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Call for book chapters 

Precarity and casualization in South African higher education: Theoretical and empirical 

It is now broadly understood that the global higher education sector is largely maintained and supported by a precarious and casualised labour force (see for example Leathwood & Read, 2022; Adewumi & Keyser, 2021; Williams, 2022). Through various higher education short term /and or part time contracts such as teaching assistants, postdoctoral research fellows, contract lecturers/ teachers, assistant lecturers/ professors, tutors, administrative support amongst others, employment precarity and casualization has become the new normal in higher education. More troubling for us is the growing number of part-time workers across the global higher education sector and the implications this has on the wellbeing of these workers as well as the sustainability of the sector itself. Research suggests that we have now reached what we could call the “precarious turn” in the academia, with a large number of universities across the global community relying on precarious and casual labour to fulfil their basic responsibilities, such as teaching and learning, research, community engagements, supervision, administrative work, human resources amongst others. 

This is seen in how 52% of all higher education workers in the United Kingdom (UK) are sitting on part time contracts (Universities UK, 2025); In Germany, nine out of every ten university workers are short term (GEU, 2019); In the United States (US), at least 48% of all faculty are sitting on short term contracts(Colby, 2023); In Australia 27% of all staff at university can be classified as either fractional full time employment or casual full time employment (Australian Department of Education, 2025), and in New Zealand 59% of all staff at university could be classified as either fixed term or casual staff (Lee & Ben-Tal 2024). The numbers look equally bleak when focusing on the South African context, with the Council on Higher Education (CHE) reporting that at least 62% of all staff in higher education are on part time contracts (CHE, 2024). Read in race and gender terms, the majority of the part time workers in the country are African and women (CHE, 2024, p. 63-64).

In this book, we attempt to make three contributions to the interdisciplinary fields of higher education and sociology. Firstly, we attempt to shine a spotlight on the voices/ narratives/ experiences of South African higher education stac who are living precarious lives in the academy, probing the extent to which precarity/ casualisation/ employment insecurity acects their wellbeing, mental health, family, work, productivity amongst others. Secondly, and through a focus on these voices/ narratives/ experiences, we seek to explore how such workers navigate and negotiate precarity in their lives and the tactics/strategies/ approaches that they employ in South African higher education. And third, the book seeks to make policy/ theoretical/ philosophical interventions through proposing bottom-up solutions and interventions on how South African higher education and DHET could respond to the challenges for growing precarity and employ insecurity in the academy. We welcome collaborative papers from established scholars as well as early career researchers.

We especially seek papers that ocer a solid theoretical/ philosophical/ empirical engagement with the emergence of precarity and casualisation in South African higher education, and the implication this has had on stac, students, curricula, pedagogy, policy and research, amongst others.

Abstracts may be submitted on any topic related to this theme. These topics include (but are not limited to) South African higher education and:

  • Precarity (social, political, economic)
  • Employment insecurity
  • Casualisation
  • Neoliberal logics + influences
  • Policy implications on:

          • Stacing
          • Student support
          • Funding and institutional practices
          • Developing/ training/ mentoring emerging scholars

  • Publish and/or perish
  • Ratings and ranking regimes
  • Performance management instruments
  • Experiences/ voices/ narratives of:

          • Teaching Assistants
          • Postdoctoral research fellows
          • Contract lecturers/ time of task teachers
          • Assistant Lecturers
          • Tutors
          • Administrative support
          • Interns

Submission guidelines:

  • Abstract: 150-350 words.
  • Keywords: Provide 5-7 keywords.
  • Corresponding Author: Please include the email address of the corresponding
  • author.
  • Institutional Aciliation: Ensure that your institutional aciliation is clearly stated.
  • Please direct ALL abstracts, queries and questions to mhlatshwayo@uj.ac.za OR jmunyaradzi@uj.ac.za

Proposed Dates:

  • Call for abstracts: 30 May – 1 August 2025
  • Abstract review + evaluation: August 2025
  • Abstracts outcome: September 2025
  • Full chapters due: 30 November 2025
  • Peer review process: Dec 2025- April 2026
  • Copy editing + manuscript finalization: May-July 2026
  • Book publication: August-September 2026

 

References:


Adewumi, S.A. & Keyser, E. (2021). Academic casualization and university development in a selected public higher education institution in Lagos, Nigeria. African Journal of Development Studies 11(2): 7-29.


Australia Department of Education. (2025). Key findings from the 2024 Higher Education Stac Statistics. Australian government. [Date of access: 12 February 2025]. https://www.education.gov.au/higher-education-statistics/staff-data/selected-highereducation- statistics-2024-staff-data/key-findings-2024-higher-education-staff-statistics


Colby, G. (2023). Data Snapshot: Tenure and Contingency in US Higher Education Federal figures on faculty appointments and graduate student employment in US higher education. American Association of University Professors. [Date of access: 10 February 2025]. https://www.aaup.org/sites/default/files/AAUP%20Data%20Snapshot.pdf


Council on Higher Education. (2024). VitalStats: Public and private higher education. CHE: Pretoria. [Date of access: 19 March 2025]. https://www.che.ac.za/file/7690/download?token=Gj8gXocX


Leathwood, C. and Read, B. (2020). Short-term, short-changed? A temporal perspective on the implications of academic casualisation for teaching in higher education. Teaching in Higher Education 27(6): 756-771.


Lee, K. & Ben-Tal, A. (2024). The impact on NZ university academic stacing over the pandemic years. New Zealand Science Review Vol 79(1): 1-6.


The German Education Union. (2019). Fixed-Term Contracts in Higher Education and Research A Guide. GEU. [Date of access: 10 February 2025].
https://www.gew.de/index.php?eID=dumpFile&t=f&f=89240&token=8481dd2d5d9862908996908aa6ac0a546a6f9227&sdownload=&n=Fixed-termcontracts-web.pdf


Universities UK. (2025). Higher education in numbers. [Date of access: 10 February 2025]. https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/latest/insights-and-analysis/higher-educationnumbers

Williams, R.J. (2021). The Ecect of Casual Teaching on Student Satisfaction: Evidence from the UK. Education Economics 1(1): 1-30.

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