<
https://theconversation.com/some-of-them-do-treat-you-like-an-idiot-what-its-like-to-be-a-casual-academic-201470>
"One of the priorities of the federal government’s sweeping Universities Accord
is to improve employment conditions in higher education. This is long overdue.
Australia’s university sector once set the standard for working conditions but
sadly this is no longer the case. Now the sector is plagued by an over reliance
on casual staff, stress, burnout and precarious work conditions.
As of 2021, almost one third of Australia’s academic staff were employed as
casuals, or contractors on a part-time basis.
Meanwhile, reports about underpayments and frequent strikes are making
headlines. These have been accompanied by continued funding and staff cuts,
along with increased expectations around performance.
Despite the high numbers of casual academic staff, surprisingly limited
attention has been paid to their working conditions and experiences.
We conducted 20 interviews in the accounting discipline between May 2020 and
November 2021. This field of study has a very high number of international
students and was hard hit by COVID and job losses. Interviewees were a mix of
aspiring academics, industry experts and freelancers (who were working in
universities as part of a mix of jobs).
Three themes emerged from our research about their experiences."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
