Percentage of Part-Timers on College Faculties Holds Steady After Years of Big Gains By ROBIN WILSON
The proportion of faculty members and instructors employed part time in higher education leveled off from 1992 to 1998, after increasing sharply during the late 1980's and early 90's, according to a study released Friday by the U.S. Education Department.
Colleges and universities employed 1,074,000 faculty members and others involved in instruction during the fall of 1998, and 43 percent of them worked part time, according to a report on the study. Earlier studies by the Education Department showed that roughly the same proportion, nearly 42 percent, of faculty members and instructors worked part time in the fall of 1992 -- up from 33 percent in the fall of 1987.
The report released Friday is called "Background Characteristics, Work Activities, and Compensation of Faculty and Instructional Staff in Postsecondary Institutions: Fall 1998." It is similar to the 1987 and 1992 studies, and is considered a key source of information on the trend in higher education toward the use of part-time professors.
Ernst Benjamin, a senior consultant to the American Association of University Professors, said it was difficult to tell whether the growth in the ranks of part-time faculty members had stopped for good. With senior professors retiring in increasing numbers, universities must replace them, and the slowdown in the national economy may prompt institutions to hire even more part-time instructors, Mr. Benjamin said.
Over all, the department's figures show, the number of faculty members and instructors employed in higher education rose by nearly 40 percent from 1987 to 1998. In general, the 1998 study looked not only at how many professors are employed and in what capacity, but at their ethnic and gender background, as well as how they spend their time on campuses.
Although the data show that roughly the same proportion of faculty members were employed part time in 1998 as in 1992, the figures also indicate that more of those employed full time are working off the tenure track. That is another trend that bothers faculty members, who worry that it signals the erosion of tenure and leaves many in higher education without the protection of academic freedom.
According to the most recent report, 18 percent of full-time faculty members worked in nontenure-track positions in 1998. Earlier reports showed that 11 percent of full-timers worked off the tenure track in 1992 and just 8 percent in 1987. In addition, the percentage of full-timers working as assistant, associate, or full professors at four-year institutions -- as opposed to as lecturers or instructors -- dropped to 84 percent in 1998, from 87 percent in 1992 and 89 percent in 1987.
The report also provides data on what professors do on their campuses. It says that in 1998, full-time faculty members and instructors reported spending 57 percent of their time on teaching and other classroom-related activities, including grading students and preparing for courses. That is about the same proportion as in 1987. Full-time faculty members and instructors reported spending 11 hours per week, on average, in the classroom, about the same number as in 1992 and up from 9.8 hours in 1987.
Faculty members do appear to be spending somewhat less time on research, the report shows. Full-timers reported spending 15 percent of their time on research in 1998, whereas the 1992 figure was 17.6 percent.
The 1998 report says that 85 percent of all full-time faculty members and instructors were white, compared with 86.5 percent in 1992 and 89 percent in 1987. The proportion of women among full-time faculty members increased to 36 percent in 1998, up from 27 percent in 1987. But among those full-time professors and instructors working at private research universities, the proportion who were female declined between 1992 and 1998 -- from 31 percent to 26 percent. Meanwhile, the proportion of full-time faculty members at public two-year colleges who were women climbed from 38 percent in 1987 to nearly 50 percent in 1998.
The Education Department's report on the 1998 data is available online at <http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2001/2001152.pdf>. An earlier report covering similar data, called "Instructional Faculty and Staff in Higher Education Institutions: Fall 1987 and Fall 1992," is also available online, at <http://nces.ed.gov/pubs97/97470.pdf>. (Both documents require Adobe Acrobat Reader, available free.)