scientific edition of Bauman MSTU

SCIENCE & EDUCATION

Bauman Moscow State Technical University.   El № FS 77 - 48211.   ISSN 1994-0408

AUSTRALIA: Harried, underpaid staff plan to flee the sector

Two in five academics under the age of 30 plan to leave Australian  higher education within the next five to 10 years because of high levels of dissatisfaction caused by lack of job security, poor pay and mountains of paperwork and red tape.

And for those aged between 30 and 40, the figure is one in three.

Dissatisfaction and insecurity are so rife among casual and sessional staff that a new report for the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations estimates that close to half the academic workforce will retire, move to an overseas university or leave higher education altogether within the next decade.

"We are seeing a scenario in which an older, tenured workforce is rapidly approaching retirement, while a younger 'workforce in waiting' is surviving on leftovers: sessional teaching; short-term research and careers that stop and start, lurching across institutions and even disciplines, with no clear path to follow," lead author Emmaline Bexley told the HES.

Last August the researchers from the Centre for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Melbourne interviewed 5525 academic staff in 20 universities with a brief of providing a new understanding into the motivations, priorities and attitudes of academics.

Dr Bexley said while the survey revealed the passion and drive academics had for their research and teaching, job insecurity, lack of autonomy, poor remuneration and endless red tape were causing a high proportion of staff, particularly casuals, to consider leaving scholarly life.

"The high level of intrinsic satisfaction most academics have with their job has been covering up low levels of satisfaction around industrial matters," she said. "And while huge amounts of teaching is being done by sessionals, they are not really included in how the government thinks about the academic workforce, so some really poor working conditions are invisible, even though they are ubiquitous."

The survey revealed extensive anecdotal evidence on the appalling lack of certainty young sessional staff had about their positions. "Sessionals are paid for two 12-week blocks a year. Some people commented that kids with jobs in fast-food outlets or Bunnings, were earning more than young academics," Dr Bexley said.

Full text of the article: The Australian

Photo: Eddy Pasquier, left, with philanthropist Neil Balnaves, whose foundation has awarded him a $100,000 grant. Picture: James Croucher
Source: The Australian