Precarity and dualism in higher education diagnosing their consequences and assessing Portuguese and Spanish policies

Abstract

This paper explores the consequences of precarity for the teaching-research nexus in academia. Ten case studies of higher education institutions in Portugal and Spain – two countries that have recently introduced measures to reduce contractual instability – are analysed through 47 interviews/focus groups with academics and institutional officials and contextualised through legislation and employment data. Our findings show that precarity is perceived as detrimental to the quality of teaching and research – while institutional officials see both missions as complementary, academic staff often experience them as competing demands, constrained by time and job (in)security. Moreover, respondents’ perceptions of recent policies’ lack of success in alleviating this precarity suggest their inadequacy to the academic context. Our study contributes to debates on the impact of precarity on academic work and informs policy discussions on how to better ensure the viability of the teaching-research nexus, with respect for both missions as well as for academics’ well-being.