Brown University Student – The Case Against Tenure
In a new post at the Brown Spectator, Oliver Hudson examines the issue of tenure.
The Case Against Tenure
As most college students can attest, America’s system of higher education has serious flaws. At the top of the list are unmanageable debt and poor job prospects for recent graduates. Former students with college loans owe an average of $29,400, and almost half of all graduates hold jobs that do not require a college degree. But while the financial hardships of university students have received plenty of media coverage, there is another lesser-known issue facing universities that deserves attention: tenure.
Most college professors aspire to achieve tenure at a respected university, since it basically means a guaranteed job. After gaining this protection, professors can only be fired for gross incompetence or inappropriate behavior. In fairness to academics, professors endure a grueling several years of “publish or perish” at the beginning of their careers, with slim hopes of obtaining a permanent position. But there are plenty of professions that demand hard work throughout a career and do not offer an opportunity for tenure. Professorship should no longer be an exception.
Recent research illuminates tenure’s flaws. First, some evidence suggests that professors are less productive after achieving tenure. A 2009 study, “Job Security and Productivity: Evidence from Academics,” found that “the number of papers produced drops immediately after tenure,” leading the author to conclude that “tenure causes [a] decrease in productivity.”
Second, there is evidence that tenured or tenure-track professors are worse teachers than adjunct instructors. A 2013 study, titled “Are Tenure-Track Professors Better Teachers,” compared the teaching quality of tenure and tenure-track faculty against the teaching quality of adjunct staff. Using transcripts of freshmen at Northwestern University between 2001 and 2008, the study recorded both how likely a student was to continue taking classes in a subject and how well the student did in a class when taught by an adjunct staff member as opposed to a tenured or tenure-track professor. The study concluded: “We find consistent evidence that students learn relatively more from non-tenure-line professors in their introductory courses.
Comments
I don’t have a problem with “less papers published”. I don’t see VOLUME making up for QUALITY.
Also – to me, the primary criteria is *how well you teach*.
Now, let’s be clear – some professors are researchers, some are teachers, and some are a hybrid, as well as others being more administrators.
Just being fair here.
My issue is that the stories of professors who get tenure and who then have a “I can do what the f*** I want” attitude are legion.
You (the professor) are hired to teach, or research, or both, and later you’ll take on admin duties as you manage staff – but if you’re guarenteed a job, and no one can call you to account – many people will no longer WORK for their job.
That’s not just professors, that’s people.