Tenure provides instructors protection from dismissals based on non-work related factors. As administrators move into and out of positions at educational institutions, they carry personal and political leanings with them. Tenure prevents administrators from removing instructors with different political and personal positions. This has particular relevance during periods of wartime, when political rhetoric brands critics of a war or foreign policy as unpatriotic or even treasonous. Tenure also helps insulate teachers from firings based solely on economics, such as when enrollment drops and economic recessions strike.
Tenure promotes academic freedom or the ability to research and explore issues of significance and controversy. The relative security of tenure allows researchers and instructors to pursue the advancement of knowledge, one of the key goals of education, even of hot-button issues. The academic freedom tenure provides also promotes an environment where faculty offer honest feedback on matters such as curriculum.
The promise of tenure helps academic institutions attract and retain talented teachers and scholars. In the best case scenario, this process generates a concentration of superior instructors who, in turn, attract a concentration of talented students. In this context, students benefit from the talent of both instructors and peers. Students also rely on faculty advisors to provide them relevant information about courses and instructors. Tenured faculty members, with their greater depth of knowledge about the institution and its faculty, provide more salient advice.
At the university level, tenure typically requires instructors to demonstrate a publication history in peer-reviewed journals and sometimes books, depending on the field. This requirement strongly encourages those with advanced education and knowledge to make substantive contributions to their respective fields. In doing so, these scholars expand the available knowledge base in their fields, as well as for the world in general. The peer-review process that scholarly articles undergo prior to journal publication serves to ensure all contributions conform with accepted methodologies, which makes them useful resources for the future.