The Inclusion of Non-Tenured Staff in Institutional Quality Culture

The paper is reviewing an array of recent literature sources arguing that the Neoliberalism and the New Public Management are the driving forces behind the observable increase in numbers of terminated employments in several countries in recent decades. The further focus of the literature review is on recent researches suggesting that the non-tenured staff members tend to have less pedagogical skills and are excluded from the internal quality culture. The synthesized findings of the both review sections suggest that the inclusion of the non-tenured staff into the institutional quality culture can augment the quality of higher education. This constitutes the core motivation for the authors to further research within this article whether the tendencies of increasing share of non-tenured staff members can be identified in Latvia as well. The empirical section of this article is based on statistical analysis of data from different reliable sources. The study suggests that due to shrinking higher education market and necessity to handle the impact of 2008-2012 Economic crisis, the share of academic faculty staff is being consolidated around the core elected faculty staff. Nevertheless, it is important to consider a timely inclusion of the non-tenured staff into the institutional quality culture. However, in view of recent higher education reforms and new academic career model being introduced, it is hard to predict the further dynamics of the non-tenured positions in higher education of Latvia. This paper is an effort to start filling the existing research gap in the emerging but under-researched subject of non-tenured staff in Latvia.