In the K-12 world, it’s all about the teachers. Highly qualified ones are critical to student achievement. So, what does the teaching pool look like when students step foot on a college campus?
More instructors are part time and more are women, according to a report by the National Center for Education statistics released this week. “Employees in Postsecondary Institutions, Fall 2009, and Salaries of Full-Time Instructional Staff, 2009-10,” shows that between fall 2003 and fall 2009, the proportion of full-timers fell across all institution types.
Institutions reported employing approximately 3.8 million individuals in fall 2009, of whom about 2.4 million were full-time employees and about 1.4 million were part-time employees. From fall 2003 to fall 2009, the number of instructional staff at public four-year institutions increased from about 370,000 to 438,000, while the percentage of these staff classified as full time decreased from 68 percent to 64 percent.
The institutions reported that 65 percent of full-time faculty with tenure were men, and 35 percent were women. While, overall, more men are employed as professors at four-year institutions, during this period, more women entered the landscape. The number of men at public institutions decreased by 4 percent while the number of women increased by 24 percent; at private not-for-profit institutions, the number of men increased by 1 percent and the number of women increased by 26 percent; and at private for-profit institutions, the number of men increased by 50 percent while the number of women increased by 73 percent.
As for diversity: 81 percent of full-time faculty with tenure are white; 8 percent
are Asian, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander; 5 percent are African-American; and 4 percent are Hispanic, according to the report.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) collects institution-level data from postsecondary institutions in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Participation in IPEDS is required for institutions and administrative offices with Title IV federal student financial-aid programs.