The European Union has revised plans to recommend member states impose a one-third ¡°maximum threshold¡± on the use of fixed-term contracts in academia, after sector leaders called the proposal ¡°unworkable¡±.

Adopting a European Commission paper?that sets out a series of measures aimed at reducing precarity in research careers, the European Council ¨C which represents heads of national governments ¨C removed the suggested maximum threshold of ¡°one-third of fixed-term contracts in the overall researchers¡¯ human resources of a given employer¡±.

Instead, the council proposed that member states ¡°could, on a voluntary basis, incentivise the establishment of a maximum threshold for the number of fixed-term contracts per organisation in researcher human resources overall¡±, without specifying an upper limit.

The European Commission¡¯s original submission drew concern from umbrella groups including the Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities and the European University Association (EUA), which had warned: ¡°The same target threshold is unlikely to fit all university needs, nor does it respect their autonomy.¡±

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The League of European Research Universities (Leru) called the threshold ¡°unworkable¡±, adding: ¡°Fixed-term contracts are a direct consequence of the competitive way research funds are allocated on a project-like basis.¡±

In response to the latest developments, Leru commended the modification of the threshold suggestion, but stressed that the group maintained ¡°specific concerns¡± regarding the overall recommendations. ¡°Creating a toolbox and recommending its use could be useful, but it is not going to solve the fundamental issues that haunt researchers and research institutions,¡± the?university association said.

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Previous council recommendations, Leru said, had led to ¡°further policy fragmentation, as all 27 member states make their own translation and create their own ways of implementation¡±.

Bert Overlaet, chair of the Leru policy group on careers, told?³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ?that the revised text asked even less of EU member states than the original, noting the replacement of terms such as ¡°should¡± and ¡°ensure¡± with softer words like ¡°could¡± and ¡°encourage¡±.

¡°Even the slightest hint of commitment has been changed into something non-committal,¡± he said. ¡°The alterations have made it even more clear that the member states don¡¯t want to commit to what has been agreed. They want to do their own thing and forget about it when they get home.

¡°Our concern has always been that this voluntary approach is very limited.¡±

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Professor Overlaet said the revised recommendations also failed to address one of the key causes of career precarity: project-based, short-term university funding. ¡°How can we expect institutions to offer long-term contracts if there is no long-term funding?¡± he asked. ¡°Without a discussion on the precarity of funding, we don¡¯t want to discuss precarity of careers.¡± ?

emily.dixon@timeshighereducation.com