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@ARC_Tracker & other people @lisaharveysmith etc interested in improving life for @EMCRForum in the ARC system: As a matter of priority, lets get ARC to hide employment details, F15 etc & make them irrelevant in the assessment process! There is no such thing as "tenure" anyway /1
Currently, non-tenured EMCR have to worry endlessly about how their employment situation might be perceived by a (hopefully minority) of reviewers that seem to be believe that ARC grants should only go to academics with tenure. This is wrong for so many reason! /2
Firstly, this mainly affects EMCR. Secondly, for better or worse most Aus Uni's hire people first on contract and then maybe later convert (call it track-tenure by stealth). Thirdly with COVID, most Uni's can't offer tenure now (see e.g. recent ads at UQ, ANU for positions). /3
And lastly - what is tenure anyway but a word on paper? How many tenured Professors lost their job last year? Tens? Hundreds? So why make tenure an issue in ARC assessment? And make people sweat over it in the investigator part of D & ROPE. This needs to stop now! End of rant. /4
N.b Tenure is not officially an assessment issue. But some reviewer take the instructions about "time and capacity to undertake the research" to mean "do they have a job at the end of grant". But that is folly! They probably get extension but it is not our/ARC job to manage HR!
