By Liu Aisheng and Xiong Liyang
In recent years, there has been a significant change in the employment situation in American universities - nearly 70% of teachers in universities do not have tenure and are mostly adjunct professors. A large number of support staff, administrative staff, and logistics staff also have temporary positions. These individuals often face disadvantages such as low wages, lack of benefits, limited promotion opportunities, and job insecurity. American scholars call this phenomenon "the casualization of higher education employment" and express deep concerns about its negative impact.
Surprisingly, in recent years, with the deepening of personnel management reforms and the introduction of the "either promote or leave" system in Chinese universities, the employment situation in our country's universities has also shown a trend of "casualization". This is manifested in the large-scale recruitment of extra-institutional personnel and post-doctoral researchers. We need to remain highly vigilant about this phenomenon and its potential negative effects.
The Casualization of Higher Education Employment Damages Educational Objectives
The casualization of employment in American universities originated in 2019. In that year, American higher education scholar Kezar stated in her work that in order to reduce operating expenses, the employment positions in American universities are increasingly characterized by temporary and unstable work arrangements. This manifests as an increasing reliance on temporary faculty members who have low costs and can be easily controlled, as well as the outsourcing of various support services (such as logistics services, student counseling, and course management) to contractors.
The employment situation in American universities shares many similarities with the gig economy, such as the non-fixed nature of employment relationships, the uncertainty of work provided, and the instability of workers' income. Therefore, Kezar and others creatively proposed the concept of the "gig academy" to illustrate the current casualization of employment in American universities.
This phenomenon is definitely not a good thing for the following reasons.
Firstly, the disintegration of the university community. In American universities, non-tenure-track faculty members generally do not have the right to participate in governance, let alone common governance. In the "gig academy," managers have greater power, and the power of professors is relatively compressed, leading to frequent suspicion and opposition between the two. Secondly, the deterioration of working conditions and atmosphere. In the "gig academy," the treatment of most temporary faculty members is extremely low, they are not recognized by the academic community, and they are marginalized. This working atmosphere makes it difficult for them to develop a sense of belonging and improve their work efficiency. Thirdly, a decline in the quality of student learning. As teaching tasks are mostly undertaken by adjunct professors under short-term contracts, they have no extra time or energy to focus on individual students, which is detrimental to student growth.
In summary, the casualization of employment in American universities seriously undermines the educational objectives and public mission of higher education.
The Characteristics of "Gig Economy" in the Employment of Domestic Universities
With the infiltration of commercialization of higher education and especially the implementation of personnel downsizing reforms in recent years, the employment situation in our country's universities also shows characteristics of the "gig economy".
Specifically, in recent years, the outsourcing trend of logistical affairs in domestic universities has become increasingly evident. Many universities have outsourced food, accommodation, security, and sanitation affairs to social contractors, leading to a sharp increase in the number of extra-institutional personnel.Research shows that a considerable number of off-payroll workers employed as contract workers or dispatched workers account for 30% or even more of the total number of faculty members in many Chinese universities. In some provinces where individual institutions have taken the lead in organizational reforms, apart from a few high-level talents, newly hired personnel (whether they are academic support staff, administrative staff, or full-time teachers) are no longer included in the personnel organization system.
At the same time, the number of temporary research positions has skyrocketed. Some universities have recruited a large number of young post-doctoral researchers under special positions, full-time researchers, or doctoral candidates. However, the majority of them cannot obtain permanent positions within the university. To cope with the shortage of manpower, many universities have also temporarily employed a large number of graduate students to undertake research assistance, teaching assistants, management assistants, and part-time counselors, among other roles.
Similar to the situation in the United States, there are significant differences between off-payroll workers and on-payroll workers in terms of economic income, welfare benefits, social recognition, and psychological well-being in Chinese universities.
Firstly, the treatment of off-payroll workers in all aspects is generally unsatisfactory. Even though some universities offer higher compensation to new teachers than to on-payroll teachers, they often come with excessively high teaching and research tasks, which are not what the former desires. Secondly, off-payroll workers are often viewed as outsiders or "insiders outside the system," manifested in the lack of promotion channels, job rights, and employment priority. Thirdly, off-payroll workers have a low sense of social identity, and the problem of role marginalization is highly prominent. They often consider themselves as "second-class citizens." Lastly, off-payroll workers generally face psychological problems such as anxiety and lack of security and may develop an imbalanced mentality due to unsatisfactory working conditions and unequal status.
