The University of Canberra is staffing up, recruiting 50 researchers who will be “assistant professors”. They will get seven year contracts to prove they have, “unbridled potential to boldly take the lead in redefining our university of the future.” During which there will be two performance reviews before they qualify for permanent positions and/or promotion.

The campus branch of the National Tertiary Education Union says this is not good enough and that converting the positions to continuing employment is now an enterprise bargaining requirement.

Good-oh, but seven years will surely look good to many research academics subsisting in the precariat of casual contracts, perhaps including some already at UniCanb.