In a tight job market, visiting professorships can be appealing way stations for new Ph.D.'s while they search for permanent posts. Unlike adjunct positions, which are often renewed semester by semester, visiting professorships are set by annual or even multiyear contracts, with most capped at three years. The visiting jobs often come with health…

At a time when the academic job market is looking bleak, the author asked career experts and economic forecasters to predict where faculty job growth could come in the next decade. Many agreed that job prospects will be dim because of budget cuts and diminishing faculty pension funds that have made professors less likely to retire. In addition,…

The job market on North American campuses may be heading for the deep freeze, but hundreds of positions are opening up in the Persian Gulf as American universities scramble to set down roots in those petrodollar-rich states. The combination of money and opportunity on offer may seem hard to resist. But academics who trade the rich intellectual…

It's expected that athletes will slowly decline in ability as they age. Every athlete accepts that. But not every professor does. It seems more or less forbidden to talk about what happens to academics as they age. There is virtual silence about the kind of age-associated changes that affect teaching, learning, and research. Baby boomers, known…

Reports on the increasing numbers of college and university faculty, especially in computer science and related high-technology fields, who have struck it rich in the Internet gold rush. Notes that while these newly wealthy faculty members take more time off from teaching than do average faculty members, most continue in their academic jobs,…

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching report, "The Academic Life," finds that too often teaching is undervalued on college campuses. Teachers and teaching need to be elevated in the hierarchy of the academic profession. (MLW)

The death of his father prompts the author and university professor to reflect on the acts of grieving and teaching. He offers a tribute to his deceased father while commenting on the importance of teaching in his life.

Good research and good teaching are not mutually exclusive, professors and deans demonstrated at the meeting of the Association of American Colleges. The traditional "teacher-scholar model" is seen as intimidating, since most faculty members aren't publishing enough. The model should include scholarship that doesn't end up in print. (MLW)

Despite expectations of a mass retirement of faculty and the movement of scholars into business, the academic job market has changed little from previous years. The potential for a decline in student enrollment or an increased reliance on part-time faculty could continue to put pressure on the job market. (MLW)

The National Labor Relations Board has ruled that Boston University faculty are managerial employees with authority to veto curriculum and personnel decisions and are not entitled by law to collective bargaining, reinforcing the Supreme Court's similar 1980 ruling on Yeshiva University faculty rights. (MSE)

Writing and teaching high school are not an unprecedented combination, especially when it comes to creative work. In this article, the author recounts her teaching experience as a high school teacher and how she was able to facilitate a learning experience to her high school class. Before she became a high school teacher, she was a college…

Faculty members at liberal arts colleges best known for their teaching are stepping up their research agendas. The change may threaten the culture of liberal arts colleges, known for good teaching and close student-faculty ties. Promotion to full professor depends on completion of a major research project. (MLW)

A national survey of faculty at colleges of all sizes indicates that professors are increasingly optimistic about their profession but are deeply troubled by the attitudes and academic credentials of their students and the quality of academic administration. (MSE)

Representatives from 12 state universities have formed the Alliance for Undergraduate Education to prove that attention is being paid to undergraduates on their campuses. Participants expect to discuss how to avoid the depersonalization of large campuses and packed undergraduate classrooms. (MLW)

In anticipation of heavy faculty retirements in the next decade and the attractiveness of professional and high-technology careers, many institutions are recruiting and developing bright young liberal arts scholars today and looking at the resulting opportunities for curriculum change. (MSE)