Approaches to career development and support for sessional academics in higher education

Levels of career support for sessional academics vary widely. This paper surveyed 109 sessional academics and demonstrates that a lack of career development for them is a widespread issue. The study finds that some sessional academics receive career support opportunities, while others receive nothing. As the number of sessional academics continues to grow and they become an ever larger part of the higher education workforce, while at the same time tenured positions are still the objective of many in academia, this paper contributes to current scholarship by identifying a clear stratification in the sessional workforce that has implications for the academics who hope to secure tenured positions.