Spain’s ‘crazy’ squeeze on precarity ‘impossible’ without funding

“I was very surprised with this latest change because even 20 per cent was very aggressive,” Maria del Carmen Pérez Esparrells, a professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid who studies higher education funding, told Times Higher Education. “Eight per cent is crazy – it’s like a revolution in terms of temporary contracts for academic staff.” Yeah it's completely crazy to treat people with dignity and respect. Professor Sanz-Menéndez said universities needed tailored transition plans to recruit the best permanent candidates as there had been “many cases of misuse” of associate lecturer contracts and making poor candidates permanent could cause “long-term damage” and “block the access of new talent”. Yeah, it will cause real long-term damage, when we can't just dispose of people whenever we like, especially when they get sick, to get new people in that are very similar to the ones we just disposed of cause they came from the same courses, so we can abuse them in the same way, and dispose of them, etc etc, real long-term damage But aside from the unfunded costs, many temporary staff do not have the research experience to qualify for more senior, permanent positions, Professor Pérez Esparrells said. A study found that in 2021, of the more than 25,000 holders of associate lecturer contracts, just 46 per cent had the required doctorate. Let's imply we have no teaching standards currently and then use that to defend the current model of exploitation - nice one!