tenure
(noun)
a senior academic's contractual right not to have his or her position terminated without just cause.
Examples of tenure in the following topics:
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Understanding Tenured Jobs
- The tenured and non-tenured track in academia often defines the role of educators at the university and college level.
- Thus academic tenure is similar to the lifetime tenure that protects some judges from external pressure.
- Positions that carry tenure, or the opportunity to attain tenure, have grown more slowly than non-tenure-track positions, leading to a large "academic underclass".For example, most U.S. universities currently supplement the work of tenured professors with the services of non-tenured adjunct professors, academics who teach classes for lower wages and fewer employment benefits under relatively short-term contracts.
- Only faculty in these positions are eligible for tenure.
- Likewise, the term "instructor" is very generic and can be applied to any teacher, or it can be a specific title (tenure or tenure-track) depending upon how an institution chooses to use the term.
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Teaching as a Professor or Lecturer
- While teaching as professor can be an exciting career path, it can also be a difficult one when trying secure full-time employment, and one of the limited coveted tenure positions.
- College and university teachers who hold the rank of lecturer or instructor are typically not tenured/tenure-track faculty, and usually focus on teaching undergraduate courses, and are generally not involved in research, nor are they typically involved in department and university decision-making.
- Since these positions are non-tenure track, they often do not involve a research or publishing requirement, although many of these professors do publish, research, and consult.
- These appointments are non-tenure track, as well.
- Under the designation of non-tenured position, falls the role of adjunct professor.