In this episode, Michael Horn and Jeff Selingo speak with Georgetown professor Jacques Berlinerblau about the history, purpose, and future of tenure in American higher education. Berlinerblau explains that tenure was originally designed to protect academic freedom and provide job security for scholars, but its prevalence has steadily declined as universities rely more on adjunct and non-tenure-track faculty to reduce costs.
Berlinerblau warns that the trend could dramatically reshape the academic workforce: “In the ’90s, it was, like, was, it like, 40-something percent. And then we start to see the line is sinking of professors who are on the tenure line, either tenure track or tenured. Right now, we’re down to somewhere between 21% to 23%. And my own view is this is gonna dip fast because of what’s going on in the red states. So within a decade or so, we’re gonna be beneath 20%, and we might go as low as 15%.”