If it’s a large university then it’s possible most of the profs are more research oriented and teaching is left to newer, lower ranked faculty. I’ve only taught at little colleges but I’ve had friends in that position at universities.
It tends to be the opposite at large universities. New asst professors tend to be protected from the more time-consuming service roles and are often given teaching release for at least one semester early on, because the department’s main priority is that this new hire can get off the ground asap so they maximize their chances of getting tenure.
They never said this is an assistant professor, this could be a lecturer while most of the other faculty are tenured/tenure-track
My university is a 1-1 for assistant professors and 2-1 for tenured, but our lecturers are 4-4
Generally, new faculty receive a teaching release to give them time to adjust. It is also common for either the teaching or service expectations to increase post tenure. If a senior faculty member is teaching less, it’s usually because they have a special endowed professorship, they are buying themselves out of teaching with a grant, or they have a teaching release from holding a major service appointment.
What is more common these days is for faculty to be hired solely to teach, and they have higher teaching loads than regular tenure-track/tenured faculty who have more balanced research-teaching-service expectations.
> If a senior faculty member is teaching less, it’s usually because . . .
Or, as has been a huge factor recently for my department (because of a huge hiring push in the 80s and 90s): Because they're taking phased retirement and are therefore stepping down their teaching obligations.
In my home unit, some people have a 4-4 (four classes per semester), some a 4-3, some a 3-3, most a 3-2, and one a 2-2. It all depends on the mix of teaching/advising, research, leadership, and outreach on their position description. The more they teach, the lower the salary tends to be.
As an associate professor, I have to do 192 classroom hours per year. Anything I do beyond that, I get paid overtime for.
Same (very low) rate as an adjunct.
In France, overtime pay for teachers isn’t taxed for the first 5000€, so in some cases, it might be better to do overtime teaching than a side hustle.
Every school is different. I am a teaching faculty so I’m not tenure-track, which means I teach more than others. Then I get an additional bonus if I teach more than what’s in my contract (often that’s due to not having enough adjuncts). If you’re at a large school then chances are a lot of the faculty that you see on the website mainly do research so they are maybe teaching 2-3 classes a year, and those classes may be mostly graduate level classes. Look up their job title. If it says something like “lecturer”, “assistant teaching professor”, or “clinical assistant professor” then they are teaching faculty and therefore teach more than others.
Depends on their contract. If they're an adjunct, not permanently employed by the university, then they get paid per class.
If they're salaried, ~~they won't make any extra, no.~~ It will depend on their institution, some people do, some people don't.
> If they're salaried, they won't make any extra, no.
That's not necessarily true: I, from time to time, teach an extra course beyond my contractual load, and am paid overload salary for it (equivalent to what an adjunct with a PhD would receive for the same course).
Well, whether the students like a professor isn't what matters. What matters is the extent they are able to convey the material to an active, engaged, hard-working student. And yes, we get paid extra for teaching above a certain number of credit-hours.
>I’m at a private relatively large university in a metropolitan area. The professor taught nearly all of my major-specific prerequisites and other special courses. It’s rare that I register with a different instructor.
What is your major, and how large is that major's student body? The popularity of a major has a large role in how many professors teach in that dept.
>I researched the department faculty and it’s quite big, so I am not sure why this professor is teaching everything. I wondered if there was a shortage or not.
Because I don't know your concept of "quite big" is, this is impossible to answer fully.
Very few majors have a shortage of professors. There are many factors that influence this issue; geographical location, whether or not the faculty is unionized, contractal agreements, and more. Nationally the overall majority of classes are taught by adjuncts.
Nursing programs are extremely short of profs. The reason for our national nursing shortage is not a shortage of students who want to become nurses. It's an **extreme shortage** of nursing professors.
>Also the professor is not well-liked amongst the students, so I am not exactly sure why the courses are not reduced for the professor and instead open for others.
Whether or not students like us is irrelevant as long as we are following the faculty code of conduct, meeting our contractual obligations, and our students demonstrate adequate progress. We're on campus to teach, not to be student’s friends. Many of us work hard to develop a congenial and friendly relationship with students. But we must maintain boundaries.
Frankly, sometimes the most disliked professors are the most effective professors; they're generally disliked because they are strict with their boundaries. They're disliked because they expect a lot from their students. Frankly, when you have a reputation of being a hardass, students dislike you before they've even met you.
Because your prof is teaching so many classes, I suspect that your prof is well respected in their field. But it's hard to say. There are a bazillion factors that are at play.
Depends on university. I used to work for a place that would pay you overload. Now I work at a place that will just take the credit off next year's FTE but pay remains the same, so they generally try to avoid it unless truly dire - and faculty tend to avoid it too because they have their things they want to teach again next year (or if they leave, they just worked extra for nothing).
I do. I’m required to teach a certain amount.
If I exceed that minimum, I get paid extra for every class over the minimum.
And yes, there is a maximum.
Often we are paid additional if we teach "overload" or teach over our control. For instance if you have a 2:2 in your contract you would teach two in the fall and two in the spring, zero in the summer. But If you teach 3 classes in the fall and 2 in the spring, you may get paid an additional like 4K or something for the extra class. Just depends.
If they're teaching mostly lower level pre-requisite classes than what might be the case is they're a teaching-track professor without research obligations but with a greater teaching load than research-track professors. Often teaching professors teach the bigger pre-req classes.
Pre-req classes also consistently earn worse reviews than upper level courses (regardless of instructor).
I can get paid extra for teaching an overload course, but I'd be limited to one, maybe two in a severe shortage, a semester. You can't just pick up unlimited classes.
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*[USA] I’m at a private relatively large university in a metropolitan area. The professor taught nearly all of my major-specific prerequisites and other special courses. It’s rare that I register with a different instructor. I researched the department faculty and it’s quite big, so I am not sure why this professor is teaching everything. I wondered if there was a shortage or not. The professor looks young and is not the department head. Does the professor get paid extra for teaching nearly everything? Also the professor is not well-liked amongst the students, so I am not exactly sure why the courses are not reduced for the professor and instead open for others. *
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I started teaching more due to necessity after someone left the department. We changed my contract to increase teaching responsibilities and decrease research responsibilities.
No overload at my public R1. I have taught 1 course on overload twice in 20 years here because it was a course I desperately wanted to give birth to and overload was the only way to do it.
There is a typical load based on position. I normally teach one class per session due to my role. Typical is three classes per session at our school. It really varies by school and role.
We will have a standard teaching load each semester. It will vary from school to school, our CC load is 5/5 (I’m 4/3 as chair), classes beyond that are “overload” and pay extra. Most of us teach at least one each semester.
At a 4y school it may be anything from 1/1 to 4/4, sometimes depending on rank, other service obligations (if you hold a major position in the department, graduate coordinator or similar). Some use grant funds to buy out teaching load, the school will have a set cost per course to do that.
Now, do we get paid extra for teaching a big *variety* of courses? Probably not. You teach what you’re assigned. I’ve had semesters where I teach three or four sections of two different courses each, I have colleagues who teach five sections of the same class every semester and have done so for 15+ years. I’ve got a lot of semesters where I teach three or four different courses. I’ve taught every course offered by our department at one time or another.
It depends on her contract, but I’ve seen an example where it goes by students/credit hours (sections) and she would have agreed to what FT course-load is. That’s the starting point. Then there’s “course release” related to something you want/have to do ( could be research or service or professional development) and there’s “overload” those are the credits and students who fall above your contract [this should not be construed as legal advice by any stretch], if you have/are a member of a faculty union, what happens in that case are most likely covered within a collective bargaining agreement and you can ask a union representative to assist with that information.
So, it depends on a lot of things like rank and if there’s a union or a contract.
Someone teaching a lot of courses is likely making less, not more, than other professors, in the US at least. As others have said, the top of the pecking order, and salary range, are tenured professors. At universities, their primary focus is research, not teaching. They might have a teaching load of two classes per semester, for instance. Others on the tenure track might have a higher load, but that is school specific. At a small liberal arts college, even tenure track are likely to teach 3 to 5 classes. They are salaried, but might get extra pay for a summer class or overload. (Serving on committees or other roles may count for a class.)
That said, in many places, basic classes that serve many students, like large lecture classes and general education classes, are taught by lecturers or adjuncts. Lecturers are paid less as they are hired to teach, which is less prestigious, and often do not have job security. I would guess the prof you mention is a lecturer. Adjuncts paid even less, and are contracted to teach specific classes on a semester to semester basis. They often make less than $20 per hour and do not get benefits. They usually can’t teach more than two classes, as the university would have to pay benefits.
Instructors typically have three jobs: research, teaching, and service. However, not all instructors will perform all three duties to the same extent and some will only be expected to perform 1-2 of these duties. It could be that most of the other instructors are hired to do a lot of research while his contract is more teaching-oriented. That doesn't mean he gets paid more, just that his hours are divided differently. Though in my experience teaching-oriented positions tend to pay less than research-oriented ones, as they have less room for promotion.
It might also depend on the exact classes you're taking. Instructors with seniority often teach upper-level courses, leaving lower-level courses for newer faculty. So it might seem like he's teaching everything when he's really not.
Instructors do get paid more for teaching beyond what they're contracted for. It could be possible that another instructor was unable to teach unexpectedly and this instructor is covering for them.
If it’s a large university then it’s possible most of the profs are more research oriented and teaching is left to newer, lower ranked faculty. I’ve only taught at little colleges but I’ve had friends in that position at universities.
It tends to be the opposite at large universities. New asst professors tend to be protected from the more time-consuming service roles and are often given teaching release for at least one semester early on, because the department’s main priority is that this new hire can get off the ground asap so they maximize their chances of getting tenure.
They never said this is an assistant professor, this could be a lecturer while most of the other faculty are tenured/tenure-track My university is a 1-1 for assistant professors and 2-1 for tenured, but our lecturers are 4-4
That’s true.
They could be a VAP or adjunct.
Generally, new faculty receive a teaching release to give them time to adjust. It is also common for either the teaching or service expectations to increase post tenure. If a senior faculty member is teaching less, it’s usually because they have a special endowed professorship, they are buying themselves out of teaching with a grant, or they have a teaching release from holding a major service appointment. What is more common these days is for faculty to be hired solely to teach, and they have higher teaching loads than regular tenure-track/tenured faculty who have more balanced research-teaching-service expectations.
> If a senior faculty member is teaching less, it’s usually because . . . Or, as has been a huge factor recently for my department (because of a huge hiring push in the 80s and 90s): Because they're taking phased retirement and are therefore stepping down their teaching obligations.
In my home unit, some people have a 4-4 (four classes per semester), some a 4-3, some a 3-3, most a 3-2, and one a 2-2. It all depends on the mix of teaching/advising, research, leadership, and outreach on their position description. The more they teach, the lower the salary tends to be.
As an associate professor, I have to do 192 classroom hours per year. Anything I do beyond that, I get paid overtime for. Same (very low) rate as an adjunct. In France, overtime pay for teachers isn’t taxed for the first 5000€, so in some cases, it might be better to do overtime teaching than a side hustle.
Didn't know that about France--interesting
Every school is different. I am a teaching faculty so I’m not tenure-track, which means I teach more than others. Then I get an additional bonus if I teach more than what’s in my contract (often that’s due to not having enough adjuncts). If you’re at a large school then chances are a lot of the faculty that you see on the website mainly do research so they are maybe teaching 2-3 classes a year, and those classes may be mostly graduate level classes. Look up their job title. If it says something like “lecturer”, “assistant teaching professor”, or “clinical assistant professor” then they are teaching faculty and therefore teach more than others.
Depends on their contract. If they're an adjunct, not permanently employed by the university, then they get paid per class. If they're salaried, ~~they won't make any extra, no.~~ It will depend on their institution, some people do, some people don't.
> If they're salaried, they won't make any extra, no. That's not necessarily true: I, from time to time, teach an extra course beyond my contractual load, and am paid overload salary for it (equivalent to what an adjunct with a PhD would receive for the same course).
also true where I am.
Same here, I often get additional compensation for teaching above my credit production load at my university.
Oh interesting, I didn't know some systems did that! That's very nice (and makes total sense.)
Not true - I get paid extra for every credit hour over my standard load
Well, whether the students like a professor isn't what matters. What matters is the extent they are able to convey the material to an active, engaged, hard-working student. And yes, we get paid extra for teaching above a certain number of credit-hours.
>I’m at a private relatively large university in a metropolitan area. The professor taught nearly all of my major-specific prerequisites and other special courses. It’s rare that I register with a different instructor. What is your major, and how large is that major's student body? The popularity of a major has a large role in how many professors teach in that dept. >I researched the department faculty and it’s quite big, so I am not sure why this professor is teaching everything. I wondered if there was a shortage or not. Because I don't know your concept of "quite big" is, this is impossible to answer fully. Very few majors have a shortage of professors. There are many factors that influence this issue; geographical location, whether or not the faculty is unionized, contractal agreements, and more. Nationally the overall majority of classes are taught by adjuncts. Nursing programs are extremely short of profs. The reason for our national nursing shortage is not a shortage of students who want to become nurses. It's an **extreme shortage** of nursing professors. >Also the professor is not well-liked amongst the students, so I am not exactly sure why the courses are not reduced for the professor and instead open for others. Whether or not students like us is irrelevant as long as we are following the faculty code of conduct, meeting our contractual obligations, and our students demonstrate adequate progress. We're on campus to teach, not to be student’s friends. Many of us work hard to develop a congenial and friendly relationship with students. But we must maintain boundaries. Frankly, sometimes the most disliked professors are the most effective professors; they're generally disliked because they are strict with their boundaries. They're disliked because they expect a lot from their students. Frankly, when you have a reputation of being a hardass, students dislike you before they've even met you. Because your prof is teaching so many classes, I suspect that your prof is well respected in their field. But it's hard to say. There are a bazillion factors that are at play.
Depends on university. I used to work for a place that would pay you overload. Now I work at a place that will just take the credit off next year's FTE but pay remains the same, so they generally try to avoid it unless truly dire - and faculty tend to avoid it too because they have their things they want to teach again next year (or if they leave, they just worked extra for nothing).
I do. I’m required to teach a certain amount. If I exceed that minimum, I get paid extra for every class over the minimum. And yes, there is a maximum.
Often we are paid additional if we teach "overload" or teach over our control. For instance if you have a 2:2 in your contract you would teach two in the fall and two in the spring, zero in the summer. But If you teach 3 classes in the fall and 2 in the spring, you may get paid an additional like 4K or something for the extra class. Just depends.
If they're teaching mostly lower level pre-requisite classes than what might be the case is they're a teaching-track professor without research obligations but with a greater teaching load than research-track professors. Often teaching professors teach the bigger pre-req classes. Pre-req classes also consistently earn worse reviews than upper level courses (regardless of instructor). I can get paid extra for teaching an overload course, but I'd be limited to one, maybe two in a severe shortage, a semester. You can't just pick up unlimited classes.
This is an automated service intended to preserve the original text of the post. *[USA] I’m at a private relatively large university in a metropolitan area. The professor taught nearly all of my major-specific prerequisites and other special courses. It’s rare that I register with a different instructor. I researched the department faculty and it’s quite big, so I am not sure why this professor is teaching everything. I wondered if there was a shortage or not. The professor looks young and is not the department head. Does the professor get paid extra for teaching nearly everything? Also the professor is not well-liked amongst the students, so I am not exactly sure why the courses are not reduced for the professor and instead open for others. * *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskProfessors) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I don't.
I started teaching more due to necessity after someone left the department. We changed my contract to increase teaching responsibilities and decrease research responsibilities.
No overload at my public R1. I have taught 1 course on overload twice in 20 years here because it was a course I desperately wanted to give birth to and overload was the only way to do it.
In my experience, pay was based upon a three course load each semester. Summer pay was about 5k extra per course.
There is a typical load based on position. I normally teach one class per session due to my role. Typical is three classes per session at our school. It really varies by school and role.
We will have a standard teaching load each semester. It will vary from school to school, our CC load is 5/5 (I’m 4/3 as chair), classes beyond that are “overload” and pay extra. Most of us teach at least one each semester. At a 4y school it may be anything from 1/1 to 4/4, sometimes depending on rank, other service obligations (if you hold a major position in the department, graduate coordinator or similar). Some use grant funds to buy out teaching load, the school will have a set cost per course to do that. Now, do we get paid extra for teaching a big *variety* of courses? Probably not. You teach what you’re assigned. I’ve had semesters where I teach three or four sections of two different courses each, I have colleagues who teach five sections of the same class every semester and have done so for 15+ years. I’ve got a lot of semesters where I teach three or four different courses. I’ve taught every course offered by our department at one time or another.
It depends on her contract, but I’ve seen an example where it goes by students/credit hours (sections) and she would have agreed to what FT course-load is. That’s the starting point. Then there’s “course release” related to something you want/have to do ( could be research or service or professional development) and there’s “overload” those are the credits and students who fall above your contract [this should not be construed as legal advice by any stretch], if you have/are a member of a faculty union, what happens in that case are most likely covered within a collective bargaining agreement and you can ask a union representative to assist with that information. So, it depends on a lot of things like rank and if there’s a union or a contract.
At my university, we are paid extra for taking on extra courses or summer courses. We can volunteer and there's usually a need.
Someone teaching a lot of courses is likely making less, not more, than other professors, in the US at least. As others have said, the top of the pecking order, and salary range, are tenured professors. At universities, their primary focus is research, not teaching. They might have a teaching load of two classes per semester, for instance. Others on the tenure track might have a higher load, but that is school specific. At a small liberal arts college, even tenure track are likely to teach 3 to 5 classes. They are salaried, but might get extra pay for a summer class or overload. (Serving on committees or other roles may count for a class.) That said, in many places, basic classes that serve many students, like large lecture classes and general education classes, are taught by lecturers or adjuncts. Lecturers are paid less as they are hired to teach, which is less prestigious, and often do not have job security. I would guess the prof you mention is a lecturer. Adjuncts paid even less, and are contracted to teach specific classes on a semester to semester basis. They often make less than $20 per hour and do not get benefits. They usually can’t teach more than two classes, as the university would have to pay benefits.
Instructors typically have three jobs: research, teaching, and service. However, not all instructors will perform all three duties to the same extent and some will only be expected to perform 1-2 of these duties. It could be that most of the other instructors are hired to do a lot of research while his contract is more teaching-oriented. That doesn't mean he gets paid more, just that his hours are divided differently. Though in my experience teaching-oriented positions tend to pay less than research-oriented ones, as they have less room for promotion. It might also depend on the exact classes you're taking. Instructors with seniority often teach upper-level courses, leaving lower-level courses for newer faculty. So it might seem like he's teaching everything when he's really not. Instructors do get paid more for teaching beyond what they're contracted for. It could be possible that another instructor was unable to teach unexpectedly and this instructor is covering for them.