Dive Brief:
- A new report from the Campaign for the Future of Higher Education has the American Association of University Professors calling foul over spending priorities in higher ed.
- The report calls attention to the disinvestment in teaching positions since 1969 — when three-quarters of faculty were tenured or tenure-track — while now barely one-quarter has the same status, and the number of administrators roughly equals the number of faculty at colleges and non-research universities.
- AAUP President Rudy Fichtenbaum said the pay for full-time faculty has only gone up by about 3% over the last decade, pointing to faster growth in administrator salaries as a bigger culprit of rising tuition.
Dive Insight:
Whereas the number of faculty and the number of administrators hit near parity in 2010 at colleges and non-research universities, the size of the faculty was twice as large in 1990. The payscales and raise rates of instructors versus administrators has been a hot topic in recent years, as has the growing reliance on adjuncts, who are paid very little per course and have no job security.
Faculty argue adjuncts are not paid enough to provide the highest quality instruction, hurting student outcomes. The labor battles being waged by adjuncts across the country are sure to have an impact on the future of instruction in higher ed.