how much do adjunt professors make per course

by Amy Mertz 5 min read

Adjuncts earn an average of just $2,700 per course and as little as $1,500 per course at community colleges. This equals about $20,000-$25,000 annually.

Full Answer

Is being an adjunct professor worth it?

Outstanding adjunct professors or adjunct instructors can easily teach and foster relationships with students from diverse cultural and economic backgrounds. This is very comparable to teaching any grade level students, but also carries over into the adult world of education.

Why are adjuncts paid so little?

Adjuncts are paid so little to help universities and colleges save money. Higher education institutions are businesses looking to lower overhead costs and generate revenue. Ultimately colleges save a lot of money by hiring several part-time adjunct instructors rather than full-time tenure-track faculty positions.

How are adjunct hours calculated?

*In general: Adjunct faculty should ordinarily be credited with (3) hours of work per week for each credit hour assigned to a semester-long course. For example, an adjunct faculty member teaching one (1), three-hour class would be calculated as working nine (9) hours in that week.

Can you make a living as an adjunct professor?

Adjuncts typically earn between $20,000 and $25,000 annually, while the average salary for full-time instructors and professors is over $80,000. Some adjuncts cobble together a full-time schedule by teaching classes at more than one university.

Do adjunct professors get retirement?

TIAA's 2018 Adjunct Faculty Survey also found that one-third of adjunct professors have contributed to a retirement plan offered by one of their institutions. Adjuncts are paid an average of $3,000 per course, and nearly 60 percent receive less than that, the report says.

How many classes does a tenured professor teach?

Currently, tenure-line faculty members in the college teach 24 credit hours per year, or 12 credit hours -- typically four classes -- per semester.

Is Adjunct the same as part-time?

What's the difference between part-time and adjunct? Part-time employees are restricted to a maximum number of work hours per week. Part-time employees earn a flat hourly rate. Adjunct employees are instructors who teach credit hour classes and are paid by the number of credit hours they teach.

What is a load hour in teaching?

Load Hour A load hour represents the amount of weekly work equivalent to one contact hour of direct instruction plus one hour of class-related activities (preparation, grading, etc.) per week for a sixteen- week class or an equivalent amount of work for an online or hybrid class.

What is lecture hour equivalent?

The Lecture Hour Equivalent (LHE) is the first step in computing faculty load. It standardizes the number of lecture and lab hours taught by a faculty. 1 hour of lecture per week = 1 LHE; 1 hour of lab per week = 0.75 LHE.

Do you need a PHD to be a professor?

Professors generally need a doctorate for entry-level positions. Most professors dedicate a decade to their postsecondary education before teaching their first class.

How much do online professors make?

Salary Ranges for Online Professors The salaries of Online Professors in the US range from $10,209 to $175,666 , with a median salary of $31,831 . The middle 57% of Online Professors makes between $31,831 and $79,641, with the top 86% making $175,666.

Can you be a professor with a masters?

Yes, you can be a professor with a master's degree. The primary qualifications for landing an entry-level professor position ultimately depend on the school. Some professor positions require just a master's degree (6-year program), whereas others require a doctorate (8-year program).

What is the difference between adjunct and part-time?

There is no difference between an adjunct faculty and a part-time faculty. An adjunct faculty is a part-time faculty member. An adjunct faculty teaches part-time at a university, usually no more than ten credits hours. Working as an adjunct professor is a part-time position.

How much do adjunct professors at NYU make?

How much does an Adjunct Professor make at New York University in the United States? Average New York University Adjunct Professor hourly pay in the United States is approximately $111, which is 65% above the national average.

How much do Ivy Tech professors make?

How much does an Adjunct Faculty make at Ivy Tech Community College in the United States? Average Ivy Tech Community College Adjunct Faculty yearly pay in the United States is approximately $55,657, which is 26% above the national average.

How do people become adjunct professors?

Most commonly, adjunct professors must have completed a master's degree to teach in higher education. Community colleges or technical schools may only require a bachelor's degree, along with relevant experience in certain disciplines. Previous teaching experience in a university or college setting is often preferred.

How much does an Adjunct Faculty make?

Adjunct faculties make $73,929 per year on average, or $35.54 per hour, in the United States. Adjunct faculties on the lower end of that spectrum,...

What state pays Adjunct Faculties the most?

Massachusetts pays Adjunct Faculties the most in the United States, with an average salary of $109,792 per year, or $52.78 per hour.

How do I know if I'm being paid fairly as an Adjunct Faculty?

You know if you are being paid fairly as an Adjunct Faculty if your pay is close to the average pay for the state you live in. For example, if you...

What type of Adjunct Faculty gets paid the most?

Visiting Professor gets paid the most. Visiting Professor made a median salary of $97,169. The best-paid 10 percent make $136,000, while the lowest...

What is a good starting salary for an Adjunct Faculty?

A good starting salary for an adjunct faculty is $40,000 in the United States. That puts you in the 10th percentile of annual income for an adjunct...

Can you make a living as an adjunct professor?

Yes, you can make a living as an adjunct if you work at multiple universities and take on as many courses as possible. At best, working as an adjun...

How much do adjunct professors get paid per class?

Adjunct professors get paid $3,500 a course, on average. The range in pay per course does vary depending on the university - starting from as littl...

Is adjunct faculty full-time?

No, adjunct faculty is a part-time position. Most universities limit the number of courses taught by an adjunct faculty each semester (e.g., 2 to 3...

Why are adjuncts paid so little?

Adjuncts are paid so little to help universities and colleges save money. Higher education institutions are businesses looking to lower overhead co...

How much does an adjunct teacher make?

It varies, but in the humanities $2500 is pretty typical. So the most you can expect to earn as an adjunct teaching 12 sections a year is about $30,000. Not all that big a return on all the time and money that goes into getting the Ph.D.

Why is it hard to have high standards as an adjunct?

Many tenured college professors look at their teaching load as a nuisance and do the least amount of work possible so it's hard to have high standards as an adjunct if it appears that students are dropping your class because you are trying to do more than have them mindlessly regurgitate information via multiple choice tests.

What do professors do when you are an undergrad?

When you're an intellectually curious undergrad, professors encourage you to consider academia as a career option. And it sounds great - you get to spend your life researching and teaching about what fascinates you.

What is the myth of the abused adjunct?

The myth of the abused adjunct is linked to the reality that in academia there are too many mid to low grade PhD Programs

How many hours do part time employees work?

It is the same logic of employers who know that employees with 20 hours/week have to get benefits, so part time employees are hired at 19.5 hours/week. The only limitations are how much time in the day you have. Among my colleagues, 6-7 courses a semester seems fairly typical, and is the number that is e.

How much money can I make at a technical college in South Carolina?

In South Carolina, at a technical college, you can make $2,500 - $3,000 with a Masters and some extra, ambiguous training. I asked a professor who taught an English Lit class. Which, by the way, I don’t they she was intellectually qualified to do.

How much does a 3 credit class cost?

The national average is $2700-$3000 per 3-credit class, depending on your source.

What percentage of adjuncts teach at four year colleges?

Nine percent teach at four-year private colleges. About 4 percent teach at four-year for-profit institutions. Sixty-one percent of the sample teach at two-year publics. (The numbers don’t add up to 100 percent because many adjuncts teach on multiple campuses.

What percentage of adjunct faculty members rely on public assistance?

Nearly 25 percent of adjunct faculty members rely on public assistance, and 40 percent struggle to cover basic household expenses, according to a new report from the American Federation of Teachers.

How many faculty members have put off needed health care?

Fewer than half of respondents have access to employer-provided health care. About 20 percent rely on Medicaid. Some 45 percent of faculty members have put off needed health care, including seeking help for mental health. Two-thirds have foregone dental care in the last 12 months due to the cost.

How much did it cost to get back to pre-2008 levels of funding?

Prior to the pandemic, it would have taken $15 billion in additional federal and state investments in higher education over two years to get back to pre-2008 levels of public funding. Now, the “financial holes to be filled -- both in public investment and in the lives of individual adjunct and contingent faculty -- will be even bigger, and more perilous,” the report states.

Do adjuncts die?

There’s a myth about adjuncts that just won’t die: that most have well-paying day jobs and teach as a hobby. Other studies have tried to disprove that misconception with facts, but the AFT’s data are especially sobering. Just 15 percent of adjuncts said they are able to comfortably cover basic expenses from month to month.

Do adjuncts get year long contracts?

Colleges and universities are increasingly granting adjuncts' requests for yearlong or multiyear contracts, but 41 percent of adjuncts still said they struggle with job security and don’t know if they ’ll have a teaching job until one month prior to the start of the academic year. Three-quarters of professors said they only get semester-to-semester or quarter-to-quarter contracts.

Is the AFT survey timely?

She also called the report “very timely,” given the financial choices institutions are facing this spring in the wake of the pandemic .

How much does an adjunct make?

The average adjunct faculty salary is $71,698 per year, or $34.47 per hour, in the United States. People on the lower end of that spectrum, the bottom 10% to be exact, make roughly $39,000 a year, while the top 10% makes $129,000. As most things go, location can be critical. New York, New Hampshire, New Jersey, California, and Massachusetts provide the highest adjunct faculty salaries.

Which companies pay the highest salaries for adjunct faculty?

If you insist on knowing when your check is going to come and for how much, then you'd be better off working for companies like UnityPoint Health and Dignity Health as they offer the highest salaries for adjunct faculties.

What is a visiting professor?

Visiting professors are faculty members from an institution who must visit a host university to teach, lecture, or perform research on a topic they are knowledgeable in.

Do academic staff have low job security?

Most academic staff in US universities have low job security and income. Photograph: Clerkenwell/Getty Images

Do faculty members interact with each other?

Faculty members do not even interact with each other as equals. Most adjuncts aren’t included in regular faculty meetings, let alone conferences where ideas are exchanged and explored. A concept called the inclusive fees campaign seeks to make conferences affordable for adjuncts.

How much do adjunct professors make?

A few schools pay as much as $5,000, with the median salary paid to adjunct professors being $2,700 per three-credit course .

How much time do adjunct professors spend in class?

Community college adjunct professors may spend two hours in class preparation time to every hour spent actually teaching.

How many hours do adjunct faculty teach?

Depending on the community college, individual adjunct faculty members might be contracted to teach from 12 to 15 or more semester hours per semester, usually at relatively low pay.

Do community colleges pay adjunct faculty?

Generally, most community college adjunct faculty members aren't paid retirement or other benefits. Many community colleges operate on tight budgets, with relatively few faculty members on staff per each academic or vocational program or discipline.