Postdocs rarely get permanent contracts

This week, university and union negotiators will talk again about a new collective labour agreement. In recent years, such talks haven’t only been about wage increases, but also about the many temporary contracts.

For full professors and associate professors, these talks are of little consequence. Almost all of them have a permanent position. It’s about the rest of the staff on the academic career ladder.

Teaching staff

For ‘assistant professors’, the unions and the previous government have made considerable progress. Assistant professors are less likely to work on temporary contracts: in three years this went from 30 to 11 percent.

The same development is visible for ‘lecturers’ (without research duties). In that group, the share of temporary contracts grew to 61 percent by 2021, but the latest figures indicate this has decreased to 41 percent.

But the ‘other academic staff’ aren’t so lucky. This mainly includes postdocs doing research at the university after completing their PhD. Of them, 89 percent are in temporary employment. That is 12 percentage points more than twenty years ago.

Differences between universities

Just looking at assistant professors, the differences between universities are striking. At Tilburg, Leiden, Delft and the University of Amsterdam (UvA), assistant professors almost never hold a temporary appointment. In contrast, at Erasmus University Rotterdam, 29 percent of them do.

The contrast is even greater amongst lecturers without research duties. In Utrecht, 85 percent of them are on a temporary contract, compared to only 6 percent in Rotterdam. So here Erasmus University is at the other end of the spectrum.

For postdocs, it also matters where they 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.

Negotiations ‘very sensitive’

Is the fate of the researchers even being discussed in the negotiations for a new collective labour agreement? Trade union FNV doesn’t want to say anything about it as the negotiations are in the final stages. “It’s all very sensitive, given the money that may or may not be available”, says a spokesperson. “We’re maintaining radio silence for now and hopefully we’ll soon be able to tell you the outcome.”

The current collective labour agreement states that postdocs often work within projects funded by external money. Therefore, it doesn’t make sense for them to have a “prospect of a permanent position in research”. However, the agreement does make mention of a study on the ‘contractual position’ and career of postdocs.

HOP, Bas Belleman
Translation: Taalcentrum-VU