Part-time employment CANNOT be credited to acquire permanent tenure.

Part-time employment cannot be credited to acquire permanent tenure. The petitioner, in G.R. No. 152777, was a part-time lecturer before she was appointed as a full-time instructor on probation. As a part-time lecturer, her employment as such had ended when her contract expired. Thus, the three (3) semesters she served as part-time lecturer could not be credited to her in computing the number of years she has served to qualify her for permanent status. Petitioner posits that after completing the three-year probation with an above-average performance, she already acquired permanent status.
It was held, however, that completing the probation period does not automatically qualify her to become a permanent employee of the university. Petitioner could only qualify to become a permanent employee upon fulfilling the reasonable standards for permanent employment as faculty member. Consistent with academic freedom and constitutional autonomy, an institution of higher learning has the prerogative to provide standards for its teachers and determine whether these standards have been met. At the end of the probationary period, the decision to rehire an employee on probation belongs to the university alone as the employer.