Increased Use of Adjuncts in Higher Education

Increased Use of Adjuncts in Higher Education

Todd A. Wells

University of South Florida

The increased use of adjunct faculty is a prevalent issue in higher education today. The debate that continues to develop is related to the overall teaching effectiveness and experience level of adjunct faculty. Many believe that the use of adjunct faculty are reserved for lower division undergraduate courses and for-profit and community/technical schools. The Society for College and University Planning (2007), made an observation that almost all colleges and universities in the United States use adjunct faculty in some capacity. The SCUP report found that schools such as Harvard with 56 percent of faculty outside of the tenure system to the University of Maryland with nearly 70 percent were forced to use adjunct instruction to support undergraduate education. Research reported in The Chronicle of Higher Education (2007) from a study by The American Association of University Professors’ (AAUP) indicated that between 1975 and 2003 the number of adjunct faculty was on the rise from 43 percent to 65 percent. The need and obvious use of adjunct faculty in higher education is clear. What becomes important to address is if the quality of instruction and the level of expertise provided by adjunct instructors begins to diminish the overall learning experience of undergraduate students.

Adjunct faculty can add to a student’s learning when they bring experience from their professional career, but when does experience lose its effectiveness? Adjunct faculty are often seen as very dedicated to the process of student engagement and classroom teaching. A Chronicle of Higher Education article (2009), briefly introduced results from a survey of over 600 adjunct faculty members in the Chicago, IL area. Adjunct faculty from this survey reported that the love for teaching and the ability to stay away from the typical office environment provided enough reasons to love this type of job. Other adjunct faculty reported that this type of teaching environment provided some necessary skills to gain tenure track positions at colleges or universities in the area.

At the same time, adjunct faculty are forced to teach several different classes and at several different colleges or universities in the same city, just to earn a very minimal salary. Adjunct faculty are typically not paid to hold office hours or be accessible to undergraduate students. They often only have time to come to campus to teach their class and this can lead to less individualized attention for students and less time to engage in conversation outside of the classroom. Some adjunct faculty report being marginalized and not valued members of the university community and again this drives them to not be present on the campus expect to teach their class.

Adjunct faculty are often asked to teach courses on very short notice and at times on subjects that they have little prior experience. Due to the need to teach many different classes to make ends meet, adjuncts frequently do not have time to properly prepare lectures or stay current in the field that they are teaching. Undergraduates being taught by adjuncts are typically presented the most general levels of the material rather than current or research based instruction that can be provided by tenure track professors. Adjunct professors that are searching for full-time tenure track positions often have the mindset that they will wait to put in full effort that teaching requires until they are better compensated for their efforts.

What will be the future of adjuncts in higher education? Will we continue to increase the use of adjuncts until they provide the majority of instruction in our colleges and universities? Budget issues will prolong the use of adjunct faculty for undergraduate instruction as universities struggle to meet their obligations with reduced resources. Higher education must turn to supporting adjunct faculty with professional development experiences, increased management, and ideas on integrating them into the curriculum development process. A shift will need to occur in supporting the real world experiences provided by many adjuncts with the expert knowledge provided by tenure track faculty members. The moment in time has come for those who truly care about the future higher education and it is time to provide a balance of quality undergraduate instruction with a high level of knowledge and expertise.

References

Society for College and University Planning (2007). Trends in Higher Education.

Retrieved from http://www.scup.org/asset/49721/scup_trend_7-2007.pdf

Gravois, J. (2007). Tracking the Invisible Faculty. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 53, 17.

June, A.W. (2009). Love of Teaching Draws Adjuncts to the Classroom Despite Low Pay.

The Chronicle of Higher Education, 56, A1-A10.