For years, researchers and part-time faculty advocacy organizations have addressed the distinctive circumstances surrounding the inequitable workforce situation that continues to plague higher education. Regardless of the vast research that focuses on how and why the situation remains unchanged, few institutions have been proactive in seeking a…

Adjunct faculty comprise a large percentage of part-time faculty for many colleges and universities today. Adjunct faculty are hired because they are experts in their content areas; however, this does not guarantee that they are skilled in effective classroom management. These instructors can become bewildered and frustrated because they lack the…

The higher education sector in Ireland has undergone major changes under the effect of neoliberalism including severe budget cuts, transfer of research funding to external agencies, reduction in permanent contracts and increased reliance on part-time, temporary staff for teaching and research roles. The neoliberalisation of the university, as in…

Community and technical colleges (collectively referred to as associate's institutions throughout this brief) serve an important role in the U.S. higher education system. They are often an option for students who: (1) need skills development, an associate's degree, or training for specific jobs in their community; (2) need a more affordable…

The Annual Survey of Social Work Programs (Annual Survey) is a census of social work programs in the United States and its territories conducted by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) since 1952. Data collected in the Annual Survey are the primary source of information about social work students, graduates, and faculty members. In addition…

Universities in many countries are struggling to adapt to the competing forces of globalisation, new managerialism, entrepreneurialism and new technologies and quality agenda demands. Diminishing resources caused by restricted funding and an aging and diminishing academic workforce pose barriers. One solution to staffing shortages is the…

In 2011, according to a National Center for Education Statistics report, part-time instructional staff in all higher education institutions exceeded full-time faculty members for the first time, accounting for 50% of all instructional staff (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2012). The same report indicates part-time faculty in…

All institutions of higher education depend heavily on the contributions of adjunct faculty. The purpose of the qualitative narrative inquiry was to gather, analyze, and interpret stories offered by faculty members to make meaning of their experiences as adjuncts in non-traditional higher education institutions. The qualitative narrative inquiry…

Casual and sessional academic staff have traditionally been on the margins of institutional life despite the expansion of this cohort across the university sector. This paper details a project to address this lack of recognition through a workforce strategy to engage, support and effectively manage this often neglected cohort of the academic…

Art & Design receives ratings on a number of scales of the UK's National Student Survey (NSS) that are less strong than those for some other subject areas. Art & Design, along with performing arts, is characterised by a relatively high level of part-time (PT) staffing. PT staffing data are set against NSS ratings for post-92 universities…

With the Completion Agenda taking such political prominence, community colleges are experiencing even more pressure to find ways to promote and improve student success. One way that has been suggested is to limit the reliance on part-time faculty under the premise that the employment status of faculty has a direct influence on student success. The…

The Center for Community College Student Engagement encourages colleges to hold focus groups with part-time and full-time faculty to learn about differences in the faculty and their experience at their college and to complement survey data. Survey responses tell the "what" about faculty's experiences; through conducting focus groups,…

With colleges and universities recruiting more adjunct professors, schools have been able to reduce the costly expenses of large salary and benefit packages that are typically associated with full-time employees. Yet, schools have started to re-evaluate their use of adjunct professors in order to comply with the Affordable Care Act (ACA), dubbed…

Academic work has become increasingly fragmented. The horizontal fragmentation of the profession into disciplinary tribes has been accompanied by the increasing participation of student affairs and educational development professionals located outside the academic units but are actively engaged in academic work, such as supporting teaching and…

In April 2013, "NEJHE" launched its "New Directions for Higher Education" series to examine emerging issues, trends and ideas that have an impact on higher education policies, programs, and practices. In this installment, DiSalvio interviews Adrianna Kezar, professor of higher education at the University of Southern California…