Richard Descoings

Un article de University World News du 12 avril

Just as students are finding it harder to keep up with escalating higher education costs, a new study has shown that their professors are also being squeezed by the economic downturn.

Written by the chair of the American Association of University Professors, Saranna R Thorton, and director of research and public policy John W. Curtis, The report No Refuge: The annual report on the economic status of the profession, 2009-10 found that tertiary educators earned – on average – only 1.2% more than they did the year before.

This increase – in the context of an inflationary rate of 2.7% for 2009-10 – was the lowest annual increase in half a century, according to the survey’s data.

Lead author and professor of economics at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, Thornton articulated the general feeling of her colleagues: « No one becomes a professor because they expect to get rich, » adding that « there’s nothing immoral about wanting to make a little more money than you did last year ».

The data also showed that academics in two-thirds of the institutions surveyed were docked salary, had their salaries frozen or earned less than a 2% increase.

Separating income patterns for continuing academics alone against that for all faculty, the survey found that the former group fared much better, being able to expect even a meagre salary increase. Across the spectrum, by contrast, recently hired and retired academics bore the brunt of salary decreases.

The average salary for full-time academics in 2009-10 ranged from an average of $46,532 for instructors at public institutions to $128,733 for full professors at private institutions.

Salaries for male and female academics were also sharply differentiated. While males at church-related institutions earned an average of $103,367, their female counterparts took home $20,000 less in 2009-10. But the largest income differential by gender was seen at private institutions: an average of $121,265 for men to $93,950 for women.

As salary affects their chances for various income guarantees, not only were women nearly 20% less likely to be among the tenured academic staff, only slightly more than one third of them had achieved the rank of professor.

Regional variations were also apparent. Thus, academic staff at institutions in the northeast fared best overall. At institutions in New England, faculty earned an average of $93,770 while their colleagues in the east south-central states (including Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee) earned $68,235.

Although the survey identified important trends, its results were not able to include the economic status of part-time academics. According to co-author Curtis, this factor – along with the impact of unpaid furloughs – meant that « the data probably underestimate the seriousness of the problems… »

All this comes on the heels of other institutional cost-cutting measures, including programme cuts, faculty and staff layoffs, and unpaid furloughs. Similarly, 14% of the institutions surveyed cut contributions to employee retirement funds.

Sarah King Head