“… universities have been forced to expand their recruitment offices so as to compete with each other for those students who are able to shoulder the debt needed to pay for their education (or for those who can afford to pay for it without going into debt) in the dog-eat-dog world of post-secondary education. At the same time, faculty hiring has been reduced significantly. Recently on CBC the Dean of Arts at York University relayed the fact that there would be only five tenure-track positions offered at YU this year. Shocking. There are more than 50,000 students at YU! Much more modestly, we at UNB Saint John were informed last Autumn there would be no hiring without presidential approval. It is now March – and we’re still in the deep-freeze when it comes to hiring faculty. Administrators would justify recent policies as market-driven. They say they simply can’t afford to hire full-time faculty. But while the numbers may add up, the underlying principles do not. How can universities function without tenured faculty? …” (more)
[Debra Lindsay, Living in interesting times, 8 March]