerably, a factor that automatically influences the number of scientific publications made by such faculty. ?
Although the worries of critics are valid, upon reflection, they do not take away from the significance of the tenure system as a whole. Universities should concentrate on enhancing the tenure review process rather than doing away with tenure in order to make sure that only the most competent and deserving candidates are granted tenure. In order to maintain tenured professors' motivation to continue generating research and providing excellent instruction, they can utilize alternative forms of incentives or coercion, such as withholding summer funding, assigning unpopular courses, and moving teachers to unfavorable office locations.
To conclude, the protection of academic freedom, employment stability, and the advancement of academic achievement, in balance, are all supported by tenure, which is an essential component of the academic environment. Universities should strengthen the tenure review process, assist junior faculty members, and mentor them instead of doing away with tenure. The advantages of tenure are too significant to overlook, and without it, the academic community would suffer.
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P.S. Being tenured has freed me up to write this article. You can read the anti-tenure bill (which will not take away my tenure) here:
Professor at University of Wisconsin - Whitewater
1 年Politicians always want to be able to “control” others - eliminating tenure is their way to get to “control” university professors. I absolutely agree with your column.?
Clinical Professor of Management & Corporate Communication at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School
1 年Even though I’m not on a tenure track, I support tenure. I’m concerned about academic freedom and retention of top researchers. The overreach of legislators in recent times has been alarming.