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MLA Issue Brief: The Academic Workforce · the modern language association of america 4 MLA Issue...
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MLA Issue Brief: The Academic Workforce MLA Office of Research Web publication, 2009 Updated July 2014 All material published by the Modern Language Association in any medium is protected by copyright. Users may link to the MLA Web page freely and may quote from MLA publications as allowed by the doctrine of fair use. Writ- ten permission is required for any other reproduction of material from any MLA publication. Send requests for permission to reprint material to the MLA permissions manager by mail (26 Broadway, 3rd floor, New York, NY 10004-1789) or e-mail ([email protected]). © 2014 by The Modern Language Association of America
Transcript of MLA Issue Brief: The Academic Workforce · the modern language association of america 4 MLA Issue...
MLA Issue Brief: The Academic Workforce
MLA Office of ResearchWeb publication, 2009 Updated July 2014
All material published by the Modern Language Association in any medium is protected by copyright. Users may link to the MLA Web page freely and may quote from MLA publications as allowed by the doctrine of fair use. Writ-ten permission is required for any other reproduction of material from any MLA publication.
Send requests for permission to reprint material to the MLA permissions manager by mail (26 Broadway, 3rd floor, New York, NY 10004-1789) or e-mail ([email protected]).
© 2014 by The Modern Language Association of America
the modern language association of america 1
One Faculty Serving All Students
All college and university teachers, whether in full- or part- time positions, on or off the tenure track, need to see themselves as members of one faculty working together to provide a quality education to all students.
All faculty members need to receive compensation and institutional support and recognition commensurate with their status as professionals.
• Full- and part- time faculty members teaching off the tenure track are profes-sionals who make indispensable contributions to their institutions.
• In 1970 part- time faculty members represented only 22.0% of all faculty members teaching in United States colleges and universities; in 2011 part- timers represented 50.0%.
• A third of full- and part- time faculty members teaching off the tenure track in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences have been in their current teaching position longer than six years; a fifth or more have held their current position longer than ten years.
• These faculty members function as permanent members of their institutions’ faculties, yet institutions continue to follow personnel and compensation policies based on outdated assumptions that non- tenure- track faculty mem-bers are short- term employees who will make up no more than a small pro-portion of the faculty.
• Despite overwhelming evidence of the professional contributions and per-manence of full- and part- time non- tenure- track faculty members, at every point institutions shortchange the members of their faculties who teach off the tenure track and part- time—from hiring to salaries to office space and equipment to opportunities for review of job performance and professional development and advancement.
All long- term faculty members need to be fully enfranchised to participate in planning their departments’ curricula in the areas in which they teach.
• Institutional contracts and personnel policies need to distinguish full- and part- time faculty members who teach off the tenure track on a long- term ba-sis from those employed for one or two years; only the latter can reasonably be regarded as contingent.
• Non- tenure- track faculty members are often not included in curriculum planning, student advising, and other aspects of college life fundamental to sustaining good learning environments and positive departmental cultures.
• Although a substantial portion of non- tenure- track faculty members, in-cluding those teaching part- time, are actually permanent members of their departments, their formal institutional status as contingent faculty members impedes their integration into department life.
MLA Issue Brief: The Academic Workforce
© 2014 by the Modern Language Association of America
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MLA Issue Brief: The Academic Workforce
All faculty members should be aware of the MLA’s recommended standards and guidelines for the academic workforce.
• The number of tenure lines should be sufficient to cover courses in the upper- division undergraduate and graduate curricula and to ensure an appropriate presence of tenured and tenure- track faculty members in the lower division.
• The MLA recommends that 45% of undergraduate course sections in Car-ne gie doctoral institutions, 55% in master’s institutions, and 70% in bacca-laureate institutions be taught by tenured or tenure- track faculty members.
• The MLA recommends that 60% of undergraduate course sections in Car-ne gie doctoral institutions, 70% in master’s institutions, and 80% in bac-calaureate institutions be taught by full- time faculty members (on or off the tenure track). The percentage of course sections taught by full- time faculty members should never drop below the majority of the course sections a de-partment offers in any given semester.
• The MLA recommends minimum compensation for 2013–14 of $7,090 for a standard 3- credit- hour semester course or $4,730 for a standard 3- credit- hour quarter or trimester course. These recommendations are based on a full- time load of 3 courses per semester (6 per year) or 3 courses per quarter or trimester (9 per year); annual full- time equivalent thus falls in a range of $42,540 to $42,570.
All faculty members should have access to key information on academic staffing in their departments and use this information, along with MLA- recommended targets for staffing, contracts, compensation, and working conditions, to advocate change.
• As a profession, as departments, and as individual faculty members and ad-ministrators, we need to know the population of undergraduate and (where applicable) graduate students who complete courses in our departments and the allocation of teachers in different employment categories across levels of the curriculum—introductory or general education courses, upper- division courses chiefly for majors, and graduate courses.
• We need to know the policies and procedures departments and institutions follow when hiring faculty members in the different contract categories and the policies for salary increases and benefits, professional review, develop-ment, and advancement that apply to faculty members in each category.
• We need to know the contractual arrangements of faculty members teaching in various types of full- and part- time non- tenure- track positions and the number of years individuals in the various contract categories have been in their positions.
• We need to share our findings with the MLA, which will use them to de-velop anonymous composite portraits of typical local circumstances in dif-ferent institutional settings.
When all teachers are appropriately compensated and are active participants in curriculum planning, student advising, and campus life, then learning flourishes and student retention and completion rates increase.
For recent data on the academic workforce, please see the figures below. For more information about what you can do, please go to the MLA Academic Workforce Advocacy Kit (www.mla.org/advocacy_kit).
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MLA Issue Brief: The Academic Workforce
Fig 1. Percentage of Part- Time and Full- Time Faculty Members, Selected Years, 1970–2011
Source: Table 290, Digest of Education Statistics, 2012In 1970 part- time faculty members represented only 22.2% of all faculty members teaching in United States postsecondary institutions. In 2011 the percentages of part- timers increased to 50.0% of faculty members in all institutions.
77.870.1
65.6 64.2 64.857.5 53.7 51.3 50.0
22.229.9
34.4 35.8 35.242.5 46.3 48.7 50.0
0.0
10.0
20.0
30.0
40.0
50.0
60.0
70.0
80.0
90.0
100.0
1970 1975 1980 1985 1991 1997 2003 2007 2011
Part‐time faculty members
Full‐time faculty members
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MLA Issue Brief: The Academic Workforce
Fig. 2. Percentage of Teachers Employed in Full- and Part- Time Positions On and Off the Tenure Track, 2011
Source: 2011 Employees by Assigned Position survey (US Dept. of Educ., IPEDS). Medical school faculty members excluded. Data are for degree- granting two- and four- year institutions in the fifty states and the District of Columbia.
23.1
0.4
15.2
43.1
18.2
0.0
10.0
20.0
30.0
40.0
50.0
60.0
70.0
Employed Full‐Time Employed Part‐Time
Graduate student teaching assistants
Non‐tenure‐track faculty members
Tenured and tenure‐track faculty members
the modern language association of america 5
MLA Issue Brief: The Academic Workforce
Fig 3. Percentage of Faculty Members in All Institutions in Different Employment Categories, 2003–11
Source: Employees by Assigned Position surveys (US Dept. of Educ., IPEDS) When graduate student teaching assistants (TAs) are included, three- fifths or more of the teaching corps in higher education taught part- time in 2011—61.7% in all degree- granting institutions and 59.3% in four- year institutions. Graduate student TAs accounted for 18.2% of teachers in higher education in 2011 and 23.9% in four- year institutions; full- time tenured and tenure- track faculty members made up only 23.1% (25.8% in four- year institutions).
33.9 31.8 30.9 30.0 28.2
16.9 17.5 17.4 17.7 18.6
49.3 50.6 51.7 52.3 53.2
0.0
10.0
20.0
30.0
40.0
50.0
60.0
70.0
80.0
90.0
100.0
2003 2005 2007 2009 2011
Part‐time faculty members
Full‐time non‐tenure‐track faculty members
Full‐time tenured and tenure‐track faculty members
the modern language association of america 6
MLA Issue Brief: The Academic Workforce
Fig. 4. Percentage of Teachers in All Institutions in Different Employment Categories, 2003–11
Source: Employees by Assigned Position surveys (US Dept. of Educ., IPEDS)
27.5 25.8 25.1 24.4 23.1
13.7 14.2 14.2 14.4 15.2
40.0 41.0 42.1 42.7 43.5
18.9 19.0 18.6 18.4 18.2
0.0
10.0
20.0
30.0
40.0
50.0
60.0
70.0
80.0
90.0
100.0
2003 2005 2007 2009 2011
Graduate student teaching assistants
Part‐time faculty members
Full‐time non‐tenure‐track faculty members
Full‐time tenured and tenure‐track faculty members
the modern language association of america 7
MLA Issue Brief: The Academic Workforce
Fig. 5. Percentage of Faculty Members in Four- Year Institutions in Different Employment Categories, 2003–11
Source: Employees by Assigned Position surveys (US Dept. of Educ., IPEDS)
42.0 38.8 37.1 36.3 33.9
17.618.4 18.2 18.6 19.6
40.4 42.8 44.7 45.1 46.5
0.0
10.0
20.0
30.0
40.0
50.0
60.0
70.0
80.0
90.0
100.0
2003 2005 2007 2009 2011
Part‐time faculty members
Full‐time non‐tenure‐track faculty members
Full‐time tenured and tenure‐track faculty members
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MLA Issue Brief: The Academic Workforce
Fig. 6. Percentage of Teachers in Four- Year Institutions in Different Employment Categories, 2003–11
Source: Employees by Assigned Position surveys (US Dept. of Educ., IPEDS) Excluding graduate student TAs, in 2011 just over a quarter of all faculty members—28.2%—were professors in full- time tenured or tenure- track positions, compared with 33.9% in 2003. In four- year institutions the figure is 33.9% in 2011, compared with 42.0% in 2003. As recently as 1995, the United States Department of Education’s Fall Staff Survey (the other human resources component of the IPEDS) found that tenured and tenure- track faculty members made up 51.3% of the faculty in four- year institutions and 42.3% of the faculty in all institutions.
31.2 28.9 27.9 27.4 25.8
13.0 13.7 13.7 14.0 14.9
29.9 31.9 33.7 34.1 35.4
25.9 25.5 24.7 24.5 23.9
0.0
10.0
20.0
30.0
40.0
50.0
60.0
70.0
80.0
90.0
100.0
2003 2005 2007 2009 2011
Graduate student teaching assistants
Part‐time faculty members
Full‐time non‐tenure‐track faculty members
Full‐time tenured and tenure‐track faculty members
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MLA Issue Brief: The Academic Workforce
Fig. 7. Percentage of Faculty Mem
bers in Different Employm
ent Categories in Twenty- Tw
o Teaching Fields
Source: 2004 NSO
PFTh
e proportions of faculty mem
bers holding appointments on and off the tenure track vary considerably across the different academ
ic disciplines, from about 30%
tenure- line appointm
ents in education to about 60% in political science and econom
ics. In En glish, about a third of the faculty (excluding graduate student TAs) hold positions on the
tenure track; in foreign languages, a little more than tw
o- fifths do.
62.162.0
59.356.9
56.856.8
56.154.1
54.052.5
52.151.4
50.447.2
45.642.8
39.637.4
37.435.6
34.431.8
8.88.2
3.36.6
6.914.3
10.511.1
12.18.7
5.012.5
11.99.8
7.24.7
3.84.4
4.97.7
6.47.1
29.029.9
37.436.5
36.328.9
33.434.8
33.838.8
42.936.1
37.743.0
47.152.6
56.658.2
57.856.7
59.261.2
0.0
10.0
20.0
30.0
40.0
50.0
60.0
70.0
80.0
90.0
100.0
Teacher Education
Education
Law
First‐Professional Health Sciences
Communications
Other Health Sciences
English and Literature
Fine Arts
Computer Sciences
Mathematics
Foreign Languages
Nursing
Business
Psychology
Philosophy and Religion
Sociology
Biological Sciences
Physical Sciences
Engineering
History
Economics
Political Science
Tenured and tenure‐track
No tenure system
Non‐tenure‐track
➘
Foreign Languages
➘ English
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MLA Issue Brief: The Academic Workforce
Fig. 8. Percentage of Doctorate- Holding Tenure- Line Faculty Mem
bers in Twenty- Tw
o Teaching Fields, Four- Year Institutions Only
Source: 2004 NSO
PF
16.126.4
45.4
68.368.9
81.283.8
87.587.7
87.890.2
91.892.2
92.895.9
96.097.3
97.397.5
97.798.1
99.6
0.0
10.0
20.0
30.0
40.0
50.0
60.0
70.0
80.0
90.0
100.0Law
First‐Professional Health Sciences
Fine Arts
Other Health Sciences
Nursing
Communications
Teacher Education
Computer Sciences
Business
Education
Mathematics
English and Literature
Biological Sciences
Engineering
Philosophy and Religion
Foreign Languages
History
Economics
Political Science
Sociology
Physical Sciences
Psychology
Professional or otherBachelor’s degreeMaster’s degree
Doctorate
➘
Foreign Languages
➘ English
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MLA Issue Brief: The Academic Workforce
Fig. 9. Percentage of Non- Tenure- Track Faculty Mem
bers Who Hold a Doctorate or a M
aster’s Degree as Their Highest Degree in Tw
enty- Two Teaching Fields, Four- Year Institutions O
nly
Source: 2004 NSO
PFFaculty m
embers on and off the tenure track also differ m
arkedly in their degree qualifications. Across the arts and sciences, in four- year institutions, w
ell over 90% of faculty
mem
bers on the tenure track hold a doctorate. Am
ong non- tenure- track faculty mem
bers, doctorates are held by two- thirds to three- quarters of those in physical and biological
sciences, but by only 25% to 30%
of non- tenure- track faculty mem
bers in En glish and foreign languages. A master’s degree is the highest degree held by 60.4%
of non- tenure- track faculty m
embers in foreign languages and 65.0%
in En glish.
3.13.2
10.6
22.527.1
27.935.7
38.739.3
40.844.2
55.257.4
57.960.4
60.961.3
65.065.3
68.669.7
73.4
9.215.1
74.1
65.353.8
68.854.7
53.150.3
24.0
47.735.8
11.2
35.730.1
39.0
23.125.2
15.2
20.518.1
16.4
0.0
10.0
20.0
30.0
40.0
50.0
60.0
70.0
80.0
90.0
100.0Law
First‐Professional Health Sciences
Biological Sciences
Physical Sciences
Engineering
Psychology
Philosophy and Religion
History
Political Science
Other Health Sciences
Economics
Mathematics
Fine Arts
Education
Foreign Languages
Sociology
Computer Sciences
English and Literature
Communications
Teacher Education
Business
Nursing
Professional or other
Bachelor’s degree
Doctorate
Master’s degree
➘ English
➘
Foreign Languages
