ESEP - Vol. 15, No. 1 - Table of contents

ESEP THEME SECTION

Academic freedom and tenure

Idea K.I. Stergiou
Editors: K.I. Stergiou and S. Somarakis (guest editor)

Academic freedom and tenure is a highly complex, interactive issue. Tenure has been strongly debated, with especially strong negative polemics in recent years. Tenure is considered by many to be an ‘unnecessary burden on higher education’. The role of academic tenure primarily guarantees the right to academic freedom by protecting all those involved in producing and teaching knowledge (i.e. researchers and professors); enabling them to go against prevailing orthodoxy of thinking, to openly disagree with any authorities, and to spend time on less fashionable issues.

In a Theme Section on global university rankings, published in 2013/2014 in ESEP, several articles discuss the marketization of higher education. This phenomenon seems to be in parallel with a decrease in tenured positions and the presence of strong voices in favor of cheaper, more flexible and insecure work contracts. The employment shift from predominantly full-time, permanent or contract positions to higher numbers of casual, precarious positions is strongly impinging on academic freedom and the foundations of the modern university as we know it.

This Theme Section aims to cast light on hot, diverse issues related to academic freedom and tenure through the views and thoughts of stakeholders (i.e. scientists from different countries and disciplines, including young scientists, and university administrators). These issues encompass theoretical aspects of tenure, economics of tenure, behavior/performance/productivity of tenured faculty, tenure-track and non-tenured faculty, and the effect of marketization of education on tenure policies.

Contributions were originally published online as unpaginated articles and were assigned page numbers upon completion of the Theme Section.

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Stergiou KI, Somarakis S
Academic freedom and tenure: introduction
ESEP 15:1-5 | Full text in pdf format

Donoghue F
Academic freedom, the ‘teacher exception’, and the diminished professor
ESEP 15:7-15 | Full text in pdf format

Nelson C
AS I SEE IT: Dystopia is now: the threats to academic freedom
ESEP 15:17-22 | Full text in pdf format

Horn M
Tenure and academic freedom in Canada
ESEP 15:23-37 | Full text in pdf format

Traianou A
AS I SEE IT: The erosion of academic freedom in UK higher education
ESEP 15:39-47 | Full text in pdf format

Akrivou K
Towards (more) integrity in academia, encouraging long-term knowledge creation and academic freedom
ESEP 15:49-54 | Full text in pdf format

Pauly D
AS I SEE IT: Tenure, the Canadian tar sands and ‘Ethical Oil’
ESEP 15:55-57 | Full text in pdf format

Stergiou KI, Machias A
AS WE SEE IT: Nailing down ‘academic’ freedom and tenure in Greek research institutions
ESEP 15:59-62 | Full text in pdf format

Boero F
Scientists can be free, but only once they are tenured
ESEP 15:63-69 | Full text in pdf format

Lynch K, Ivancheva M
AS WE SEE IT: Academic freedom and the commercialisation of universities: a critical ethical analysis
ESEP 15:71-85 | Full text in pdf format

Nikolioudakis N, Tsikliras AC, Somarakis S, Stergiou KI
Tenure and academic deadwood
ESEP 15:87-93 | Full text in pdf format

Minerva F
Rethinking academic freedom
ESEP 15:95-104 | Full text in pdf format