OCUFA releases first-ever public opinion poll on precarious academic work

Today, OCUFA released the results of a public opinion poll examining attitudes to precarious work in Ontario’s universities – the first of its kind in the province. This new research demonstrates a strong level of support for good working conditions in our universities.

Highlights from the poll include:

• 94 per cent of Ontarians think universities should be model employers and support good jobs in their communities.
• 88 per cent want part-time professors to be converted into full-time positions.
• 85 per cent want part-time professors to receive fair pay and 84 per cent believe part-time professors should have the same access to benefits as their full-time colleagues.
• 64 per cent of Ontarians want to be taught by, or have their child taught by, a full-time professor with job security and benefits.
• 60 per cent are in favour of more public funding for universities to promote long-term employment relationships with faculty

“The poll results clearly show that Ontarians want universities to employ full-time professors, and to treat their contract faculty with fairness and respect,” said Bates. “In other words, the people of Ontario want every academic job to be a good job.”

The complete poll results are available from OCUFA. The poll was conducted by Mission Research on behalf of OCUFA with a sample of 1000 individuals with results accurate to within +/- 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.