I keep getting asked by my clients about the “right mix” of classes taught by adjuncts vs full time instructors (both tenured and non-tenured). I often see a mix ranging between forty and sixty percent in both directions. Is this the “right mix” to achieve quality outcomes? I don’t know, so I asked a few provosts I trust. Here is what I learned.
“It depends”, says one provost. Every school has a different mix of electives, online courses, and research. “There are lots of adjuncts teaching 1-credit courses like music that can skew your ratios so you will need to control for that by looking at credit hours generated.”
“I suspect the more elite schools have higher percentages of tenured or tenure track faculty”, answers another. “This tends to be seen as a proxy for quality. But, here again, you have to watch your units of measure. You might have more FTEs (full-time equivalents) who are tenured but when you look at the credit hours generated, you find that the TTs (tenure-tracks) are underloaded and the institution is compensating with adjuncts.”
Using adjuncts to fill the gaps
This trend of using adjuncts to control labor costs and provide greater flexibility has been increasing.
The average cost of delivering a 3-credit course using a full-time instructor is about $15,000. That assumes the instructor is teaching a full load at 24 credits and earning a base salary of $87,000 plus benefits. The cost grows to $19,000 per course if the instructor is teaching 18 credits. Research on tenured faculty bears that out. The cost for an adjunct instructor ranges from $4000-7000 for a 3-credit course, or one fourth to half the cost of a full time instructor. These adjuncts are generally willing to teach late day and evening courses. This model also garners criticism for the low wages and lack of benefits.
Tenure study
AAUP released a tenure study in 2022, revealing major changes in faculty career tracks. The 2022 report shows that 53.5 percent of higher education institutions have replaced tenure-eligible positions with contingent faculty appointments, compared with only 17.2 percent of colleges in 2004. In 2019, just 10.5 percent of faculty positions in the U.S. were tenure-track and 26.5 percent were tenured. Nearly 45 percent were contingent part-time, or adjunct, roles (close to the 40-60 percent range of my clients). Twenty percent were full-time, non-tenure-track positions.
There is a clear difference in percentages based on the type of institution. R1 and R2 research institutions show the lowest use of adjuncts and highest use of tenured faculty, while associates level schools have the highest use of adjuncts.
This topic is of growing interest as US News now uses the number of adjuncts when calculating their rankings.
What would make something a “right” ratio? I find myself understanding more about benchmarks related to the use of adjuncts, but still unable to answer the question that started this journey.
If you have a theory, I’d love to hear it!
Photo by Marcus Urbenz on Unsplash