Just read this through a link on Uncertain Principles' blog at ScienceBlogs. Steven Levitt, famous for "Freakonomics" proposes the abolition of tenure on his blog on the grounds of it being an economically unsound idea. What do you think?
I agree with one of the commenters on Levitt's blog, that one does need breathing room to let a project come to fruition, especially in the life sciences. Is competition and competitiveness everything? But there are so many new Ph.D.s who want jobs! How do you accommodate them all?
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
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1 comments:
Off topic comment! Some questions for you as requested...
1. What is the best part of being a postdoc?
2. What makes you happy?
3. What do you miss most about being a child?
4. What is your favorite book and why?
5. If you weren't a scientist, what would you be?
Have fun ;-)
Incidently, in places like the UK tenure doesn't really exist. You are on probation for a period of 3-5 years (particularly if you have a fellowship) and then usually on a permanant contract. It isn't so demanding to survive probation as tenure. In any case, I think you're correct - people take different lengths of time to settle in and become productive. Tenure just favours the swift and lucky.
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