Abstract
In Canada, universities are undergoing a process of corporatization where business interests, values and practices are assuming a more prominent place in higher education. A key feature of this process has been the changing composition of academic labor. While it is generally accepted that universities are relying more heavily on contract faculty, to date, there is a lack of data to substantiate it in the Canadian context. This paper addresses this gap through reporting on a unique longitudinal dataset I have created on academic staff for 18 universities in Ontario collected through access to information requests under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. I analyze these data to address two key questions. First, to what extent have there been changes in the composition of academic labor in arts-related disciplines within Ontario universities? Second, to what extent are past claims that administrators have been unable and/or unwilling to provide these kinds of data legitimate? I conclude that there has indeed been a significant increase in part-time and full-time contract appointments relative to tenure stream positions in Ontario universities. My research also suggests that the reluctance of universities to share data on contract faculty has been motivated by both political considerations as well as the nature of university data management, which has been made more problematic by the precarious relationship between universities and their contract employees.
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Notes
That being said, researchers in some countries have documented the casualization of academic labour in detail. In Australia, for example, a recent study found that 60 % of the academic workforce—or roughly 67,000 academics—was employed on a non-permanent or casual basis (Maslen 2010). In the USA, the number of part-time faculty increased by 264 % between 1976 and 2007, while the number of full-time non-tenure track faculty rose by 211 %. In contrast, the increases in tenured and tenure track faculty were just 28 and 7 %, respectively (American Association of University Professors 2010).
According to the OCUFA, “despite the stated willingness” of universities to be open and accountable about their practices, “there are many exemptions in the university access to information policies which are so broad as to make it possible for universities to habitually deny even nonsensitive access requests … Perhaps the most troubling exemption is that which allows universities to refuse to share information which relates to ‘economic and other interests’” (p. 5).
My partial “replication” of the OCUFA study was not planned in advance. That is, I did not encounter this research until after I sent out my first set of ATI requests. Coincidently, we had requested similar data. In order to correspond more closely with the OCUFA’s requests, I added a fourth item on university hiring to my final 11 ATIs.
There were also special cases, as follows: (1) at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT), I requested and received data from all university faculties; (2) at Trent, the unusual organization of academic units led me to request information from individual departments; (3) at Toronto and Nipissing, arts departments are grouped with science departments in the “Faculty of Arts and Science,” so the data I requested (and obtained) from these universities included a broader range of disciplines; (4) at Queen’s and Brock, I had to narrow down the list of departments within each faculty for reasons of cost; and (5) in a few instances (e.g., Carleton and Wilfrid Laurier), access coordinators were able to provide me with additional data from departments that fell outside the scope of my requests.
Some of these job titles included FIPPA Coordinator; FOIP Coordinator; FIPPA Officer; Access and Privacy Assistant; Access and Privacy Officer; Access and Privacy Coordinator; and Chief Information Officer.
I use the term “complete” loosely. Within these datasets, there were sometimes missing years and other variations/omissions. For example, in the cases of Wilfrid Laurier, data were provided for all three groups of faculty but in a format for part-timers that was limited for comparison purposes. In the case of Toronto, no information was available on the number of graduate students who taught on a contract basis prior to 2006.
At Ryerson, for instance, part-time faculty are grouped into two categories: “Limited-Term” and “Reduced and Part-Time Sessionals.” At Lakehead, there is a three-tiered system of sessionals and not all of these tiers are part of a bargaining unit or represented under the collective agreement. At the University of Toronto, part-time instructors are differentially categorized according to the length of their contract, their method of appointment and their bargaining unit. The formation of a new collective bargaining unit in 2003 (representing teaching staff with appointments of less than 12 months) further increased this complexity.
This can be illustrated, for example, by looking at data I received from Western University—an institution that relies heavily on part-time faculty—where the access coordinator was able to control for individuals working in multiple departments. The data show that in the Faculty of Social Science, there were 182 part-time appointments in 2009–10. When individuals working in multiple departments were accounted for, this number fell only slightly to 176. For the entire decade, the percentage increase in the number of part-time appointments in the faculty was nearly identical to the increase in the number of part-time employees (and these differences were only slightly more pronounced in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities).
I received data on part-time contract hiring from Wilfrid Laurier, but only on contract appointments on a per-course (not a per-instructor) basis in the Faculty of Arts. For this reason, a comparable intensity ratio could not be calculated. Nevertheless, data from Wilfrid Laurier suggest that the university has a very high intensity of part-time faculty use and that contact hires significantly exceeded tenure stream appointments over the 2000s.
The Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies (LAPS) was created through a merger of the Faculty of Arts and Atkinson College in 2009–10. During the 2000s, some departments moved to other faculties on campus. The time series data supplied by the York administration mapped the changes in those departments that remain in the LAPS.
For example, my data show that the total number of part-time positions in the LAPS was over 1,000 each year between 2007–08 and 2009–10. Yet, the 2011–12 edition of the Factbook (the only year for which headcount data were provided by faculty) claims that the total number of contract faculty (headcount by contract) in the LAPS was just 773.
The data for tenure/tenure track faculty were provided by calendar year, while the data for part-time faculty were provided by academic year.
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Appendices
Appendix 1
Faculties
University | Data requested |
|---|---|
York University | Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies |
University of Toronto | Faculty of Arts & Science (main campus) |
Carleton University | Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences |
University of Ottawa | Faculty of Arts and Faculty of Social Sciences |
University of Guelph | College of Arts and College of Social & Applied Human Sciences |
Brock University | Faculty of Humanities and Faculty of Social Sciences |
Queen’s University | Faculty of Arts & Sciences |
University of Waterloo | Faculty of Arts |
Ryerson University | Faculty of Arts |
Western University | Faculty of Arts & Humanities and Faculty of Social Science |
University of Windsor | Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences |
McMaster University | Faculty of Humanities and Faculty of Social Sciences |
Lakehead University | Faculty of Social Sciences & Humanities |
Laurentian University | Faculty of Social Sciences & Humanities (main campus) |
Nipissing University | Faculty of Arts & Science (main campus) |
Wilfrid Laurier University | Faculty of Arts (main campus) |
Trent University | Select departments |
University of Ontario Institute of Technology | All faculties |
Appendix 2
Information timeframe
University | Start date | End date | Timeframea (months) |
|---|---|---|---|
York University | February 2010 | April 2011 | 14 |
University of Toronto | February 2010 | April 2010 | 2 |
Carleton University | February 2010 | June 2010 | 4 |
University of Ottawa (1st) | February 2010 | April 2010 | 2 |
Guelph University | April 2010 | June 2010 | 2 |
Brock University | April 2010 | August 2010 | 4 |
Queen’s University | April 2010 | July 2010 | 3 |
University of Waterloo | June 2010 | July 2010 | 1 |
Ryerson University | June 2010 | December 2010 | 6 |
Western University | June 2010 | October 2010 | 4 |
University of Windsor | June 2010 | October 2010 | 4 |
McMaster University | June 2010 | September 2011 | 15 |
Lakehead University | September 2010 | July 2011 | 10 |
Laurentian University | September 2010 | August 2011 | 11 |
Nipissing University | September 2010 | October 2010 | 1 |
Wilfrid Laurier University | September 2010 | June 2011 | 9 |
Trent University | September 2010 | November 2010 | 2 |
University of Ontario Institute of Technology | September 2010 | January 2011 | 4 |
University of Ottawa (2nd)b | March 2011 | June 2011 | 3 |
Appendix 3
Fee estimates, fee waivers and costs
University | Estimated fee | Fee waiver | Payment |
|---|---|---|---|
York University | $0 | n/a | $0 |
University of Toronto | $150.00 | No | $150.00 |
Carleton University | $450.00 | n/a | $0 |
University of Ottawa (1st request) | $90.00 | No | $90.00 |
University of Ottawa (2nd request) | $900.40 | Yes | $0 |
University of Guelph | $0 | n/a | $0 |
Brock University | $315.00 | Partial | $195.00 |
Queen’s University | $450.00 | Partial | $150.00 |
University of Waterloo | $0 | n/a | $0 |
Ryerson University | $150.00 | No | $150.00 |
University of Western Ontario | $120.00 | No | $120.00 |
University of Windsor | $90.00 | Yes | $0 |
McMaster University | $1381.80 | Yes | $0 |
Lakehead University | $0 | n/a | $0 |
Laurentian University | $200.00 | Yes | $0 |
Nipissing University | $0 | n/a | $0 |
Wilfrid Laurier University | $160.00 | Partial | $75.00 |
Trent University | $0 | n/a | $0 |
University of Ontario Institute of Technology | $0 | n/a | $0 |
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Brownlee, J. Contract faculty in Canada: using access to information requests to uncover hidden academics in Canadian universities. High Educ 70, 787–805 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-015-9867-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-015-9867-9