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The increasing use of non-tenure employment contracting as a cost savings and/or management flexibility increasing mechanism in colleges and universities raises concerns about the impact of this strategy on other aspects of the higher education system. The purpose of this paper is to document reduced research productivity at a university that uses rolling contracts in comparison to research productivity at another university in the same state university system in the USA that uses tenure track contracting.

Negative binomial regression analysis allows investigation of the primary variable of interest (appointment type) while controlling for other factors that may also affect research productivity.

The findings suggest that non-tenure track employment contracting may have other long-term implications for institutions of higher education that warrant consideration.

No prior study has investigated the topic of comparative research productivity in business schools using this methodology or data source.

To understand the reasons that accounting academics leave the tenure-track academic pipeline.

Survey study was conducted of PhD graduates who left the tenure-track accounting pipeline over a 22-year period.

We located and surveyed accounting PhD graduates who have opted out of the tenure-track. These opt-outs included those who have left academia entirely and those who have moved into non-tenure-track positions. Survey results indicate that dissatisfaction with research expectations is the most significant factor for faculty now employed in non-tenure-track positions. Although there were no gender-related differences in the number of faculty who left the tenure-track but stayed in academia, there were some gender differences in the importance of family-related factors in motivating the move off of the tenure-track.

The study examines the importance of the “push” and “pull” factors associated with changing career paths in academia that have been identified in the literature. The study finds some differences in influential factors between accounting academia and other fields. Sample size is a potential limitation.

The study provides recommendations for PhD program directors and for hiring institutions to help reduce the number of opt-outs.

Retention of qualified faculty who are dedicated teachers improves students’ educational outcomes.

This is the first study to examine factors that drive accounting academics to opt-out of the tenure-track.

The purpose of this paper is to study employee engagement in higher education by examining full-time non-tenure track faculty members’ perceptions at a North East US state public university.

The authors used semi-structured face-to-face personal interviews with 11 non-tenure track full-time university faculty. Using a phenomenological approach, thematic analysis was conducted for employee interview data. The data was further refined through first and second cycle coding. The primary eight coded clusters were further reduced to three data clusters, each representing an evolving unit of meaning.

The analysis revealed three themes relating to how full-time non-tenure track faculty experience and understand engagement: required institutional engagement, perceived necessary engagement and relational collegial engagement.

The study adds to the limited research available on non-tenure track faculty members within higher education organization and their perceptions of engagement.

Over the past several decades, there has been a growth in nonstandard professional work. One area where this can be seen is the academy, where tenure-track positions are being replaced by non-tenure-track (NTT) positions such as adjuncts and lecturers. Studies of nonstandard professional workers have found significant variation in job satisfaction, and this is also true for NTT faculty. Why is job satisfaction among NTT faculty so variable, and how can we understand it? Drawing on in-depth interviews with one hundred NTT faculty at two large public research universities, the author argues that NTT faculty vary in two important ways: the role of the income from their NTT job in their family and their pathway to the NTT position. The author develops a typology of NTT faculty based on these two dimensions and argues that these two dimensions intersect in important ways that affect the job satisfaction and job experiences of NTT faculty. The only group of NTT faculty that experiences high job satisfaction are those who prefer a NTT position over a tenure-track one, and who do not rely on the income from this job as the primary source of income for their family. This research has implications for understanding the job satisfaction of other nonstandard professional workers, who may vary in similar ways.

The institution of tenure has elicited debate and controversy since its introduction in higher education. Proponents argue the need for tenure based on academic freedom and efficient university governance. Critics argue that it represents inefficiency in the higher education labor market and protects less productive faculty members. The use of tenure in academic libraries has been no less controversial, with only 40−60% of academic libraries supporting tenure track positions for academic librarians. This dichotomy in the labor market for academic librarians represents a natural experiment and allows for the testing of the presence of a compensating wage differential for tenure.

This study examines 10 years’ worth of cross-sectional data drawn from member libraries of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). Models examine both the institutional characteristics of tenure-granting ARL academic libraries and the impact of tenure on starting salaries. Issues related to both a union wage premium and a compensating wage differential due to tenure are explored. The results of this research suggest that tenure, while serving other functions within an academic library setting, does not have the predicted impact on starting salaries.

The faculty, as higher education's most valuable asset, is being dramatically altered. Changes in appointment status drive this alteration, resulting in the essential work of faculty being transformed. Given this change in faculty composition, this study seeks to examine how faculty appointments relate to the production of faculty work in teaching, research, and service. Faculty appointments affect faculty work and it implies that the function of higher education also is altered. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the rise of contingent faculty on the professoriate and higher education.

The National Study of Postsecondary Faculty of 2004 provided data for analyses. There were faculty and instructional staff participants (26,110) from a sample of 980 institutions in the USA and the District of Columbia. The National Center for Education Statistics provides access to its Data Analysis System (DAS) for public use. Basic calculations can result in straight counts, percentages, means, correlation coefficients, and tables. Complex analytic capabilities include covariance using both weighted least squares regression and logistic regression. The DAS was used to examine how changes in faculty composition were related to teaching, research, and service.

Overall, the results indicate that tenured and tenure‐track faculty out‐perform contingent faculty on all major items of teaching, research, and service. With few exceptions, contingent faculty can be viewed as less productive faculty members within the historical function of higher education to promote inquiry and advance the sum of human knowledge, provide general instruction to the students, and develop experts for various branches of the public. If faculty are the heart and health of colleges and universities, the future of higher education may be bleak if the reliance on contingent faculty continues to soar.

The gap between performance levels of tenure/tenure‐track and contingent faculty in teaching, research, and service indicates the quality of higher education is rapidly eroding. This study indicated that the contributions to promoting inquiry and advancing the sum of human knowledge are diminished with increasing use of contingent faculty. It suggests that not only is the work of faculty threatened by a contingent faculty approach but the well‐being of higher education is threatened also.

Overall, tenured and tenure‐track faculty out‐performed other types of faculty appointments according to essential values of faculty – teaching research, and service. Faculty appointments play a significant role in the overall performance of higher education. The function of higher education cannot help but be affected. Society relies on higher education for not only career training but an educated citizenry. If left to contract and part‐time help, it raises concern for the overall well being of society.

Although there is literature discussing concerns about the influx of contingent faculty, there is little, if any, empirical evidence of its impact on the professoriate and its relationship to the overall health and well being of higher education. This study suggests that the traditional framework of faculty work – teaching, research, and service – is being dramatically altered.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive assessment of promotion and tenure for librarians in light of increased scrutiny and expectations by the administration of Idaho State University (ISU). This increased rigour was prompted by a move up in the Carnegie Classification System.

A literature review was performed using library databases, as well as assessing peer institution promotion and tenure documents. Additionally ongoing feedback from University administrators was solicited. The process took for the creation of a new promotion and tenure document for ISU library took two years from the beginning of the project to the final approved document.

The study found a dearth of performance benchmarks in both literature and peer institution policies and required the authors, along with other library faculty, to create evidence based benchmarks for ISU aligned with traditional standards of teaching, research and service.

This paper is an inclusive assessment of the literature on faculty promotion and tenure, the policies of ISU’s peer institutions, and the change of Carnegie Classification’s impact on the ISU policies.

Academia’s overwhelming reliance on non-tenure track, or contingent, faculty is a well-known fact. While the status and working conditions of contingent classroom faculty have been well studied and documented, the corresponding trend in academic libraries has not been explored as deeply. As this paper reviews the limited LIS literature on the subject, the purpose of this paper is to provide administrators and managers with a deeper understanding of the benefits and drawbacks of contingent appointments. It also offers strategies for fostering a workplace culture that recognizes contingent librarians’ contributions and promotes their professional growth.

An overview of scholarly and professional literature on contingent librarianship, this paper is based on published research studies and academic articles; given the prominence of anecdotal and personal writing on the subject, columns and first-person essays from trade publications, as well as library-related blogs and job search sites, are also included.

Contingent librarians have been a steady presence in academic libraries for the last few decades. The trend is continuing. There are specific practices that can be applied to effectively manage contingent librarians.

The paper offers academic library administrators and managers a concise yet comprehensive overview of the issues related to contingent appointments.

We use panel data models to examine variations and changes in faculty employment at four-year colleges and universities in the United States. The share of part-time faculty among total faculty has continued to grow during the last two decades, while the share of full-time lecturers and instructors has been relatively stable. Meanwhile, the share of nontenure track faculty among full-time faculty has been growing, especially among the professorial ranks. Dynamic panel data models suggest that employment levels of different types of faculty respond to a variety of economic and institutional factors. Colleges and universities have increasingly employed faculty whose salaries and benefits are relatively inexpensive; the slowly deteriorating financial situations at most colleges and universities have led to an increasing reliance on a contingent academic workforce. A cross-sectional comparison of the share of full-time nontenure track faculty also reveals significant variations across institutions.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role faculty learning communities (FLCs), a common ADVANCE intervention, play in retention and advancement; and the ways in which FLC spaces foster professional interactions that are transformative and support the careers of women, underrepresented minority (URM) and non-tenure-track (NTT) faculty in research universities.

The authors employed a mixed methods case study approach set at a large, research-intensive institution, which had received an NSF ADVANCE grant to focus on issues of gender equity in the retention and advancement of STEM faculty. Land Grant University implemented retention and advancement efforts campus-wide rather than only in STEM areas, including five FLCs for women, URM faculty and NTT faculty. The primary sources of data were retention and promotion data of all faculty at the institution (including the FLC participants) and participant observations of the five FLCs for five years.

The analysis of retention and advancement data showed that participation in FLCs positively impacted retention and promotion of participants. The analysis of participant observations allowed the authors to gain insights into what was happening in FLCs that differed from faculty’s experiences in home departments. The authors found that FLCs created third spaces that allowed individuals to face and transgress the most damaging aspects of organizational culture and dwell, at least for some time, in a space of different possibilities.

The authors suggest additional studies be conducted on FLCs and their success in improving retention and advancement among women, URM and NTT faculty. While the authors believe there is a clear professional growth and satisfaction benefit to FLCs regardless of their effect on retention and advancement, NSF and NIH programs focused on increasing the diversity of faculty need to know they are getting the return they seek on their investment and this line of research can provide such evidence as well as enhance the rigor of such programs by improving program elements.

FLCs offer higher education institutions a unique opportunity to critically reflect and understand organizational conditions that are not inclusive for groups of faculty. Professional interactions among colleagues are a critical place where academic and cultural capital is built and exchanged. The authors know from the authors’ own research here, and from much previous social science research that women, URM and NTT faculty often experience exclusionary and isolating professional interactions. FLCs should be created and maintained alongside other more structural and cultural interventions to improve equity for all faculty.

The study’s contribution to the literature is unique, as only a few studies have tracked the subsequent success of participants in mentoring or networking programs. Furthermore, the study reveals benefits of FLCs across different career stages, identity groups and position types (women, URM and NTT) and suggests the investment that many NSF-funded ADVANCE programs have made in funding FLCs has the potential to produce a positive return (e.g. more women and URM faculty retained).