What is tenure track?

[admylin]

Can some one explain what tenure track is?

There are faculty positions available as Professor, Assistant Professor or Associate professor but what is the difference? Dh has done postdoc jobs (science) and has brought an offer home to apply for in the US.

We're abroad already and here his next step up the career ladder here would be Privat Dozent (lecturer I think).

DH is an academic but in the UK so this might not be 100% correct. I thought "tenure" meant a permananet position from which you could only be fired in certain very specific circumstances, "academic freedom" is specifically protected for example. I thought it often only came with Associate Prof level posts and above.

That's what he's looking for then - postdoc positions are always 2 to 3 years so tenure would be good. But what is the difference between associate and assistant?

Tenure track means you are on the right track to get a permanent post, normally after a few years. If you are not on it, unless things change the job will never be permanent.
Assistant and Associate can mean different things at different places.
I was a visiting professor for a semester after my doctorate, but other places only give such jobs to quite distinguished visiting faculty. In the US everyone is a professor if they are teaching they don't have lecturers, and Readers etc.

I can relate it to UK system if that's any help? Assistant is equivalent to Lecturer, Associate to SL/Reader.