The influence of New Public Management (NPM) and managerialism in higher education has been reported as negatively impacting the academic profession. De-professionalisation and deterioration of working conditions have been evidenced, aligned with contracts’ casualisation and precarity. Nevertheless, different authors maintain that these tendencies are not homogeneous, with some specific subgroups experiencing the deterioration of their working conditions as the decrease of permanent positions, while others obtain more security. These contradictory tendencies result in an increased segmentation and stratification of the academic profession. Looking specifically to Portugal, where the figure of tenure, as in many European countries, was introduced with NPM reforms, this chapter reflects on the concept of tenure and on employment and work conditions. Relying on the tenure concept described in the 2009 legal framework, the empirical analysis assesses differences in tenured and non-tenured teaching staff's perceptions of topics relating to professional and career conditions. Tenured academics can be classified as an elite within Portuguese academia, with the tenure figure being interpreted as an essential instrument to sustain the academic profession stratification while keeping the profession attractive in times when permanent appointments have been declining in the academy.

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