It  may be surprising for readers to learn that around 50% of teaching in Australian universities is done by casually employed staff. Casual employment in Australia in higher education grew by 17.1% between 2012 and 2013.

The question is whether this is good for either students or staff.

As a casually employed tutor myself at a local university I can confirm that my casual status is less than satisfactory.

Short term contracts of eleven weeks, depending on student enrollments, makes me feel dispensable and certainly not an intimate part of the institution.

Because fewer teaching units are offered over the summer period, casual tutors are rarely employed between November and March- five months without pay. For tutors with family responsibilities this usually means depending on the dole for an income.

Despite being expected to support students, casuals are rarely offered proper office space and must just squat where they can find a free computer.

This insecurity was underlined for me this year when I was not formally offered a contract until my second week of teaching.

Isolation, insecurity and lack of support for casual tutors is exacerbated by the growing trend in universities toward online teaching.

Many face-to face-lectures along with student participation has drifted online. Tutors who were once paid for lecture time must now watch as these are relegated online with no tutor remuneration.

Tutors may also be expected to attend, with no remuneration, extra sessions for re-skilling. Tomorrow I will need to attend (without pay) a workshop to learn the skills of online, not hard-copy, marking of student assignments which is now expected.

Online teaching, which understandably can be more cheaply provided by universities, also contributes to lower student tutorial attendance. In my own case for the past few years less than 50% of my students have been attending these face to face tutorials.  It’s not entirely because students are busy out partying.

Many students are tied to part-time and irregular employment hours that conflict with their university obligations. Unfortunately students then compensate for their absence by emailing tutors out of tutorial time for followup information or demanding meetings in tutor time to catch up. (This morning I’ve just committed to meeting a student who has been absent for the last two weeks)

Students under pressure have come to depend on this ‘anytime learning’, which Katrina Higgins a researcher from the University of the Sunshine Coast has described as ‘invisible work’.

Under present workplace models tutors are not generally recompensed for this ‘invisible work’ but of course it would be unusual to find a tutor who was not prepared to give freely this time to support students successfully complete their course.

The peak union body for tertiary education, the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) has suggested that casuals need to document these ‘invisible hours’ required to appropriately teach students.

Jeannie Rea, NTEU National President, believes that “issues of online learning and teaching are exacerbating the already exploitative working conditions of insecurely employed staff.”

This connection between online learning and exploitation of casual teaching is not limited to Australia. In Germany around 80% of teaching is performed on temporary contracts. In the USA according to the NTEU, “it is becoming clear that the cheap no-frills online version (of tertiary teaching) with an extra fee for service for a tutorial or to meet with an academic  is the option being offered to the poor. ‘Full service’ university education looks to being a privilege only for the better off.”

However casual teachers are regrouping and beginning to campaign for greater recognition and reward for work done. Universities are beginning to get the message and to respond. Curtin, Deakin, Griffith, the University of Sydney and Australian Catholic University have recently agreed to increase the number of permanent positions being offered. However, much still needs to be achieved for the sake of equity.