私たちは非正規雇用の大学教員の有志です。どの大学にも大勢いるのですが、実は私たちのような教員には職名がありません。高等教育界では「非常勤講師」などと呼び習わされているものの、このような呼称は通称です。正規雇用の大学教員はみな、教授、准教授、講師、助教という職名で呼ばれています。それならなぜ、私たちには通称しかないのでしょう？私たちにも職名は必要ですし、通称では一般社会、また外国でも通りにくいのです。

そこで私たちは、文部科学省に非正規雇用の教員の正式名称を要望する請願を行うことを計画し、そのためにまず「『非常勤講師』にも職名を！」と銘打って署名活動を始めることにしました。私たちと同様に「非常勤講師」である方々やそのご経験者のみならず、一般の方々からもご署名を募ります。

非正規雇用の教員はたびたび雇止めされる上、社会保険に加入できず、賞与はもとより、有給休暇もありません。給与は1科目当たりで正規雇用の教員の3分の2程度ですが、授業に必要な機材代や資料代は自己負担です（もっとも、正規雇用の教員の給与の大部分は授業以外の業務への対価です）。それでも私たちは正規雇用の教員に劣らず良質な授業を提供していますし、学生にとっては先生が正規雇用でも非正規雇用でも変わりはありません。

「非常勤講師」にも職名がつけば、このような待遇は見直しに向かう可能性があります。第一に、出講先の大学で、私たちも教員共同体の一員として数えられるようになります。大学の経営が厳しさを増す時代にあって、たとえ給与面の改善が難しくても、せめて「非常勤講師」の教育活動への適正な補助、研究活動に必要な最小限の物的環境の提供（大学教育は研究と容易に切り離せません）、という形での改善が進めば、私たちの働きにくさは軽減するはずです。　

第二に私たちが、どこでも面倒な説明なしに誇りをもって名乗れるようになります。諸外国では大学教員の専門職としての地位は、雇用形態によらず尊重されています。非正規雇用の教員にも、客員や特任という冠をつけて准教授や教授の職名が与えられることも珍しくありません。近年の日本では大学が客寄せのために芸能人などを「特任教授」や「客員教授」として招聘する事例が見られる一方で、教育に実直に尽くしている「非常勤講師」には昇任の機会もなく、長年勤続してもそのような「敬称」を与えられることはないのです。

かつて大学生だった方々、現役の学生のみなさんにもお願いします。非正規雇用の大学教員の正式名称を求めるための署名にご協力ください。「非常勤講師」という通称に代わる職名としては、〈兼務講師〉〈兼任講師〉〈客員講師〉などを提案することができます。いただいた貴重なご署名は、文部科学省への請願に説得力を持たせるために活用します。

 

発起人：大学非常勤講師協会設立準備会　　

呼びかけ人；ゼネラルユニオン大学支部　　ゼネラルユニオン　　

渡辺照子（立憲民主党　練馬区議会議員）　　五十嵐えり（前衆議院議員）　　

山田省三（中央大学名誉教授・弁護士）　　菊地夏野（名古屋市立大学准教授）　　

榎木英介（一般社団法人科学・政策と社会研究室　代表理事）　

 

Count Us in University Faculty! --A Petition to Get a Proper Title for “Part-time Lecturers” 

We are volunteers who are non-regular university teachers in Japan. There are many of us at every university, but actually, teachers like us don’t have an official job title. In higher education, we are commonly called things like “part-time lecturers,” but these names are just informal terms. All full-time faculty members are called by titles like professor, associate professor, lecturer, or assistant professor. So why do we only have nicknames? We need proper titles too, because nicknames don’t really work in the general society or abroad.

So, we’re planning to petition the Ministry of Education to give official job titles to university teachers in non-regular employment. To do this, we’ve decided to start a signature campaign called “Give Even Part-Time Lecturers an Official Title!” We’ll be collecting signatures not only from people who are or have been part-time lecturers like us, but also from the general public.

Part-time teachers often get their contracts terminated repeatedly, can't join social insurance, and have no bonuses or paid leave. Their pay is about two-thirds of what full-time teachers get per class, and they have to cover the costs of equipment and materials for their classes themselves (though most of a full-time teacher's salary is actually for work outside of teaching). Even so, we provide high-quality lessons just like full-time teachers, and for students, it doesn't really matter whether their teacher is full-time or part-time.

If part-time lecturers were given official titles, this kind of treatment might be reconsidered. First of all, we would be counted as part of the teaching community at the universities where we teach. In an era when university management is becoming tougher, even if salary corrections are difficult, improvements like proper support for the educational activities of part-time lecturers and providing the minimum necessary physical resources for research activities (since university education can’t easily be separated from research) would at least make our work bearable.

Secondly, we'll be able to proudly introduce ourselves anywhere without having to go through troublesome explanations. In other countries, the professional status of university teachers is respected regardless of their employment type. It's not uncommon for non-regular teachers to be given titles like associate or full professor, with labels such as visiting or specially appointed. In recent years in Japan, while there are cases where celebrities are invited as “specially appointed professors” or “visiting professors” to attract students, part-time lecturers who sincerely dedicate themselves to teaching have no chance of promotion, and even after many years of service, they are never given such “honorific” titles.

Former university students and current students alike, we ask for your support. Please help by signing a petition to establish the official name for part-time university teachers. Instead of the common term “'part-time lecturer,” we can suggest titles like “concurrent lecturer,” “adjunct lecturer,” or “visiting lecturer.” The signatures we collect will be used to make our petition to the Ministry of Education more persuasive.

 

Founder: The Association of Part-Time University Lecturers in Japan 

Organizers: General Union, University Branch of General Union

Teruko Watanabe (The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, Nerima Ward Council Member) 

Eri Igarashi (Former Member of the House of Representatives)

Shozo Yamada (Professor Emeritus, Chuo University; Lawyer) 

Natsuno Kikuchi (Associate Professor, Nagoya City University)

Dr. Eisuke Enoki (Representative Director, Research Lab in Science, Policy, and Society General Incorporated Association)