By the way, this question would localize very poorly, as the meaning and process of tenure varies tremendously from country to country. For instance, in France until the 1960's, the professors were a small elite and in the most part one had to wait for a very long time to reach that exalted status (called in the day's slang *mandarin* as a facetious allusion to [those guys][1]). Then May 1968 went through, and believe or not, university positions in France are now **tenured:** if you're hired, you don't have to jump through hoops. 

For the record, it's not as nice as it sounds: it's great for those who do get hired, but if you're on a hiring committee, imagine what it's like to decide who is going to be in your department for potentially a lifetime based on a 15 minutes interview (I wish I was kidding!).


  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandarin_%2528bureaucrat%2529