American Association of University Professors
Does tenure guarantee a job for life?
Tenure is not a guarantee of lifetime employment but rather a protection of academic freedom and a guarantee of due process. In terms of tenure, it means a professor cannot be dismissed for arbitrary reasons, such as departmental politics or disagreement with an administrator. Just like in other professions, termination can occur due to just cause such as misconduct or incompetence as well as a severe financial crisis at the college or university, or program elimination.
Tenure is also not a one and done achievement; there is continuous evaluation. Tenured professors receive performance reviews to support continued professional development, maintain high standards, and identify areas for improvement or remedial steps if performance is lacking.
Why is tenure important?
The principal purpose of tenure is safeguarding academic freedom, the foundation upon which the pursuit and transfer of knowledge is built and the common good is advanced. Tenure protects academic freedom by insulating faculty from the whims and biases of administrators, legislators, and donors, which allows them to contribute to the common good through teaching, research, and service activities. In short, this freedom is the right to teach, research, and publish ideas—even controversial ones—without the fear of institutional retaliation or job loss.
Tenure helps create an environment where scholars can, in good faith, pursue cutting edge research, exchange and challenge ideas, and reach evidence-based conclusions unimpeded by the threat of arbitrary dismissal. At its best, the tenure system is a big tent, designed to unite a diverse faculty within a system of common professional values, standards, rights, and responsibilities.
Do all professors have tenure?
No, there are fewer tenured professors today than at nearly any other time in history. Only about 32 percent of faculty members in the U.S. hold full time tenure or tenure track appointments. Colleges and universities have moved to using contingent or adjunct faculty which means they are not eligible for tenure.
Some argue this is for cost cutting purposes as non-tenure positions traditionally have lower salaries but that argument quickly falls flat since the hiring of administrators with bloated salaries skyrocketed during this same time period. There are now three times as many administrators and other professionals, basically non-teaching positions, as there are professors according to Forbes.
How does a professor earn tenure?
First, a professor must be hired for a position that offers tenure as most faculty positions are non-tenured. Professors must go through a rigorous multi-year process—typically 6-7 years—to be eligible to earn tenure. There are slight differences in timeframe by university. But all tenure track professors will be continuously reviewed during this time and ultimately must be able to demonstrate excellence in teaching, research and scholarship, and service. Basically, a tenure track professor spends the first part of their career in a very long probationary period.
• Research and Scholarship: Publishing original work in peer-reviewed journals or books and securing external research grants.
• Teaching: Demonstrating excellence in the classroom through student evaluations, peer reviews, and innovative curriculum development.
• Service: Contributing to the university and the broader academic community via committee work, advising students, and reviewing for journals.
Toward the end of the multi-year probationary period, the university will solicit independent evaluations from recognized experts in the person’s field at other universities. The dossier or body of work that they have compiled, will then be reviewed and voted upon within the university through a multi-level approval process which usually includes the department, the dean, the provost and ultimately the board of trustees as it is a binding long-term contract between the university and the professor.
Tenure is very much an “up or out” process. If a professor does not earn tenure within their multi-year “probationary” period, they are terminated. Clearly, tenure is not easily earned and it is worthy of protection.