Though the term “Zero-Hours Contracts” (ZHCs) has been around since the early 1990s, it is now used to refer to all employment in which the employer does not guarantee any minimum hours of work. While this means that the term will cover a great variety of employment forms and practices, much of the public and political discourse tends to pivot on an assumption that ZHCs are uniform in nature. My doctoral work seeks to correct this view based on research from two institutional case studies in the UK higher education sector. It is hoped that the findings can make a timely contribution to the debate and assist in providing effective policy solutions to one of the key labour market issues of our time.