Sessional lecturer

Last updated

Sessional lecturer or sessional instructor are contract faculty who hold full- or part-time teaching positions and may perform administrative duties but have no research responsibilities. Sessionals hold short-term contracts, typically running one or two academic terms; in many post-secondary institutions sessional contracts may be renewed repeatedly but by definition, they offer no legal expectation of ongoing work. Unlike members of other academic ranks (e.g., Assistant Professors and Full Professors), sessional lecturers are ineligible for tenure. It is an academic rank for a type of job common in Canadian and Australian universities and colleges.

Although significant differences exist between the working conditions of sessional lecturers and professors, sessionals occupy a rank similar to that of adjunct professors in the United States. Historically, sessionals have been hired to address short-term teaching shortages and to replace tenure-stream faculty who are on leave or who are holding temporary administrative positions (e.g., Faculty Chair or Dean). Possibly because on a per-course basis sessionals earn much less than their tenure-stream counterparts, in the last three decades many universities and colleges have developed a heavy reliance on contract faculty, with the result that the Canadian post-secondary educational system has developed a structural reliance on sessional faculty. In a number of large research universities, including the University of British Columbia and the University of Toronto, sessionals now teach the majority of undergraduate courses in some departments. [1]

Although most sessional lecturers are trained as researchers and hold a PhD or other terminal degree, their contracts usually specify only teaching responsibilities, and their research programs are rarely supported by the universities that employ them. Common impediments to sessionals' research activities have historically included low salaries, ineligibility for merit pay and internal research funding, [2] and institutional policies against signing applications for funding from granting agencies. Because an active research program and a strong publishing record (for original research) in major journals is often a key qualification for entry into a tenure-stream position, work as a sessional lecturer is widely considered among academics to be an "employment ghetto". [3]

The trend towards increasing reliance on sessional lecturers and other contract faculty is an instance of the casualization of academic work and has been criticized by the Canadian Association of University Teachers, which has proposed that the current per-course stipend be replaced by a pro-rata model that recognizes the teaching, research, and governance contributions of contract faculty. [4]

As a labour group, sessional lecturers are organized in a variety of ways. In some universities, including Queen's, the University of Alberta, and the University of British Columbia, they are represented along with tenured and tenure-stream faculty in a single faculty association; [5] [6] [7] in others, including University of Toronto, York University, and the University of Saskatchewan, they are represented as a distinct employment group by Canadian Union of Public Employee (CUPE) locals or stand-alone unions; [8] [9] in a few post-secondary institutions, they are not represented by a labour organization.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">York University</span> Public university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

York University, also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, and it has approximately 53,500 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, and over 375,000 alumni worldwide. It has 11 faculties, including the Lassonde School of Engineering, Schulich School of Business, Osgoode Hall Law School, Glendon College, and 32 research centres.

Lecturer is an academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. They may also conduct research.

Senior lecturer is an academic rank. In the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, Switzerland, Germany, and Israel senior lecturer is a faculty position at a university or similar institution. The position is tenured and is roughly equivalent to an associate professor in the North American system.

Tenure is a type of academic appointment that protects its holder from being fired or laid off except for cause, or under extraordinary circumstances such as financial exigency or program discontinuation. Academic tenure originated in the United States in the early 20th century, and several other countries have since adopted it. Tenure is a means of defending the principle of academic freedom, which holds that it benefits society in the long run if academics are free to hold and espouse a variety of views, even if the views are unpopular or controversial.

Kin-Yip Chun is a Canadian geophysicist at the University of Toronto's Department of Physics. He gained attention when he sued the University of Toronto for alleged racial discrimination.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local 3902 is a Canadian labour union local representing sessional lecturers, postdoctoral researchers and teaching assistants (TAs) at the University of Toronto, Victoria University in the University of Toronto, the University of St. Michael's College and New College in the University of Toronto.

The following summarizes basic academic ranks in the French higher education system. Most academic institutions are state-run and most academics with permanent positions are civil servants, and thus are tenured.

A research fellow is an academic research position at a university or a similar research institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a principal investigator.

Professors in the United States commonly occupy any of several positions of teaching and research within a college or university. In the U.S., the word "professor" is often used to refer to anyone who teaches at a college of university level at any academic rank. This usage differs from the predominant usage of the word professor in other countries, where the unqualified word "professor" only refers to "full professors", nor is it generally used in the United States for secondary education teachers. Other tenure-track faculty positions include assistant professor and associate professor (mid-level). Other teaching-focused positions that use the term "professor" include Clinical Professor, Professor of Practice, and Teaching Professor. Most faculty with titles of "Lecturer" and "Instructor" in the U.S. are not eligible for tenure, though they are still often referred to as "professors" in a general sense and as a courtesy form of address. Non-tenure-track positions may be full or part time, although the qualifier "adjunct" always denotes part-time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Higher education in Saskatchewan</span>

Historically, Saskatchewan's higher education system has been "significantly shaped" by demographics. In 1901, six years prior to the 1907 founding of a university in Saskatchewan, the urban population in Saskatchewan was 14,266 (16%) while the rural population was 77,013 (84%). One hundred years later, the proportions had changed significantly: urban population in 2001 was 629,036 (64%) while the rural population was 349,897 (36%). Over time the province's higher education system has changed significantly in response both to this demographic shift and to provincial politics.

The Canadian Association of University Teachers is a federation of independent associations and trade unions representing approximately 70,000 teachers, librarians, researchers, and other academic professionals and general staff at 120 universities and colleges across Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2008–2009 York University strike</span>

The 2008–2009 York University strike was a strike by CUPE Local 3903, the union representing contract professors, teaching assistants, and graduate assistants at York University.

Academic ranks in the United States are the titles, relative importance and power of professors, researchers, and administrative personnel held in academia.

Academic staff, also known as faculty or academics, are vague terms that describe teachers or research staff of a school, college, university or research institute.

The following are academic ranks in the Finnish higher education system. There are a specific number of posts, which can be applied to when they are vacated or established.

Harry Sherman Crowe (1922–1981) was a history professor, university administrator, and labour researcher. In 1958, his firing by United College gained national attention in Canada. In raising questions about the security of academic freedom and tenure in Canada, Crowe's case became a catalyst in solidifying the work of the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) in defending academic freedom and ensuring scholarly rights for academic staff in Canada.

Academic ranks in Canada are the titles, relative importance and power of professors, researchers, and administrative personnel held in academia.

Academic ranks in Germany are the titles, relative importance and power of professors, researchers, and administrative personnel held in academia.

An adjunct professor is a type of academic appointment in higher education who does not work at the establishment full-time. The terms of this appointment and the job security of the tenure vary in different parts of the world, but the term is generally agreed to mean a bona-fide part-time faculty member in an adjunct position at an institution of higher education.

References

  1. ↑ Findlay, Stephanie (January 20, 2011). "Whatever happened to tenure?". Macleans.ca.
  2. ↑ See, e.g. "THE HAMPTON FUND PARTNERSHIP DEVELOPMENT GRANT | Office of Research Services". Archived from the original on 2011-08-21. Retrieved 2012-01-20.
  3. ↑ Robson, John (19 March 2015). "What happens when the university sessional treadmill finally breaks?". National Post. Postmedia Network. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
  4. ↑ "Unknown" (PDF).[ permanent dead link ]
  5. ↑ "QUFA - QUFA's Purpose". Archived from the original on 2011-09-07. Retrieved 2012-01-20.
  6. ↑ "Salary Scales - Association of Academic Staff (AAS:UA) - University of Alberta". Archived from the original on 2012-01-27. Retrieved 2012-01-20.
  7. ↑ Unknown [ permanent dead link ]
  8. ↑ "CUPE Local 3902 Home Page". Archived from the original on 2000-05-20. Retrieved 2025-01-05.
  9. ↑ "Collective agreement between the university of saskatchewan and the Canadian union of public employees" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-08. Retrieved 2017-08-18.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.