According to Colombian law, teachers in public institutions of higher education may be full-time, part-time, occasional or professors; the first three are considered public employees, while the Colombian Constitutional Court classifies occasional and professors as public servants sui generis. However, neither the law nor the jurisprudence has clearly determined to which jurisdiction they must resort when disputes arise between the latter and the schools. From the qualitative methodology with an analytical hermeneutic paradigm and making use of doctrinal and jurisprudential sources, this article responds to this question by analyzing the nature of their employment relationship, salary and benefits regime and their form of linkage in consideration of the statutory and contractual theory and the organic, formal and functional criteria. © 2024, University Institution of Envigado. All rights reserved.