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I knew it was bad but 70% of teachers are adjuncts or part timers????
My son is a university professor overseas and he makes 3 times what he could make here---if he even could get a job in the States. Plus he is respected not only on his campus but in the community.
Location: Northern Virginia, U.S. and Dominica, West Indies
27 posts, read 111,089 times
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Your son is taking the right approach, in my opinion. It's a big planet full of opportunity. Young people in particular shouldn't be afraid to seize it.
Your son is taking the right approach, in my opinion. It's a big planet full of opportunity. Young people in particular shouldn't be afraid to seize it.
He has travelled all over the world going to conferences, etc but he is now 35 and is ready to settle down and start a family. we want him at least on the same continent as us. He has been able to save 65% of his pay for the past 4 years and thinks he will be in a good position to come home in 2 more years. How sad our smartest and brightest are educating the college students of other countries and not given encouragement and support to educate Americans.
Yes, it's true. I work as an adjunct. I haven't had a raise in almost 10 years, and in fact the university has found ways to actually cut our pay. I have no benefits. Meanwhile, I see the job postings for this or that incomprehensible paper pushing administrator and the salaries are in the six figures. I work 40 hours a week and make less than 30K. It's despicable. I love the work I do, but it's really discouraging to realize how little the school itself values us, when in fact we, the teachers, are by far the most salient and important part of the school. We could easily make do without yet another HR person, but without teachers the school does not exist. However, these decisions are made by the very people giving themselves raises. It's a terrible system.
Yes, it's true. I work as an adjunct. I haven't had a raise in almost 10 years, and in fact the university has found ways to actually cut our pay. I have no benefits. Meanwhile, I see the job postings for this or that incomprehensible paper pushing administrator and the salaries are in the six figures. I work 40 hours a week and make less than 30K. It's despicable. I love the work I do, but it's really discouraging to realize how little the school itself values us, when in fact we, the teachers, are by far the most salient and important part of the school. We could easily make do without yet another HR person, but without teachers the school does not exist. However, these decisions are made by the very people giving themselves raises. It's a terrible system.
I just don't understand this- why would the school pay you more than 30k per year if you are willing to work for 30k/yr? If there weren't warm bodies willing to perform the services for the wage offered, then the wage would need to increase. Something about the value equation isn't adding up here.
I make well into the six figures because if the pay were to drop, I would leave tomorrow and go somewhere else willing to pay the price for my services.
It depends on the university. In many universities, adjuncts are only a supplement to the curriculum, and are in the minority. Depending on your son's experience, where he got his degrees, publishing record, and other qualifications, he could be competitive for a tenure-track job. If he's tried to compete and it hasn't worked out--persistently tried over several years, then it means he's not well-enough qualified to make the grade. If he's found a position he's happy with abroad, and he likes where he lives, he should stick with it.
Most folks in academia do not want to work in the private sector or for the government. They truly love research and teaching so they stay because they have known for quite some time there are few alternatives. And they like to eat and they have families or want to have families eventually. That is why they stay.
It depends on the university. In many universities, adjuncts are only a supplement to the curriculum, and are in the minority. Depending on your son's experience, where he got his degrees, publishing record, and other qualifications, he could be competitive for a tenure-track job. If he's tried to compete and it hasn't worked out--persistently tried over several years, then it means he's not well-enough qualified to make the grade. If he's found a position he's happy with abroad, and he likes where he lives, he should stick with it.
He got his Ph.D. from a well- recognized university and has many publications and citations and is asked to give presentations all over the world. His problem is that there aren't that many job openings for theoretical physicists! Sometimes he sends me the CVs of his colleagues who are looking for Stateside jobs and are having problems. Some of these people are Harvard, MIT, Cal State with a list of publications which would choke a horse. It's very daunting. I'm very proud that he is so thrifty and has made good investments. He just might have to live off them if he ever takes a job in North America.
I just don't understand this- why would the school pay you more than 30k per year if you are willing to work for 30k/yr? If there weren't warm bodies willing to perform the services for the wage offered, then the wage would need to increase. Something about the value equation isn't adding up here.
I make well into the six figures because if the pay were to drop, I would leave tomorrow and go somewhere else willing to pay the price for my services.
Unless there was no one willing, and a thousand warm bodies willing to take your place for the dropped pay.
There has been a massive overproduction of PhD's in many fields, especially humanities, simultaneous with a drop in job openings. Colleges realized that the cheap adjuncts they used to staff occasional courses could also be used in place of full-time positions, costing a fraction of the price. The antiquated faculty model, with full-time faculty getting full-time pay and benefits for only a small teaching load, while supposedly using the rest of their time to research and publish, makes full-time positions a very bad deal for the school. Even as schools realized their PhD's would not get jobs, they continued to produce them, because they themselves rely on those PhD students to provide free labor as teaching assistants, and they needs to grant those degrees to justify their own jobs.
It happened very suddenly - many of us were half way through the PhD (which takes quite a few years) when the bottom fell out of the job market. Unfortunately, a phd in humanities qualifies you for little else.
He got his Ph.D. from a well- recognized university and has many publications and citations and is asked to give presentations all over the world. His problem is that there aren't that many job openings for theoretical physicists! Sometimes he sends me the CVs of his colleagues who are looking for Stateside jobs and are having problems. Some of these people are Harvard, MIT, Cal State with a list of publications which would choke a horse. It's very daunting. I'm very proud that he is so thrifty and has made good investments. He just might have to live off them if he ever takes a job in North America.
Has he tried looking beyond academia? I can't find physicists to hire that have the qualifications. What about his ability to bring in grant money? That's more important than actual publications. Get the grant money and publications will follow.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NYCresident2014
I just don't understand this- why would the school pay you more than 30k per year if you are willing to work for 30k/yr? If there weren't warm bodies willing to perform the services for the wage offered, then the wage would need to increase. Something about the value equation isn't adding up here.
I make well into the six figures because if the pay were to drop, I would leave tomorrow and go somewhere else willing to pay the price for my services.
While I don't work in academia, I have friends who do, and I also review/fund grants and proposals. I wonder if the value equation as you call it is broken in academia. In your case you can bring in much more than six figures of value to the company and you can directly link it to your work, so the value chain is obvious. And if you take that value elsewhere, they can readily see it. Now let's look at academia. Students come at a fairly routine rate, and unless you are a Nobel winner, individual professors (or teachers in school for that matter) really don't impact the rate at which students, and of course student money, comes in. Teachers don't provide a direct value link to the income stream; they exist mostly on the cost side of the equation. And in a society that doesn't value education (again, the link between education and work production/income isn't obvious to many; there's a thread on here somewhere asking that very question) then the decision makers only want to minimize cost because they see no impact to the value stream. The impact happens elsewhere, to someone else.
On the other hand, bring in lots of grant money and the value stream is obvious.
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