It was researched that there are more than 1000 people who were fired as a part-time lecturer at 112 universities in Korea and the reason is attributed to the law of temporary contract workers which regulates about the changing part-time employees who have worked more than two years into full-time employees. About this situation, it is said that restoration of instructor’s status and other fundamental solutions are required.
There are much more than 1200 part-time lecturers who were dismissed this 2nd
semester. As the result was totaled by half of the whole universities, actually the real number of the dismissed would be more than twice. It was a university which did a mass-dismissal of part–time workers effectuating the temporary contract worker regulations and most of the dismissed had lectured four semesters one after another without having master’s degree so they were applied to the temporary contract worker regulations unlike master’s degree employees who are considered as an expert.
The reason of this savage mass-dismissal disaster is obvious. It’s just because of the
universities’ shallow-minded calculation related to their own profit. The behavior of universities using and then throwing away the part-time lecturers giving low salaries is not different from that of the vicious business employers so, I wonder how they call themselves as a palace of education.
In other point, the responsibility neglecting this shameless work at university authorities is not as large as that of Department of Education Science Technology(교육과학기술부). The problems toward part-time lecturers’ treatment have been issued many times. Many strokes requesting reappointment have been held for more than two years in front of the National Assembly and some bills to solve these problems have been introduced, too. Even though the warning that mass-dismissal would happen was told again and again before the enforcement of the temporary contract worker law, Department of Study(교과부) did nothing with their arm crossed.
Part-time instructor problems are closely related to the quality of Korean university’s education as well as the worker’s existence. The number of part-time professors is more than twice as many as that of full-time professors in Korean universities, which means that more than half of the university education depends on the part-time lecturers. However, the workers get only 10 percent of what the full-time lecturers earn even though they do the same education work. Moreover, Korean universities don’t ensure the four insurances for them except 10 universities. Most of the part-time instructors who are in the middle of doctor process or have the degree are the member of intellectual group so, it is impossible that we hope to develop the quality of education exploiting them like this.
Department of Study should resolve the problems of part-time lecturers’ improvement actively. They have to make them regain their teacher’s status which was deprived under dictatorship as political reasons and the department and the government have to make efforts together to give them better treatment. Ju-ho Lee, the vice-minister of Department of Study, introduced a bill related to this problem when he was a lawmaker.
This is a growing problem in education around the world. Full-time faculty are expensive, but part-time faculty are rather cheap. For example, a professor teaching 3 classes per semester costs a university in the US at least $50,000/year, whereas a part-time faculty member (adjunct faculty) costs a fraction of that for the same course load (about $18,0000/yr for 6 courses).
ReplyDeleteThe same is true here in Korea (maybe even more so). This isn't because the universities are really that greedy, but it is for business reasons. They simply don't have enough money.
Please answer this question. Would you rather have part-time faculty teacher you and pay the same tuition you do now? OR have only full-time faculty teaching you and pay about %100 more? Or, this there a 3rd option?
Dan
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ReplyDeleteIt's true..actually the present tuition is too expensive already, so I wonder how many people can pay the tuition if universities kept growing their tution fee.
ReplyDeleteEven though the present faculty's salaries are reduced and university hire more full-time faculties, problems about this will be left at that time because it is hard to change all of the system at once(I mean it will take long time) and it is natural that present faculties do not accept this.
If some get back their rights and then others have to waive some part of their own privilige
Can I answer the question?
ReplyDeleteI think these are things in common around the world because University is also a sort of a business company so they want to make a profit. And there is one more thing. It is the common sense that the more full-time faculty is, the much we need to pay but I think there is not much of knowledge gap between full-time faculty and part-time faculty. Sometimes there is a part-time lecturer who is more passionate and knowledgeable than a full-time faculty. Is there any reason University have to employ full-time faculty more than their needs? I think the answer is No.
I think you both have good points. I agree that many part-time faculty are more engaged and, sometimes, more knowledgeable than full-time faculty. However, you have to ask yourself if this is a sustainable system. The only reason that people get specialized training in an area is if they see a job in the future. If they only see the possibility of working for 5 different universities at a time and making less than they would at an office job, you'll likely see fewer qualified people taking these jobs.
ReplyDeleteThere is a trade-off that universities are going to have to deal with for the foreseeable future between full-time and part-time faculty. In the end, I think you are going to see bigger classes with full-time faculty as managers and part-time as assistants. This is not what I want to happen, but it is what I see likely happening. Additionally, this will be accompanied by large movements of people and materials online. In this way, it becomes easier to manage large classes and create learning spaces where students can become a learning community, thus improving the overall effectiveness of the large classroom.
Dan