Headlines from Inside Higher Education

Statement Issued by Major Coalition Calling for More Part-time Faculty Equity

A coalition of academic associations has just issued a joint statement calling on colleges to recognize that they have "one faculty" and to treat those off the tenure track as professionals, with pay, benefits, professional development and participation in governance.

The joint statement, "One Faculty Serving All Students," sets forth a variety of standards, including setting equitable minimum levels of per-course pay for part-time faculty; providing health and retirement benefits to part-timers teaching more than 50 percent of a teaching load; compensating all faculty members for work outside the classroom; providing contingent faculty with support for professional development; and making all faculty members, including part-timers, "eligible to teach upper-division undergraduate and graduate curricula when they are qualified and can contribute to their respective programs." Read More...

Room for Improvement, Say Employers

Many employers may not be hiring anyone, let alone recent college graduates, for the foreseeable future, but that doesn't mean they don't have opinions on what those graduates should have learned in college.

The Association of American Colleges and Universities kicked off its annual meeting here Wednesday with the release of the findings of a national survey of executives at 302 private sector and non-profit employers who, by and large, say their employees need a broader set of skills and higher levels of knowledge than they ever have before. But, most surveyed said, colleges and universities have room for improvement in preparing students to be workers. Read More...