Bicycles against temporary contracts at universities
Dozens of scientists today protest against the fact that universities hardly offer their employees a permanent position anymore. During the opening of the academic year, activists cycle from university city to university city.
Statue: AOb
Sander Werkhoven, assistant professor of philosophy at Utrecht University, took part in the bicycle tour between Amsterdam and Utrecht. He thinks this Tour of Academics is an 'appropriate symbolic action'. “After all, in practice, scientists are also sent from place to place. When their temporary contract with one university has expired, they move to another university to perform the same trick there again. ”
In academia it is publish or perish
Offering temporary contracts, which has been the standard personnel policy in the academic world for years, increases the workload and hinders your career opportunities, says Werkhoven. “Temporary employees break down and work their way out of the market. Because they are almost exclusively hired to teach. That makes it increasingly difficult to get a permanent job later, because a permanent job requires you to also do research. As a temporary teacher, you have fallen behind in the latter area. ”
Amsterdam - Image: Fred van Diem
Johan Sonnenschein, temporary lecturer in Dutch and Literary Studies in Utrecht, is aware of the problem. “I have a contract of 0,8 FTE for teaching. I think: give me 0,2 FTE, so that I can also do research, but there is no money for that. However, I still have to keep publishing: in academia it is publish or perish. "
This morning I thought: should I cycle along with the action, or should I write an article?
The 'solution' that Sonnenschein has found is to do research in his own time. "I thought this morning: should I cycle with the action, or should I write an article?" He is happy that he opted for cycling, but that means extra evening or night work later this month.
Disastrous
The large number of temporary contracts is also disastrous for the quality of education, according to cyclist John Boy, assistant professor of social sciences in Leiden and in the process of his fourth temporary appointment. “Our working conditions are also the working conditions of the students. It is also not good for them if someone else is always standing in front of the lecture hall. ”
Werkhoven of Utrecht University estimates that more than half of all teaching at universities is now carried out by temporary lecturers. But that, for the record, is not the fault of the universities, he says. “Faculties are willing to offer permanent positions. The problem is in the financing system. A permanent job requires conducting research, and research funding in the Netherlands is largely distributed centrally from NWO. Universities have little funding of their own for research, and therefore few opportunities to hire people on a permanent basis. ”
The specter is: trunk professors
Werkhoven's specter is that, just like in America, 'trunk professors' are emerging. “These are people without a tenure who move from university to university, with their trunk full of tutorials. We shouldn't want that. ”
Utrecht, image: Ingrid Robeyns
In Utrecht, the cyclists are welcomed by a large group of students who declare their solidarity with the action. They used sidewalk chalk to draw ten thousand blocks on the street from the Utrecht Domplein to the university grounds De Uithof. “A lecturer works an average of over thirteen hours a week,” says Anneloes Krul, sociology student and member of the action group #10.000 hours. “That is more than ten thousand hours of overtime for the entire university - per day. We as students cannot reach that with our heads. We don't want that, and that's why we show solidarity with the teachers.”
Also read: 'PhD students are burdened by high work pressure'
