How much is this number worth? Representations of academic casualisation in Australian universities

Yasukawa, K; Dados, N

How much is this number worth? Representations of academic casualisation in Australian universities

Yasukawa, K

Dados, N

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Publisher:: Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia, Inc
Publication Type:: Conference Proceeding
Citation:: Research and Development in Higher Education: (Re)Valuing Higher Education, 2018, 41 pp. 257 - 266
Issue Date:: 2018-01-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Yasukawa, K https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4553-0289	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Dados, N https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1708-4805	en_US
dc.contributor.editor	Wache, D	en_US
dc.contributor.editor	Houston, D	en_US
dc.date	2018-07-02	en_US
dc.date.issued	2018-01-01	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Research and Development in Higher Education: (Re)Valuing Higher Education, 2018, 41 pp. 257 - 266	en_US
dc.identifier.isbn	978-0-908557-96-7	en_US
dc.identifier.issn	1441-001X	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/128647
dc.description.abstract	Casualisation of the academic workforce in Australia has increasingly become a pointed issue of contestation between university managements and the union, the National Tertiary Education Union, during enterprise bargaining negotiations over the last decade. The Union has been concerned with the industrial injustice for long term insecurely employed academics, and its implications for the future academic workforce. Universities, on the other hand, had for a long time maintained that casualisation levels were not at a level detrimental to the sector and that casual employment brought benefits to both the incumbents and the university. However, by 2012, the rapid expansion of the sector, particularly in undergraduate enrolments, had meant the universities could no longer rely on expanding its casual academic workforce to meet its teaching needs. In the most recently completed rounds of enterprise bargaining around Australia, most university managements came to accept that something had to change in the composition of the teaching workforce of the university. The Union capitalised on this to negotiate a new entry level teaching focussed category of continuing academic positions in many of its branches. Ironically, throughout all these negotiations, a reliable estimate of the rate of casualisation of academic work was not available. This paper presents the authors’ detective work in the pursuit of a reliable estimate of academic casualisation in the Australian university sector, and discusses the implications for policy.	en_US
dc.publisher	Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia, Inc	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Research and Development in Higher Education: (Re)Valuing Higher Education	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia Annual International Conference	en_US
dc.title	How much is this number worth? Representations of academic casualisation in Australian universities	en_US
dc.type	Conference Proceeding
utslib.citation.volume	41	en_US
utslib.location	Hammondsville, NSW, Australia	en_US
utslib.location.activity	Adelaide, SA	en_US
utslib.for	1301 Education Systems	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/e-Press
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences/Social and Political Sciences Program
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Strength - STEM Education Futures
utslib.copyright.status	open_access
pubs.consider-herdc	true	en_US
pubs.finish-date	2018-07-05	en_US
pubs.place-of-publication	Hammondsville, NSW, Australia	en_US
pubs.publication-status	Published	en_US
pubs.start-date	2018-07-02	en_US
pubs.volume	41	en_US

Abstract:

Casualisation of the academic workforce in Australia has increasingly become a pointed issue of contestation between university managements and the union, the National Tertiary Education Union, during enterprise bargaining negotiations over the last decade. The Union has been concerned with the industrial injustice for long term insecurely employed academics, and its implications for the future academic workforce. Universities, on the other hand, had for a long time maintained that casualisation levels were not at a level detrimental to the sector and that casual employment brought benefits to both the incumbents and the university. However, by 2012, the rapid expansion of the sector, particularly in undergraduate enrolments, had meant the universities could no longer rely on expanding its casual academic workforce to meet its teaching needs. In the most recently completed rounds of enterprise bargaining around Australia, most university managements came to accept that something had to change in the composition of the teaching workforce of the university. The Union capitalised on this to negotiate a new entry level teaching focussed category of continuing academic positions in many of its branches. Ironically, throughout all these negotiations, a reliable estimate of the rate of casualisation of academic work was not available. This paper presents the authors’ detective work in the pursuit of a reliable estimate of academic casualisation in the Australian university sector, and discusses the implications for policy.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/128647