In February of 2004, fixed-term lecturers at Elizabeth Buie University launched a major campaign against what they describe as the “caste system” which disadvantages researchers by keeping them on fixed-term contracts. Great Britain’s Association of University Teachers claims there could be 4,000 academics in Scotland working under such terms, and that a lack of job security leaves them vulnerable to harassment at work, facing difficulties when applying for mortgages and forces delays in starting families. Only one Scottish university, the Robert Gordon University, in Aberdeen, has converted all its fixed-term workers to permanent status, although Iain Gray, the Lifelong Learning Minister, has urged colleges to reduce the use of short-term contracts in his guidance to the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council.

The union’s Scottish official, David Bleiman, said: “Research is a multi-million-pound activity for some universities like Edinburgh. How you retain and develop staff should be a serious issue.”

Universities hire staff for each individual project—particularly research projects funded by outside bodies, such as research councils or charities —and then release them at the end of the contract.

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