Tenure.

It is called a tenure and a tenure is given to professors in universities when they become full time permanent part of the faculty.

So, in the beginning, if you only have a Master's degree and you apply to work at a university, you are called an instructor.

If you have a Ph.D. and you get hired as only a part timer, you are called a lecturer.

If you have a Ph.D. and you become full-time then we say that you are a full-tenured track faculty and now you are a professor.

Tenure is only for four year universities. Junior colleges, two year colleges, only have instructors. They can never have professors. Mainly because they only require a Master's degree. They don't require Ph.D's. But if you have a Ph.D. you are still an instructor so you might be called Dr.something instead of Instructor something.

Tenure is a guarantee that you will continue working at the school until you either want to leave or you do something incredibly stupid. I think that the AAUP considers you to have tenure when you have taught (at the same or different schools) for 7 years. Not every school agrees, though. About the only thing a tenured professor can be fired for is "moral turpitude". This is facetiously defined as comitting rape under a street light, with three witnesses.


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