FACULTY WORK LOAD AND PAY



How many hours a week do faculty members work and how do they spend their time?

In addition to supervising students and preparing classes, TAMU professors conduct an ongoing program of research, which may involve spending time in laboratories, visiting other researchers in the U.S. or abroad, conducting experiments, or working in the university library. Some professors work alone, reading and writing in solitude, while others work in teams. Most research professors compete for federal or private grant funds to help support their research projects. Because competition for these funds is intense, professors must spend large blocks of time preparing applications.

Surveys and other studies over the last three decades have consistently concluded that faculty members work between 45 and 55 hours per week, with most estimates on the high side of this range. Work load studies show that teaching activities take 40-50% of the time, research takes 25-35%, and professional and community service and administration take up the rest.

Of course, averages do not tell us about individual cases. Faculty members have many different roles and emphasize different aspects of their jobs at different points in their careers. Sometimes a grant for an important and time-restricted piece of research requires that more time be put on research. Sometimes teaching is paramount because of project timing or a pause in research funding or maybe just because it is important to the department that someone take on a particular teaching challenge. Service comes to the fore for some faculty because of opportunities for leadership in faculty governance or in professional associations. Typically, though, every faculty member spends time weekly in teaching, research, and service activities.

Hard work deserves pay. How are starting salaries determined?

For new faculty, market demand is the major factor. To recruit effectively, the university must consider salaries paid in private industry and other forms of non-university employment. Since these salaries vary widely depending on the field or academic specialty, the initial salaries of Assistant Professors are more than twice as high in some areas, such as engineering or business administration, as in others, such as liberal arts or education. Moreover, as important fields of study emerge with few individuals in those fields, and as universities seek to diversify their faculties to serve all student groups, competition intensifies. This competition typically results in higher salaries for widely-sought individuals. Because universities are widely believed to offer better employment security and a higher quality of life in the workplace, faculty salaries are generally lower than those in private industry and in the non-academic public sector for comparably skilled people.

And later?

Salary increases depend upon revenues appropriated by the Legislature or student fee increases approved by the Board of Regents. Although the Legislature sometimes provides cost-of-living raises for all state employees, most faculty salary increases are awarded on the basis of individual merit. Annual reviews of both tenured and untenured faculty are given to assess an individual's accomplishments in teaching, research, and service. The results determine merit increases. For example, if funds are sufficient to provide an average raise of three percent, actual awards may range from zero to six or eight per cent, depending on performance. Since cost-of-living raises are uncommon at state universities, raises given only for merit are a powerful incentive not to relax after gaining tenure.