There are a lot of misconceptions about academic tenure. I talked with Dr. Josh Boyd to learn more about what academic tenure actually means.
Misconception #1: A tenured professor can’t be fired.
Tenure moves you from a temporary position to a permanent position. The “tenure track” moves you along from assistant professor to associate professor to professor. What exactly does this mean? The university is committing to you indefinitely; however, a tenured professor can still be fired with just cause.
Misconception #2: Tenure means faculty focus more on research than students.
Tenure gives faculty the freedom to study what they want to study or teach what they think is important without feeling like a misstep will cause the loss of their job. They are given the opportunity to ask hard questions and do research that might fail. They are, by no means, less dedicated to students. Many tenured faculty members even invite students to join their research teams, providing one-on-one mentorship and research training.
Misconception #3: A tenure track job is better than a non-tenure track job.
In the Lamb School, those that teach classes but aren’t on the tenure track are called lecturers. A lecturer is a full-time teacher and doesn’t have any job or research expectations other than teaching.
A professor of practice or a clinical professor has a more applied purpose. They don’t necessarily have a research background, but they have skills or experience that a research degree can’t give you. Many of these clinical professors have worked in the industry for several years before moving to academia and teaching classes on that industry. For example, a journalist might teach a mass communication course.
These positions may be a better fit for some, and are critical to the makeup of the Lamb School. Lamb School students are able to learn from both professors with research backgrounds and professors of practice with invaluable industry experience.
Misconception #4: The tenure process is the same everywhere.
The process could look a little different depending on where you are. At Purdue, you have six years to establish a record that makes the university confident you will continue to be a good professor and a contributor to Purdue and the academic community.
During the first six years, you are expected to publish enough to be recognized as an expert at the national level. If you don’t receive a tenured position after the sixth year, you have to find another job.
As an undergrad, you will take a lot of different classes and write papers in these different areas. The expectation for a tenure track professor at a university like Purdue is that you will have one focus area where you are a leading scholar in the academic community. Many scholarly journals are peer reviewed and many reject 80-90% of its submissions. Other scholars will judge if it is well-done research or not, and if you have a long list of published work, that shows that you know what you are talking about.
Purdue values research above all, but not every university is like Purdue. Standards and expectations differ across departments too. There is no one-size-fits-all tenure experience. To learn more about academic tenure or publishing academic research, reach out to your professors.