ÌÇÐÄVlog

The many teachers who are not fortunate enough to be full-time, permanent members of institutions' academic staff should think themselves lucky they do not live in The Netherlands. The oh so witty Dutch have devised a clever, if somewhat disparaging, slang term for people such as yourselves: klapstoelmedewerkers, or "folding-chair colleagues". Apparently the term has been formulated following the large number of fixed-term contract teachers recruited from former Soviet-bloc nations. Oddly enough we have a feeling vice chancellors wish staff were as easy to fold up and store as furniture.