For many casual academics, employment can be a useful stepping-stone towards an academic career, or a convenient way of earning extra income. On the other hand, casual academics often experience underpayment for work, lack of adequate facilities and little collegial or professional recognition. Job security is also a problem: often casual work is only available during teaching periods, and future work is not guaranteed.

This website aims to help you find out what you need to know to survive as a casual, and provides practical tips as well as an introduction to the National Tertiary Education Union – your Union.

NTEU is the only union solely concerned with tertiary education and represents almost 26,000 academic and general staff around Australia. NTEU has a record of negotiating good pay and working conditions for all university staff and of successfully representing members. Government, universities and professional societies regard NTEU as a major stakeholder in higher education.

NTEU recognises the high levels of skill and professional integrity casuals bring to our universities, and is committed to ensuring that rights, conditions and pay for casual staff are protected and improved. This website is produced as part of an ongoing NTEU campaign on casual employment and is linked to the Union’s broader goal of preserving and improving the integrity and quality of higher education.

Grahame McCulloch, General Secretary, NTEU