CAUT | ACPPU
Canadian Association of University Teachers
CAUT Policies
Policy Statement on Tenure
Tenure constitutes the primary procedural safeguard of academic freedom, and is essential for the maintenance of intellectual liberty and high standards in postsecondary education and in scholarship. It is the means by which academic staff are protected against personal malice or political coercion. Tenure, following rigorous evaluation by peers, ensures secure continued academic employment. Once academic staff receive tenure, they retain that status should they move from one position to another, or from one rank to another, within the institution.
By definition, employment in a tenured position involves responsibilities of teaching, research, professional activity, and service and the right to salary and benefits that are appropriate to the nature of the position. In those cases where a tenured position is less than full time, the responsibilities attached to the position should be the same as those for a full-time position on a pro rata basis and salary and benefits should be no less than for a full-time position on a pro-rata basis.
The word tenure and its derivatives mean that such an appointment can only be terminated for just and sufficient reasons, which are limited to the areas of financial exigency or of grave misconduct, and which must be proved through procedures that ensure fairness before a properly constituted and independent tribunal. The phasing out of courses or programs by the university or college is not a reason for terminating a tenured appointment. In these circumstances the university or college has the obligation to transfer a member with a tenured appointment to another position for which the member is qualified or to provide training so that the member can take up an alternative position. In either case the appointment to which the member is transferred is tenured.
Approved by the CAUT Council, November 2005.
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