The Problem of “Full-time” Part-time Lecturers in Japan

: The Impact of the Non-Regularization of University Instructors

Abstract

The number of so-called “full-time” part-time lecturers has increased greatly since 1995, doubling from 45,370 in 1998 to 93,145 in 2016. This number accounts for one-third of university instructors. Although highly educated, these “full-time” part-time lecturers are among the government-made working poor, earning less than 3 million yen a year unless they teach more than eight classes a week. The direct cause for the increase of “full-time” part-time lecturers is that faculty posts have been limited relative to the number of graduate students, whose numbers skyrocketed after the introduction of the graduate school prioritization plan in 1991. It was originally intended that part-time lecturers would fill shortages in undergraduate instruction as core faculty members moved to graduate schools in accordance with the graduate school prioritization plan. In short, university operation is now made feasible only through dependence on the system that embeds “full-time” part-time lecturers as a core teaching human resource.