Pendulum swings back to stability

Ask people at work "what are you most worried about?" and the answer will be "job insecurity".

There has been a 90 per cent growth in student numbers since 1980 but very slow growth in staff numbers; the trend towards more work and less security has been resisted by many. This resistance has been treated in turn with exasperation by many governing bodies and heads of institutions.

One head of institution accused colleagues who were naturally trying to cling on to permanent contracts of being dinosaurs. Protests against casualisation of higher education are seen as reactionary yet there is no evidence that it helps to secure the future for institutions or a more stable society. People on short-term contracts start off by working harder because they are afraid of losing their jobs. The research assistant, secretary or catering assistant is less likely to challenge management decisions or act collectively with other colleagues.

Increased stress, low morale, isolation and alienation from management initiatives, whether good or bad, become the order of the day. A high proportion of higher and further education employees are on temporary or fixed-term contracts. It is questionable whether employer-driven rather than mutually agreed flexibility improves quality in the workplace or whether it is simply an easy way out for the bad manager.

There are signs in higher education that the pendulum is starting to swing back towards stability.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal recently decided that Glasgow University had unfairly dismissed two staff on fixed-term contracts because of its lack of consultation over alternative posts once their contracts had ended. This welcome decision will help to improve the negotiating atmosphere in universities. At Glasgow about 400 of its 5,000 staff are on externally funded, fixed-term contracts. Surely there is more to the community of universities than being employment agencies for boffins?

The news that an agency is being established to hire up to 400,000 further education lecturers by the hour represents the reductio ad absurdum of the deregulated society. The agency will have at least five regional offices and 75 staff. Why bother with that expenditure? Why not go back to the tried and tested method of casual labour in the docks and pick out further education lecturers in a college car park on a daily basis? The drive towards casualisation of further education staff is happening at the same time that the Commons Public Accounts Committee heard that college chief executives received pay rises averaging 11.5 per cent over the past year.

The two trends are not just startling contrasts but an integral part of the same equation. Pay your top men (they are nearly always men) top salaries to achieve massive cost-cutting exercises on staff lower down - no redundancy pay, pension costs, sickness benefit or holiday entitlement.

The most telling outcome will be the effectiveness of such a system and whether it leads to a stronger economy and a more secure future for higher education. Surely a balance between change and job protection can bereached. No institution can be setin concrete; neither should it be run by hiring people from car parks.

Rita Donaghy is permanent secretary of the student union at the Institute of Education and a member of the TUC general council.