The role of faculty in higher education institutions is versatile, encompassing teaching, research and/or service to the institution. Faculty members play a crucial role in fulfilling the mission of a higher education institution by educating students, advancing knowledge through research, and contributing to their institutions’ strategic goals.
The traditional role of a faculty member is being challenged by a confluence of short- and long-term issues impacting higher education, such as uncertain research funding and increased demand for accountability on student outcomes.
As the landscape of higher education evolves, so do the faculty workforce models employed by institutions, notably exemplified by the shifting use of and roles played by tenured/tenure-track faculty and non-tenure track faculty to fulfill their institution’s academic missions. Table 1 outlines the typical faculty roles found in higher education
| Faculty role | Typical characteristics of role |
|---|---|
| Tenured/tenure-track faculty |
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| Non-tenure track faculty |
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| Part-time faculty |
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The traditional dynamic of employing tenured/tenure-track faculty roles at higher education institutions has shifted in recent years. Many institutions have shown growing reliance on non-tenure track faculty. The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession, 2023-24, highlights that non-tenure track faculty now account for nearly 70% of all faculty appointments in U.S. colleges and universities, a substantial increase over the past couple of decades.
Furthermore, faculty demographic trends will present future implications on higher education faculty workforce models and hiring processes. The median age of tenured/tenure-track faculty is higher than the general U.S. workforce, at 49 years compared to 42. Approximately 37% of tenured/tenure-track faculty are 55 or older, compared to 23% of the U.S. workforce. Given the “graying” of tenured/tenure-track faculty, higher education institutions will need to rethink their workforce models and determine how to backfill their upcoming tenured/tenure-track faculty vacancies.
The evolution of faculty roles has resulted in differing approaches, expectations and forms of faculty compensation at higher education institutions.
Tenured/tenure-track positions typically offer faculty a path to job security. Meanwhile, non-tenure track roles lack the same opportunity for long-term job security. Full-time non-tenure track faculty are most commonly employed via a renewable contract. However, the availability of a renewable contract dramatically decreases for non-tenure track part-time faculty. Only 12.9% of non-tenure track part-time faculty members are on renewable contracts.
Employment conditions for part-time non-tenure track faculty also are compounded by the common practice of cancelling or not offering part-time courses or reducing pay when enrollment falls below a set number. Given that part-time non-tenure track faculty are paid on a per-credit hour or per-course basis, the unexpected cancellation of a course can create personal financial hardship, especially when considering the average pay per three-credit course section from fall 2022 to fall 2023 was $3,903.
Beyond employment conditions, there also are differences in the benefit offerings provided to different types of faculty roles. Non-tenure track faculty (especially adjunct and part-time instructors) typically have limited benefit offerings compared to their tenured/tenure-track faculty counterparts.
Tenured/tenure-track faculty usually receive health insurance, retirement benefits and paid leave. Non-tenure track faculty and part-time faculty are usually offered far fewer benefit offerings, which highlights a key difference in the compensation practices for these faculty compared to tenured/tenure-track faculty.
Full-time faculty base salaries for both tenured/tenure-track faculty and non-tenure track usually are based on nine- to 10-month contracts. Nominal salary increases from fall 2022 to fall 2023 for all types of full-time faculty roles increased 3.8 percent for all academic ranks combined. This increase was one of the highest since the Great Recession in the late 2000s. Even with the higher-than-normal nominal salary increase, faculty at higher education institutions (like other general industry occupations) have been impacted by recent spikes in consumer prices.
The impact of the rising cost of living has been most detrimental to lower-paid faculty, who typically are faculty in the instructor and lecturer academic ranks (generally held by non-tenure track faculty). As outlined in Table 2 from the 2023-24 AAUP annual report, the average pay for full-time faculty can range from $55,895 for instructors at associate’s institutions with ranking systems to $176,162 for full professors at doctoral universities.
| Academic rank | Affiliation | Full-time (doctoral) | Full-time (master’s) | Full-time (baccalaureate) | Full-time (associate’s with ranks) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Professor | All combined | $176,162 | $112,920 | $117,352 | $96,634 |
| Associate | All combined | $115,749 | $92,020 | $90,638 | $81,481 |
| Assistant | All combined | $100,538 | $79,604 | $77,020 | $69,116 |
| Lecturer | All combined | $79,565 | $66,479 | $71,334 | $73,587 |
| Instructor | All combined | $72,751 | $63,929 | $65,871 | $55,895 |
Some of the strongest variables influencing full-time faculty pay are academic rank, affiliation (e.g., public, private) and category (e.g., doctoral, master’s). Table 2 helps show the impact of these variables on faculty pay, with lecturers and instructors across all categories being the lowest paid academic ranks and the doctoral category having the highest average pay across all ranks.
With the growing prevalence of hiring larger numbers of full-time non-tenure track faculty (usually instructors and lecturers), higher education institutions risk creating an environment where lower pay is the norm for the employee population responsible for fulfilling its academic mission. This is problematic because low pay can result in lower job satisfaction, pay complaints and morale problems. This can lead to faculty recruitment and retention issues and/or an increase in faculty unionization efforts to address pay concerns.
The rate of faculty union representation stands at 27%, as of Jan. 1, 2024, with a total of 402,217 unionized faculty nationwide, according to the 2024 Directory of Bargaining Agents and Contracts in Institutions of Higher Education published by the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions.
The 2024 directory shows that the largest number of represented faculty worked at public four-year institutions and that unionization at private institutions grew by 56% since 2012, as compared to a 4% growth in the public sector, with SEIU playing a pivotal role in the expansion of private-sector faculty unionization.
The growth of faculty unionization in response to faculty (especially non-tenure track faculty) concerns about compensation and employment conditions as well as the upcoming demographic changes to faculty require higher education institutions to rethink how they reward their faculty.
Low pay, limited benefit offerings and/or uncertain employment conditions for certain faculty populations can have significant implications:
Though solutions are complex and institution-specific, there are several considerations that might help address pay disparities:
Understanding the different compensation practices and demographic changes for faculty is growing increasingly important as higher education institutions look to foster a more sustainable and competitive approach to recruiting and retaining the faculty required to fulfill their academic mission.
As higher education institutions rethink their workforce models, determine how to backfill their faculty vacancies and address growing faculty unionization, it will be critical to assess existing programs and practices against market practices.
Partnering with WTW’s specialized teams that focus on higher education and workforce strategy will be critical to analyze current pay practices, identify gaps to market and develop recommendations for a strategic approach to enhancing competitiveness and sustainability of faculty compensation programs.
