tenure track jobs have largely disappeared without any fiat compelling them to disappear. economics/bschools are few places where tenure track jobs are still created.
Should tenure be abolished?
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If tenure is ab0lished then prospective junior professors will demand significantly higher wages to compensate for the additional employment risk when they are older. If universities refuse to raise their salaries accordingly then the best prospective professors will go to industry and universities will be left with the bottom of the barrel graduates with no alternatives. Tenure ab0lition would be good for universities in the short term but very detrimental in the long run.
They would be very bad even in the short term.
The possibility of tenure is what makes junior faculty work their hardest during the years of their life when they are most creative and productive. If you remove the tenure carrot, there's no way they work as hard. Moreover, anyone who doesn't have tenure will significantly reduce their service and teaching contributions. Schools will struggle to find people to fill committees, and such committee work will be subpar. The broader profession will have far fewer people reviewing papers, being editors, organizing conferences, etc. All of these will be detrimental almost immediately.
There's simply no point in trying to abolish tenure because it is an efficient way of providing the right incentives throughout the life of an academic. Early career scholars (who are at their peak for intellectual contributions) should be pushed hard to do research. Later career scholars (whose best intellectual contributions are past) ought to focus more on service, teaching, and other tasks that are necessary for schools and the broader academic profession. The only people who seem to advocate for tenure abolition seem to be jealous folks who want some kind of revenge on the tenured faculty they envy, and haven't really thought things through.
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If tenure is ab0lished then prospective junior professors will demand significantly higher wages to compensate for the additional employment risk when they are older. If universities refuse to raise their salaries accordingly then the best prospective professors will go to industry and universities will be left with the bottom of the barrel graduates with no alternatives. Tenure ab0lition would be good for universities in the short term but very detrimental in the long run.
They would be very bad even in the short term.
The possibility of tenure is what makes junior faculty work their hardest during the years of their life when they are most creative and productive. If you remove the tenure carrot, there's no way they work as hard. Moreover, anyone who doesn't have tenure will significantly reduce their service and teaching contributions. Schools will struggle to find people to fill committees, and such committee work will be subpar. The broader profession will have far fewer people reviewing papers, being editors, organizing conferences, etc. All of these will be detrimental almost immediately.
There's simply no point in trying to abolish tenure because it is an efficient way of providing the right incentives throughout the life of an academic. Early career scholars (who are at their peak for intellectual contributions) should be pushed hard to do research. Later career scholars (whose best intellectual contributions are past) ought to focus more on service, teaching, and other tasks that are necessary for schools and the broader academic profession. The only people who seem to advocate for tenure abolition seem to be jealous folks who want some kind of revenge on the tenured faculty they envy, and haven't really thought things through.Yep, this is basically everywhere outside the US and Canada at the moment. Just look where the highest academic salaries are it's still in places with tenure.
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Yes, without tenure I would definitely go into industry. There is greater financial reward and security.
If tenure is ab0lished then prospective junior professors will demand significantly higher wages to compensate for the additional employment risk when they are older. If universities refuse to raise their salaries accordingly then the best prospective professors will go to industry and universities will be left with the bottom of the barrel graduates with no alternatives. Tenure ab0lition would be good for universities in the short term but very detrimental in the long run.
They would be very bad even in the short term.
The possibility of tenure is what makes junior faculty work their hardest during the years of their life when they are most creative and productive. If you remove the tenure carrot, there's no way they work as hard. Moreover, anyone who doesn't have tenure will significantly reduce their service and teaching contributions. Schools will struggle to find people to fill committees, and such committee work will be subpar. The broader profession will have far fewer people reviewing papers, being editors, organizing conferences, etc. All of these will be detrimental almost immediately.
There's simply no point in trying to abolish tenure because it is an efficient way of providing the right incentives throughout the life of an academic. Early career scholars (who are at their peak for intellectual contributions) should be pushed hard to do research. Later career scholars (whose best intellectual contributions are past) ought to focus more on service, teaching, and other tasks that are necessary for schools and the broader academic profession. The only people who seem to advocate for tenure abolition seem to be jealous folks who want some kind of revenge on the tenured faculty they envy, and haven't really thought things through.Yep, this is basically everywhere outside the US and Canada at the moment. Just look where the highest academic salaries are it's still in places with tenure.
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Tenure was abolished in the UK 30 years ago. Academic productivity up, deadwood down and very few cases of professors being exited for freedom of speech issues. Of course UK is different to US because the protection of regular law against unfair dismissal is stronger, but there is no particular reason to fear the end of tenure in the US.
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Most economists should follow their models - and thus abolish tenure.
However - what are then the objectives of young researchers? Just work for 40 years hard, but never reach the "harbor of security"? This might lead to a severe reduction in the attractivity of academia. -
Well, all this could be achieved without tenure. If you don't produce X good papers per year or work in Y committees such that the dean is satisfied, you are fired. What is the problem?
If you remove the tenure carrot, there's no way they work as hard. Moreover, anyone who doesn't have tenure will significantly reduce their service and teaching contributions. Schools will struggle to find people to fill committees, and such committee work will be subpar. The broader profession will have far fewer people reviewing papers, being editors, organizing conferences, etc. All of these will be detrimental almost immediately.