AAUP releases 2017-18 Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession

The AAUP has released its Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession for 2017-2018. The yearly report surveyed 378,865 full-time faculty members at 1,018 institutions. The AAUP reports on income distribution between faculty ranks, benefits, and wage increases, and provides some analysis of that data through "data snapshots" on retirement security, state funding of higher education, and under-funding of public pensions.

One factor of note, considering the AAUP of SC's interest in contingency faculty is the salary and benefit disparity between tenured and contingent faculty. Although AAUP's report centers on full-time faculty only, the report also notes that only 5 % of supporting institutions offer all part-time faculty benefits, and only 33% offer any benefits for part-time faculty members. An additional "data snapshot" on retirement security for early-career faculty has determined that "most part-time faculty--a group that makes up approximately one-third of the current faculty workforce--lack any retirement benefits" (12).

The AAUP report points out that "states are dismantling higher education through severe budge cuts, by eliminating the protections of tenure, and by shutting down institutions without consultation with faculty members or the communities they serve" (10). The data gathered by the AAUP's full-time faculty survey and compiled in the Annual Report on the the Economic Status of the Profession shed a light on the "complicated compensation landscape" of higher education so that the AAUP and its members might be better equipped to resist political and financial attacks on higher education.

AAUP of SC members are invited to air their thoughts on the annual report in our forums on this website, or on our FaceBook page.