The Academic Precariat - What ongoing staff can do to support precariously employed colleagues

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Mary Man

The article examines the expanding divide in Australian universities between ongoing (tenured) and precariously employed academics, highlighting exploitation, underpayment, and limited prospects for permanency. It synthesizes statistics on precarious contract shares, gender composition, and uneven distribution of paid labor across teaching and research. It offers practical guidance for ongoing staff to support, manage, and hire precarious colleagues, while warning against shifting excessive institutional responsibility onto individuals.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages6

Reading Time15 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Our recommendations in the face of rising academic precarity

What ongoing staff can do

Hiring, pay, and contracts

Managing precarious colleagues

Ethical considerations and shared responsibility

A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W What ongoing staff can do to support precariously employed colleagues The Academic Precariat There is a growing divide between ongoing and precarious academics in Australia. Precarious academics are often exploited, underpaid, and have little hope of gaining permanency. In this article we offer suggestions to ongoing academics on how to improve the working lives and conditions of precarious colleagues. Our suggestions range from easy and straightforward to more challenging. We offer them to encourage discussion and action, and to inspire ongoing academics to consider how the circumstances of precarious academics today may differ from their own experiences as ‘early career’ academics. Introduction: Our recommendations in the face of rising academic precarity There is a growing divide between ongoing and precarious academics in Australia (Brown, Goodman, & Yasukawa, 2010; Hugo, 2008), sometimes referred to as the ‘tenured core’ and the ‘tenuous periphery’ (Kimber, 2003). The number and proportion of precarious academics has expanded in recent decades, and recent data from the National Tertiary Education Union (2018) suggests that around two-thirds of all university staff are now on precarious contracts: 45 percent casual and 23 per cent fixed-term. A recent analysis of Victoria’s eight largest universities’ annual reports shows a similarly high figure of 63 per cent of all staff, with women making up 57 per cent of this group (Heffernan, 2019). Paid academic labour is distributed unevenly between these groups, teaching-only positions being dominated by casualsand research-only positions by fixed-term staff (NTEU, 2018). At the same time, there has been a series of government cuts to higher education and academics first hired during the post-war higher education boom are retiring en masse (Hugo, 2008). There is a dearth of new ongoing positions, and the ratio of students to ongoing teaching-and-research staff has skyrocketed (Hugo, 2008; NTEU, 2018). Academic job opportunities for new PhD graduates are increasingly scarce both in Australia and overseas, and higher education research shows that people often remain ‘stuck’ in precarious roles for years or even decades (Hugo, 2008; May, 2012). Under such circumstances, senior and ongoing academic staff are increasingly called to manage casual and fixed-term employees, who undertake research towards large projects and take care of overflow or ‘buy-out’ teaching. Unsurprisingly, the power relations and expectations that develop between such staff can be problematic. We have developed this short paper for ongoing staff in Australian universities, for their consideration when working alongside, managing, or hiring precarious academics. While many of the challenges facing universities require substantial structural change, there are numerous things that ongoing academic staff – and those on longer-term, fixed-term contracts – can do to ameliorate the situation. This includes ensuring laws, rules, and agreements governing employment are followed; avoiding and calling out exploitation, unequal treatment, and bullying ; and offering practical support and vol. 62, no. 1, 2020 What ongoing staff can do to support precariously employed colleagues The Academic Precariat 57 A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W solidarity to precarious colleagues. Other groups have made related reflections or recommendations, writing from a variety of disciplinary positions and national contexts, and we acknowledge the valuable contributions that precede our own (see Anti-Precarity Cymru, 2018; Natalier et al., 2017; Thorkelson, 2019). As a collective of writers concerned with academic precarity, we offer suggestions that range from easy and straightforward to more challenging. We do so to encourage discussion and action, and to inspire ongoing academics to consider how the circumstances of precarious academics

FAQs

What does the article mean by “academic precarity” in Australia?

It refers to the growing share of university staff working on precarious contracts rather than ongoing positions, often with exploitation, underpayment, and low chances of permanency.

Which problem does the article focus on regarding work conditions?

It focuses on how precariously employed academics are managed and supported by senior and ongoing staff, and how power relations and expectations can become problematic.

What practical steps does the paper suggest for ongoing staff?

It suggests transparent hiring practices and attention to employment rules and agreements, including calling out exploitation, unequal treatment, and bullying, alongside offering practical solidarity and support.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Mary Man