The American Association of University Professors in Washington, D.C., has watched in alarm as Britain prepares to eliminate tenure from higher education as part of the government’s Education Reform Bill (The Scientist, June 27,1988, page 21). The organization has passed the following resolution:

“AAUP notes with great concern the intention of the British government to abolish the system of academic tenure in all United Kingdom universities. We deplore the governments’ disregard of the intimate relationship between tenure and academic freedom and note with dismay its resistance to the inclusion of an explicit protection for academic freedom in the proposed new contractual arrangement. We also deplore the proposed introduction of the practice of dismissing senior academics and replacing them with junior scholars purely for reasons of economy. The Seventy-Fourth Annual Meeting urges the British Government to withdraw these damaging proposals and to recognize and nurture the excellence of the British universities.”...

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

Receive full access to digital editions of The Scientist, as well as TS Digest, feature stories, more than 35 years of archives, and much more!