This text is part of the special section Unionism
The National Federation of Teachers of Quebec is calling in particular for better recognition of the work of lecturers.
There are approximately 11,000 in the Quebec university network and these lecturers, the vast majority of whom have at least a master’s degree, are responsible for delivering 50% of the courses given at the undergraduate level. However, despite this important contribution to higher education, they are not recognized for their full value, estimates Christine Gauthier, vice-president, university group, at the National Federation of Teachers of Quebec (FNEEQ-CSN), which represents the majority of lecturers in Quebec.
“They are all contract employees,” she explains, “and as a result, they are not considered part of the regular faculty. In addition, their contractual status places them in a precarious situation. Year after year, they are not guaranteed to have the same course loads or even if they will have at least one, which creates a lot of insecurity. »
A lecturer’s salary is based solely on teaching delivery, that is, preparing and delivering a course. “This is why there is a lot of volunteering and self-sacrifice among our lecturers,” says M.me Gauthier. Any tasks that go beyond simple teaching, but which they necessarily undertake, such as participating in a departmental meeting, carrying out research or following up with students outside of class, are not taken into account in their remuneration. » This is why she pleads for better recognition of this employment group.
University funding
Christine Gauthier has no difficulty seeing that the Quebec university network, particularly the French-speaking network, is underfunded. But she also questions the relevance of maintaining the current method of financing universities, based essentially on the number of students registered per establishment.
“It’s a bit like the user-pays principle,” she believes, “in the sense that it is the user, here the student, who largely determines the budget available to the university. This method of financing creates competition between universities and opens the door wide to the hunt for students who we seek to attract by all kinds of means, for example by multiplying satellite campuses. » Also, this competition disadvantages regional universities, particularly those of the University of Quebec, which struggle more to attract students, and consequently see their budgets reduced.
Mme Gauthier also argues that this competition between universities induces two distortions in the very mission of university education. “The first distortion is cronyism,” she explains, “which leads universities to set up courses with the specific aim of attracting the greatest number of students. The second distortion is academic capitalism which ensures that more and more courses are set up with the aim of training workers and thus meeting the demands of the labor market. This is a very short view of the mission of university education. We cannot stop training and developing thinking because it does not fit with market demands. If we see university teaching only through the lens of academic capitalism, then what is the point of teaching philosophy or history? »
Currently, Pascale Déry, the Minister of Higher Education, is looking at university funding. “We do not yet know what the fruit of his reflection will be,” says M.me Gauthier, but we hope that the formula chosen will allow greater stability in university funding so that all universities, small and large, in the city and in the region, can offer quality university education. »
What she ardently hopes is that governments, current and future, take ownership of the primary mission of university education, that of training citizens intellectually. “It’s a noble, broad and beautiful mission,” she maintains. If a government made it its own, that would solve a lot of problems, because by making it its own, it would recognize its importance for society as a whole and would no longer hesitate to invest the necessary sums in it. »
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