Career Limiting Move? Teaching-only Positions in Ontario Universities - An OCUFA Policy Background Paper

OCUFA
September 2008

From the Executive Summary of the document (you can download the full document below):

Teaching-only positions for full-time faculty have been a feature of several Ontario university appointments procedures for well over a decade. In recent years, they have been introduced at one university, established on a temporary and limited basis at two other institutions, discontinued at yet another, and proposed by the university administration at one of this year's bargaining tables. Yet another association expects its university administration to renew its proposal for teaching-only positions in next year's negotiations.

Internationally, national bodies representing faculty associations in the United Kingdom - the Association of University Teachers (AUT) and its successor union, the University and Colleges Union (UCU) - and Australia - the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) - have expressed alarm about the increase in numbers of teaching-only positions. Their primary worry appears to be more the number of academic staff in part-time, limited term and/ or hourly paid lecturer positions more than the number of full-time faculty in teaching-only positions. Definitions of "teaching-only" differ, but these concerns parallel those in the United States, where the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), which have been grappling with
the dramatic increase in contingent part-time and contractually limited full-time employment.

Within the context of the teaching function of universities, full-time faculty teaching-only positions occupy one part of a spectrum. In Ontario, one can point to part-time, per-course contract academic staff (CAS), to CAS with some form of
renewable contracts, to limited term / contractually limited appointments (CLTA) with teaching-only responsibilities, and full-time teaching faculty with permanent tenured or continuing appointments. In this regard, teaching-only positions are one strategy amongst several which a university may pursue to
fulfill its teaching mandate.

...

Whatever the reasons universities may have to establish full-time teaching-only faculty positions, and however they may propose to structure these positions, they have not been without drawbacks for faculty members and the faculty associations that represent them. For their part, faculty associations have dealt with the range of scenarios with a variety of their own strategies to contain or make the most of teaching-only appointments. In this respect, a policy on teaching-only positions will likely be a composite of positions addressing different characteristics and conditions.

To download the full document:

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