From one temporary contract to the next: for postdocs, the job merry-go-round has hardly slowed down. Photo Shutterstock For postdocs, the fight against temporary contracts at universities has yielded little results: on average, 89 percent have a temporary contract. There are significant differences between universities. With 77 percent temporary contracts, the situation in Wageningen is slightly more favourable than average.
Next week, negotiators from universities and trade unions will once again discuss a new collective labour agreement. In recent years, such discussions have not only focused on pay rises, but also on the many temporary contracts. For professors and associate professors, these discussions make little difference. Almost all of them have permanent jobs. It is the rest of the employees on the academic career ladder who are affected.
Teachers
The trade unions and the previous cabinet have made considerable progress for the job group of assistant professors. They are less likely to work on temporary contracts: in three years, the percentage has fallen from 30 to 11. The same trend can be seen in the job category of teachers (without research duties). There, the proportion of temporary contracts rose to 61 percent in 2021 and, according to the latest figures, has fallen to 41 percent.
However, “other academic staff” are less fortunate. This group mainly includes postdocs who conduct research at the university after obtaining their PhD. Of these, 89 per cent are on temporary contracts. That is 12 percentage points more than twenty years ago.
The differences between universities are striking, even among assistant professors alone. At Tilburg, Leiden, Delft and the University of Amsterdam, assistant professors almost never have temporary appointments. At Erasmus University Rotterdam, on the other hand, the figure is 29 per cent.
The contrast is even greater among lecturers without research duties. In Utrecht, 85 percent of them have a temporary contract, compared to only 6 percent in Rotterdam. In Wageningen, the proportion is 26 percent.
It also matters where postdocs work. At Erasmus University Rotterdam, 66 percent have a temporary contract, compared to more than 90 percent in Delft, Eindhoven, Groningen, Utrecht and at the two Amsterdam universities, UvA and VU. In Wageningen, more than three-quarters do not have a permanent appointment: 77 percent.
Negotiations
Will the fate of researchers be discussed in the negotiations for a new collective labour agreement? The FNV trade union does not want to comment on this, as the negotiations are in their final phase. ‘It’s all a sensitive issue, given the money that is or is not available,’ says a spokesperson. ‘We’re keeping quiet for now and hopefully we’ll be able to tell you what the outcome is soon.’
The current collective labour agreement states that postdocs often work on projects that are financed with external funds. Therefore, the prospect of a permanent job in science would not be obvious. However, a study into the contractual position and career of postdocs has been announced.
