The Chronicle: Growth in part-timers slowed in past decade, Education Department finds
The proportion of part-timers in the American professoriate has leveled out, but the proportion of full-time faculty members working off the tenure track is climbing, says a report.
The proportion of part-timers in the American professoriate held steady between 1992 and 2003, according to a recent report, but the proportion of full-time faculty members working off the tenure track climbed continuously during the same period.
The report, put out by the U.S. Department of Education and released in late December, is called “Background Characteristics, Work Activities, and Compensation of Instructional Faculty and Staff: Fall 2003.” The Education Department carried out analogous studies in 1987, 1992, and 1998. Taken together, they are considered a key source of information on labor trends in academe.
According to the report, 43 percent of American faculty members worked as part-time instructors in 2003. That number is within a percentage point of the figures from 1992 and 1998, which suggests that the number of part-timers reached a plateau in the past decade. Before then, in 1987, part-timers made up 33 percent of the professoriate.
The proportion of faculty members working full time but with no hope of tenure, however, has more recently been on the ascent. In 2003, 21 percent of full-time instructors held non-tenure-track positions — up from 18 percent in 1998, 11 percent in 1992, and just 8 percent in 1987. In addition, the percentage of full-timers working as assistant, associate, or full professors — as opposed to lecturers or instructors — at four-year institutions dropped to 82 percent in 2003, down from 84 percent in 1998, 87 percent in 1992, and 89 percent in 1987.
Many professors fear that this trend signals an erosion of tenure and leaves many in academe without the essential protections of academic freedom.
In addition to statistics on labor trends, the report supplies data on demographics in the American professoriate. In 2003, the report says, 81 percent of all full-time faculty members were white, compared with 85 percent in 1998, 86.5 percent in 1992, and 89 percent in 1987. The proportion of women among full-timers rose to 38 percent in 2003, up from 36 percent in 1998 and 27 percent in 1987.
The report also provides data on how professors spend their time on campuses, with the latest study suggesting that they are spending more time in the classroom. In 2003 professors reported spending 62 percent of their time on “teaching activities,” up from about 57 percent in 1998 and 1987
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