University Teachers in Slovakia as a Special Category of Employees in Public Administration: Social Stability of Employment?

Abstract

The main role of public administration is to administrate public affairs. All of the functions in this field are realised by employees carrying out the dependent work. Public administration, as an employer, has to fulfil the demand of stability and attractiveness of public sector employment. For the purposes of the study our attention focuses on a large group of public employees, namely teachers in public universities in Slovakia. Legislative regulation of the employment of university teachers is alarming. The paper analyses Slovak legislation of time-terminated employment contracts with university teachers and its unlimited repetition. The authors, supported by settled case law of the Court of Justice of the EU, assess the legislation in substance and critically, but also point to its potential impact on the private life, social security and health of these employees, i.e. psychological aspects. Descriptive analysis aimed at assessing quantitative changes in individual groups of university teachers according to the highest level of qualification was used to express trends in the development of quantitative indicators characterizing selected aspects of employment of university teachers (assistant, assistant professor, associate professor, professor). Legislation on the employment of university teachers under the conditions of the Slovak Republic raises considerations of unequal treatment of two categories of university teachers (associate professors and professors) when compared to the category of assistants and assistant professors. For this reason, an analysis of the age structure of university teachers according to the highest qualifi cations was carried out. The analyses were carried out using data from the Center of Scientific and Technical Information of the Slovak Republic (CVTI SR) and the Register of University Employees maintained by the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic. The study was conducted for the reference term of 2011–2019. Through our analysis, we have identified a downward trend in the number of university teachers qualified as assistant professors in the 40–49 age category, and this change does not reflect the increase in the number of associate professors in the same age category. The group of university teachers in this age category then becomes vulnerable/disadvantaged in the labor market, which has serious social consequences for the employees themselves and provides a picture of the university environment in terms of legislation.

Výberové konania učiteľov vysokých škôl – procesné detaily

“…I keď zákonná úprava vyvoláva zdanie, že po kumulatívnom splnení predpísaných podmienok je s docentom alebo profesorom dojednaný pracovný pomer na neurčitý čas, kvôli vekovej a časovej limitácii (70 rokov a uplynutie akademického roka) ostávajú aj ich dosiaľ reťazené pracovné pomery pracovnými pomermi na dobu určitú. (Barinková, Žofčinová, 2015;Žofčinová, Barinková, Hrabovská, 2020). Poukázali sme na nevyhnutnosť naplnenia a dodržania cieľa a účelu smernice a kriticky sme sa vyjadrili ku bezlimitnému uzatváraniu pracovných zmlúv na dobu určitú.…”

Regional concentration of higher education

“…Researchers often find a robust positive correlation between the regions with the initial share of workers with university degrees changing over time. The local labour markets with a higher initial share have seen a greater increase in the share of university graduates, and the E3S Web of Conferences 3 01, 03009 (2021) REC-2021 https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202130103009 migration behaviour of university graduates reinforces this pattern of skills divergence between regions [16]. The largest and most populous regions have the largest net migration flows of young university graduates, while the smallest regions have the second largest net migration flows.…”

University collaboration for co-designing sustainable urban areas

“…An analysis of governance modes has been developed in relation to community organizations [11,12]. Although most of the experiments are conducted by local governments, many other actors intervene and conduct experiments through partnerships.…”