ACE report on professoriate

Results of an American Council on Education monograph, The New Professoriate: Characteristics, Contributions, and Compensation, released earlier this month, shows that only 38 percent of all instructional faculty nationally are full time and in a tenured or tenure-track position.

The New Professoriate summarizes data from the recently released National Survey of Postsecondary Faculty by the U.S. Department of Education. These data, collected in 1998, also show that 49 percent of faculty teach part time, with the remaining 13 percent teaching full time in non-tenure track positions or at institutions without a tenure system.

Among the other findings:

• The percentage of faculty teaching part time ranges from 30 percent at public research universities to 64 percent at community colleges. Between 1992 and 1998, the share of part-time faculty increased at all types of institutions except private research universities.

• Sixty-five percent of faculty hired in the last five years are part time. The share of recently hired faculty teaching part time ranges from 53 percent at public four-year institutions to 80 percent at community colleges.

• Part-time faculty are far less likely than their full-time tenured/tenure-track peers to have earned a doctorate (18 percent vs. 67 percent). The most common highest degree among part-time faculty was a master’s degree (56 percent).

• One-quarter of part-time faculty hold no other job, but the most common employment pattern is to hold one other teaching position at a two- or four-year institution.

• Part-time faculty reported average total earnings that were approximately $20,000 less than their full-time tenured and tenure-track peers ($44,968 versus $65,565).

• Most individuals teaching part time indicated that this was their preference. Only about 20 percent of part-time faculty reported that they chose their current job because a full-time position was not available. However, about 30 percent of part-time faculty with a doctorate chose their job because they could not secure a full-time position.

To read the full report, go to:

http://www.acenet.edu/bookstore/index.cfm?pubID=268.