The Wal-Mart-ization of higher education: How young professors are getting screwed

Keith Hoeller:

In 2009, Money Magazine published a survey titled "The 50 Best Jobs in America." Their reporters analyzed job data and conducted an online survey of thirty-five thousand people, taking into account such factors as salaries, flexibility, benefit to society, satisfaction, stress, job security, and growth prospects. The proverbial college professor sat high on the list at No. 3, with a median salary of $70,400 for nine months' work, top pay of $115,000, and a ten-year growth prospect of 23 percent. College teaching earned "A" grades for flexibility, benefit to society, and satisfaction, and a "B" for job stress, with 59 percent of surveyed professors reporting low stress.

While acknowledging that "competition for tenure-track positions at four-year institutions is intense," Money claimed that graduate students with only a master's degree could find a part-time teaching job: "You'll find lots of available positions at community colleges and professional programs, where you can enter the professoriate as an adjunct faculty member or non-tenure-track instructor without a doctorate degree."

Similarly, the 2000 "American Faculty Poll" conducted by the academic pension giant Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF) seemed to corroborate the high job satisfaction rate for professors. "The poll found that 90 percent of the faculty members surveyed were satisfied with their career choices and would probably make the same decisions again," reported Courtney Leatherman, in her Chronicle of Higher Education story about the survey.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at February 18, 2014 12:09 AM
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