2003-12-09
Junior Lecturers in Higher Education: Current and Future Situation
- examining their situation as teachers at universities and colleges
- evaluating their scope for influence in teaching-staff structures
- elucidating their development and career opportunities
- eviewing the eligibility requirements for employment as a junior lecturer
- benchmarking the Swedish form of employment as junior lecturer against other countries´ forms of employment for comparable teacher categories.
The investigation included a questionnaire for junior lecturers, a survey based on interviews with junior lecturers and a questionnaire for higher education institutions. In addition, other countries´ forms of employment equivalent to that of junior lecturers in Sweden have been elucidated through a study of the literature.
Junior lecturers´ situation
Since 1994/95, the number of whole-year students has risen by 25% and that of teachers by 14%. In the same period, the number of junior lecturers has also risen more than those of teachers in other categories. A minority (47%) of the teaching staff in higher education hold PhDs, i.e. a majority (53%) do not.
The post of junior lecturer (adjunkt in Swedish), which has existed since 1965, is now found in all areas of education. Most present-day junior lecturers, who number just over 7,600 in all, work in the health sciences and social sciences. Teaching on undergraduate programmes is the primary duty of junior lecturers.
A high proportion of junior lecturers enjoy their jobs, while roughly one in six is dissatisfied with the lack of stimulating work. Many also experience problems relating to stress and work overload. Nevertheless, they provide a relatively favourable picture of the scope for supplementary training and personal development. They perceive the prospect of a career in higher education as relatively unlikely.
Many occupations in Sweden are subject to heavy pressure. The situation for all categories of teachers at the country´s universities and colleges is no exception. The National Agency for Higher Education believes that the heads of higher education institutions have substantial room for manoeuvre that they can use to improve working conditions for junior lecturers and other teaching staff. Overall staff policy, planning of teaching inputs in collaboration with junior lecturers, further training and active efforts to bring about gender equality are some examples.
Junior lecturers´ development and career
A number of universities expect to have fewer junior lecturers in the immediate future, while the majority of institutions are not planning for a reduced proportion of junior lecturers. One central principle in higher education has long been research-linked undergraduate programmes. Further discussions on junior lecturers´ future should therefore have as their starting point the manner in which universities and colleges can provide satisfactory links to research when a majority of the teachers have not pursued postgraduate studies.
The National Agency for Higher Education submits the following proposals in connection with junior lecturers´ development and career. These proposals should also bring about a larger share of teachers with postgraduate qualifications at higher education institutions.
- The Government should consider funding a strategic initiative to boost the proportion of teachers with postgraduate qualifications at universities and colleges.
- Enhanced collaboration between institutes of higher education in undergraduate programmes. This probably requires only a minor additional contingent of teachers with PhDs. Another approach is to develop collaboration between more senior lecturers and researchers, on the one hand, and junior lecturers on the other within and among departments at individual higher education institutes. This not only enhances links to research, but also contributes to skills development for lecturers at all levels.
- The Government should consider imposing a reporting-back requirement on higher education institutions whereby they must give an account (e.g. in the form of figures on the proportion of junior lecturers engaged in postgraduate studies) of the measures they have taken to improve junior lecturers' skills development.
- The Government should also consider the option of specifying a target for each and every institution to raise its proportion of teachers with research qualifications -- along the lines of the model used for recruitment of female professors
Requirements for eligibility as junior lecturer
Internationally, various arrangements exist to fill the need for teaching staff at a range of different qualification levels. Sweden has a relatively refined system for careers in teaching and research. Junior lecturers have the option of pursuing postgraduate studies, although the terms vary locally. Under Chapter 4, Section 13 of the Higher Education Ordinance, a junior lecturer who has shown particular aptitude may be promoted to a post as lecturer without having obtained a doctorate. The National Agency for Higher Education considers that the current legal model, with scope for promotion to a lectureship without having pursued doctoral studies, provides sufficient scope for a career as a teacher in higher education on primarily educational grounds.
The Agency´s assignment included examining the eligibility requirements for employment as a junior lecturer. In the investigation, nothing has emerged that prompts the Agency to propose amending the eligibility requirements for the current post as junior lecturer as contained in Chapter 4, Section 9 of the Higher Education Ordinance.
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