ragde@utai.UUCP (12/08/87)
One of the sections of a massive Education Reform Bill introduced last week in the British House of Commons by Thatcher's government deals with the dismantling of the tenure system at universities. What follows is excerpted from the "Manchester Guardian Weekly", Nov. 29, 1987. (I'd say it could never happen here, but I remember British Columbia.) --PR -------- Academic tenure at universities will end after amendments to university charters/statutes are made by government-appointed commissioners as part of the terms of the Education Bill. Under the changes, academic staff can be dismissed for redundancy, inefficiency, and lack of funds. But the Bill does not enshrine academic freedom as sought by the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals to protect from dismissal staff holding controversial or unpopular views. It was thought academic freedom would be linked to proposals to end tenure, applied in less than half of British universities. But draughtsman were unable to come up with a satisfactory definition. The bill makes it clear an academic can be dismissed if a university decides it no longer wishes to provide the course taught, or establishes lack of demand. These provisions not only apply to staff appointed after November 20, but to staff who change jobs, either through promotion at the same university, or by joining another university. But staff will have the right to appeal against dismissal to an industrial tribunal or the courts, up to and including the House of Lords and the European Commission of Human Rights. Previously, the only course of appeal was to a university's visitor, an independent arbitrator, who now loses such executive powers. [Note: this is only one aspect of the bill, which the Weekly calls "the biggest shakeup in education in England and Wales since at least 1944" --PR ]