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[the_walrus]

Apparently there wasn't really tenure before 1988 anyway, though it sounds like nobody realized it until it was tested in 1988:

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=104896&sectioncode=26

[qrypt]

Apparently there wasn't really tenure before 1988 anyway, though it sounds like nobody realized it until it was tested in 1988:

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=104896&sectioncode=26

You're generalizing from the exception.  The rest of the article makes it clear what the Tories' goals were in passing this legislation.

[the_walrus]

You're generalizing from the exception.  The rest of the article makes it clear what the Tories' goals were in passing this legislation.

Yes, I am.  I have no sympathy for the Tories or their goals.  Was just saying that in actuality, the protection never seems to have existed in the first place. 

[mingus]

Actually, the UK system used to have genuine tenure - a system under which it was impossible to fire someone or make them redundant unless they wished to leave.

My former university used to have a Chemistry department but it was closed at whatever point the number of Chemistry departments was slashed.  However one or two academics did not wish to leave and there was no way to make them. A colleague there tells me of finding a Chemistry professor in an office in the basement next to the central heating plant, where he used to come every day to read the newspaper. They couldn't get rid of him because he had tenure, but they could make life inconvenient.

We now have "permanent positions" from which it is possible to be made redundant.

Not sure what "genuine tenure" is.  But the tenure rules in the US do *not* rule out the possibility of firing or redundancy.

[hilarious]

Thanks for the helpful advice everyone. I sent in a scan of a letter from my uni confirming my promotion and asked for a move up on the scale... I'll write in with the results.

[mleok]

I am not sure whether the tenure would make any difference here: we do not have a tenure system so it would not be a big deal for a UK university.

I am not sure why it wouldn't be a big deal for a UK university, since any university with even a passing understanding of the US system will realize that tenure is typically a higher bar than promotion at most of the better universities. Indeed, at research universities, it is much more common to see Associate Professors without tenure, than Assistant Professors with tenure, at places which decouple promotion and tenure.

[hilarious]

Thanks forum, I asked and quickly went one spinal point up.  I'm not going on a shopping spree but at least it's something.

[drspouse]

Great news - it never hurts!