The short answer is no–at least, online colleges do not exploit adjunct faculty any more than traditional brick-and-mortar colleges.
College faculties have been caught in the crossfire of criticisms aimed at higher education today. The recent and very controversial book Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa argues that, “for many students … four years of undergraduate classes make little difference in their ability to synthesize knowledge and put complex ideas on paper.”
But among all the criticisms of higher education faculty today, one thing is always left out: the majority of faculty teaching college courses today are poorly paid, overworked, part-time or adjunct faculty who have been called academic sharecroppers because they are trapped in an exploitative work situation. According to Lynne Elkes, “approximately, 800,000 faculty members nationwide are considered adjunct. Depending upon the source cited, this represents approximately 60 percent to 67 percent of all faculty.”
Online education seems to have a higher proportion of adjuncts than brick-and-mortar colleges. For example, The University of Phoenix, the nation’s largest online university, has approximately 1,500 full-time faculty members and over 20,000 part-time or adjunct faculty. However, this larger proportion of adjunct faculty at The University of Phoenix is slight when compared with the number of adjunct faculty at community colleges, and the number of adjuncts at different colleges does vary. Over 80% of the online courses offered by Florida Community College at Jacksonville were adjuncts, serving thousands and thousands of students.
This means that if online colleges are exploiting adjunct faculty, they are doing so at a rate that is comparable to what is happening on traditional college campus, and should not be singled out for criticism. The whole system is ripe for reform.
Why So Many Adjuncts?
The math is simple: adjunct faculty cost less for colleges and universities because they do not receive benefits such as health insurance and are paid less per course—sometimes much less—than full-time faculty. This has led many to argue that adjunct faculty are exploited by colleges and universities, so much so that there have been attempts to unionize adjuncts across the country. Colleges and universities have presented significant resistance to adjunct unionization, and for adjuncts themselves, there is always the risk of job loss if they attempt to unionize, which is what happened to adjuncts at East-West University in Chicago when they attempted to organize.
The World of Adjunct Faculty
Adjunct faculty are usually required to have the same qualifications as full-time faculty, including advanced degrees, teaching experience or expertise, and or significant publications or real-world experience. But unlike full-time faculty, adjuncts suffer from an insecure and unsupported work situation. Their schedules are erratic, and those not teaching online often have to travel between more than one campus in a day, and the pay per course is so low that they have to teach a much higher course load than full-time, tenured or tenure-track professors, just to make ends meet. Also, Debra Louis’s now famous 2009 study published in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Adjunct: Solutions for a Mistreated Majority, found that the population of adjuncts is also similar to traditionally exploited workers in American society, as two-thirds of the research subjects were women with children working to support their families, not new doctorates. Louis also found that many adjuncts are misled by colleges that their positions might lead to full-time work.
Some argue that the quality of college teaching may be affected by an over-reliance on and exploitation of adjunct faculty, no matter how high the quality of the individual adjunct faculty member. The American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges argues that, “While adjunct faculty (part-time faculty) can bring special expertise to the classroom, excessive dependence on adjunct faculty can have a detrimental effect on the institution.” This is because adjunct faculty
- generally do not have access to regular office space, preventing productive student meetings
- are often ineligible for institutional support for professional development activities
- have little control over curriculum or textbook choices
- have few opportunities to teach more advanced courses and hone their knowledge and teaching skills
- struggle with persistent low pay and lack of benefits
Problems of Adjunct-Dominant College Faculties
All of this means, ultimately, that students and faculty can suffer. A 2010 study found that “freshmen who have many of their courses taught by adjuncts are less likely than other students to return as sophomores.” A more recent study even found that adjunct faculty members do not have the education or training to deal with special needs students in their classes. Many have also long believed that adjuncts routinely inflate grades in order to hold onto their jobs. One adjunct professor I spoke with admitted that he was always afraid that he would not be invited back to teach if he gave failing grades to any students, because in his experience, students complain to the administration when they don’t get high grades, even if their work is completely unacceptable. This corresponds to substantive research showing grade inflation to be more common among adjunct faculty.
It also corresponds with my own experience. When I was an adjunct instructor cobbling together an income at several different schools, I was exhausted all the time from commuting between four or five different schools or locations, teaching a great variety of subjects and students, and never knew if I would have work from semester to semester. While I loved being in the classroom and the interaction with my students, I often felt that I was working in a vacuum, with little collegial interaction with other professors, little time to develop my scholarship and become a better historian, and little chance to get to know my students. And I was terrified of losing any of my adjunct positions and having no income.
Online Colleges and Adjuncts
There is little data on the treatment of online adjuncts and the differences between adjuncts who work at traditional campuses and adjunct faculty at fully-online colleges and universities. That’s unfortunate: issues surrounding the use of adjunct faculty are relevant to online education, because it is relatively new and under rigorous examination by the federal government as well as consumers. The best way to ensure that online education continues to develop high quality standards is for online colleges and universities to engage in this important dialogue about how faculty, especially adjunct faculty, are compensated and treated, and work on ensuring that all their staff and employees are valued.
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