Ever wonder how much time and money post-secondary educational institutions spend on educating you? Thanks to the Labor Board and the Chronicle of Higher Learning, you don’t have to wonder any longer.
These two sources have broken down exactly how many teachers work in each discipline in post-secondary schools across the nation. They’ve also analyzed just how much money these professionals earn.
Here’s a not-so-surprising fact, at least not for anyone who’s attended a post-secondary school: The most common teaching job at these schools is held by graduate teaching assistants. There were 159,700 of these teaching assistants working at post-secondary schools in 2009.
That’s a fairly large number, but it’s dwarfed by the sheer number of teaching jobs at these institutions, 1.7 million in 2009.
After the teaching assistants, teachers focusing on health specialties held the next highest number of jobs, 155,300. Vocational education teachers came next, with 120,200 jobs, followed by art, drama and music teachers with 93,800 jobs and business teachers, who held 85,400 jobs.
Teachers specializing in English language instruction held 74,800 jobs at post-secondary institutions. Education teachers came next with 70,200 jobs, followed by biology studies instructors at 69,700 jobs and nursing teachers with 55,100 positions.
Other teacher specialties that held a high number of jobs at these institutions included mathematical sciences, 54,800; engineering, 40,600; psychology, 38,900; and computer science, 38,800.
But which teaching professionals at post-secondary institutions earned the most money? Again, this isn’t so surprising. Professors earned an average of $90,190 a year, with professors of legal studies earning the highest average, $134,146. Associate professors earned an average of $70,017 a year, with, again, those specializing in legal studies earning the highest average, $101,045.
Assistant professors earned an average of $59,031. Those who specialized in business and management fields earned the highest among these assistants, $85,996 on average. Finally, instructors earned an average salary at post-secondary institutions of $46,715, with those specializing in business and management pulling down the most each year, an average of $57,192.
What do professors do each week to earn their dollars? You might be surprised at how little time the average professor spends in the classroom each week at post-secondary institutions.
College professors, on average, spend nine hours in the classroom every week. During the rest of their week, they spend an average of nine hours preparing for their classes; 12-and-a-half hours on research and reading; nine-and-a-half on writing; eight attending or running committee meetings, workshops and lectures; and seven meeting with students or grading papers.
Those employees at post-secondary institutions who aren’t teachers don’t earn bad salaries, either. Administrative staffers working in the IT department of these institutions on average earn $55,844. But staffers working in systems and programming tend to earn an average of $80,131 annually.
Those working in a university’s business and administrative affairs office earn an average of $55,455 a year, with staff attorneys earning the most each year, an average of $105,000.
Administrators in the English, research and agricultural department earn an average of $54,828 a year, with the staff veterinarian earning an average of $96,624 annually.
Those workers in the student affairs department earn $52,169 on average every year. In that department, the staff physician earns the most on average, $130,287 annually.
