Leaders within the educational community are questioning the methods that are currently used by universities when it comes to awarding tenure to their professors. Traditionally, tenure has been awarded based on the number of times the professor manages to get his or her writing in a scholarly journal rather than on the professor’s teaching capabilities. According to critics of the current system, this formula simply awards professors with job-for-life protection based on quantity of output rather than quality of teaching.

“Someone should gain recognition at the university for writing the great American novel or for discovering the cure for cancer,” said Gordan Gee, who is the President of Ohio State University, to the Associated Press. “In a very complex world, you can no longer expect to everyone to be great at everything.”

Questioning the effectiveness of the professors of education programs at the college level is hardly something new. In fact, numerous people have started to question the effectiveness of teacher preparedness programs. To have Gee jump on board with the criticism, however, represents an important ally since he is one of only a few American college presidents with political prowess as well as a much-respected reputation within the world of education. Nonetheless, professors are concerned about the possibility of making a switch in the tenure process.

“The idea of awarding tenure based on teaching makes me anxious,” said Jennifer Higginbotham, who is an English professor at Ohio State, in a Boston.com article. Higginbotham is up for tenure in three years, by which time she needs to publish a book that she is writing about girlhood conceptions in the Middle Ages.

“There’s a feeling, I think, that good teachers are a dime a dozen,” said Higginbotham. “I’m not sure what you’d have to do to distinguish yourself enough as a teacher to get tenure.”

Traditionally, tenure review has placed a greater emphasis on publications than on teaching. Whether or not a professor brings research grants to the university is another factor that is taken into consideration. Once a teacher achieves tenure, he or she typically sees an attractive increase in salary. At Ohio State, for example, a tenured professor earns around $126,000.

In addition to the increase in salary, tenure also provides professors with protection from firing as well as other disciplinary measures. As a result, it is difficult – if not impossible – to fire a professor. Although this level of protection may seem overly generous, it provides professors with the freedom to conduct studies and to express ideas without fear of losing their jobs.

While Gee hasn’t proposed any specifics on how he would like to change the current tenure system, it seems likely that the world of higher education may see some sweeping changes in the near future.