Beaton, Fran, Gilbert, Amanda (2012) What does the escalating number of part-time teachers in the workforce mean for Higher Education? In: SRHE conference, 12th - 14ty December 2012, Newport,Wales. (Unpublished) (KAR id:40868)
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Abstract
Higher Education is very different from how it was when academics, now on the verge of
retirement, joined the profession forty years ago (eg UUK 2010). One of the main
differences is the increased proportion of academic and teaching staff working on nonstandard
contracts in universities. Across the world, definitions and measures of the
numbers of academic staff on part-time and sessional contracts vary. OECD statistics, for
example, suggest that percentages of part-time academic staff vary from as little as 2% in
France to around 60% in Japan. Estimated figures for the UK (eg Armstrong 2011) put the
proportion of part-time teachers at around 40%.
The numbers and diversity of part-time teachers reflect a number of changes in Higher
Education. Such changes include, for example, the curriculum offer: part-timers may be
employed for their active professional expertise in, for instance, medicine and creative and
performing arts. Crucially, increased student numbers have changed the face of university
education in potential tension with student expectations.
Casualisation of teaching has many implications for Higher Education and the students who
study within it. The professional development of staff on non-standard contracts, exploring
the experiences of these staff, their recruitment, preparation and support and the quality of
educational outcomes for students is the subject of a forthcoming book (Authors, in press).
In this paper, drawing both on literature of the changing academic profession (eg Brennan
et al 2007; Locke 2007), empirical work and discussion of data drawn from a range of
institutions in Australasia and the UK, we will consider the challenges for full-timers, parttimers
and academic development, and discuss the implications of casualisation of academic
staff for the sector as a whole.
Item Type: | Conference or workshop item (Paper) |
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Uncontrolled keywords: | part-time teachers; global trends; professional development needs; implications for students |
Subjects: |
L Education L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB2300 Higher Education |
Divisions: | Divisions > Directorate of Education > Centre for the Study of Higher Education |
Depositing User: | Fran Beaton |
Date Deposited: | 28 Apr 2014 12:24 UTC |
Last Modified: | 16 Nov 2021 10:15 UTC |
Resource URI: | https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/40868 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes) |
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