Academic staff
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Academic staff, also known as faculty (in North American usage) or academics (in British, Australia, and New Zealand usage), are vague terms that describe teachers or research staff of a school, college, university or research institute.
In British and Australian/New Zealand English, "faculty" usually refers to a sub-division of a university (usually a group of departments).
In contrast, in North America "faculty" refers to the people who teach and research, and is distinguished from "staff", who are hired in administrative roles. For example the Faculty Handbook at Boston University defines faculty as Assistant, Associate, and Full Professors, those with professorial titles modified by “Research,” “Clinical,” and “of the Practice, Lecturers of all ranks, and Instructors.[1]
In the United States and parts of Canada, universities,
The higher education regulatory body of India, University Grants Commission, defines academic staff as teachers, librarians, and physical education personnel.[2][3]
In countries like the Philippines, faculty is used more broadly to refer to teaching staff of either a basic or higher education institution.
Overview
In many universities, the members of the administration (e.g., department chairs, deans, vice presidents, presidents, and librarians) are also faculty members; many of them begin (and remain) as professors. At some universities, the distinction between "academic faculty" and "administrative faculty" is made explicit by the former being contracted for nine months per year, meaning that they can devote their time to research (and possibly be absent from the campus) during the summer months, while the latter are contracted for twelve months per year. These two types of faculty members are sometimes known as "nine-month faculty" and "twelve-month faculty". Faculty who are paid a nine-month salary are typically allowed to seek external funds from grant agencies to partially or fully support their research activities during the summer months.
Librarians are a special case in that they are educators like faculty who belong to degree granting departments, not necessarily administrators who have management responsibilities like Deans, Presidents, and Vice Presidents.
Most university faculty members hold a
In North America, faculty is a distinct category from
See also
- Professor
- List of academic ranks
- Tenure
References
- ^ "BU Faculty Handbook". Boston University. Retrieved 2024-01-26.
- ^ University Grants Commission (Minimum Qualifications for Appointment of Teachers and other Academic Staff in Universities and Colleges and other Measures for the Maintenance of Standards in Higher Education) Regulations, 2010, retrieved 06-09-2021.
- ^ University Grants Commission (Minimum Qualifications for Appointment of Teachers and other Academic Staff in Universities and Colleges and other Measures for the Maintenance of Standards in Higher Education) Regulations, 2018, retrieved 06-09-2021.