A new study comparing Canadian adjuncts with American adjuncts has found that American adjunct professors are “woefully under-supported and poorly compensated,” according to The Hechinger Report. The research, published by the Chegg Center for Digital Learning, found that more than one in four American adjuncts earn below the federal poverty level for a family of four, and more than three-quarters are guaranteed employment for only one term or semester at a time. More than a third of adjuncts in the Center for Digital Learning study said low pay and lack of benefits or job security affected their ability to connect with students and worry that student learning and engagement may be compromised as a result.
In an op-ed for Higher Ed Dive, Beth Martin, president of Notre Dame de Namur University, a Roman Catholic university in Belmont, California, writes that “higher education faces an existential threat from forces like rapidly changing technology and generational shifts.” The pandemic has highlighted the need for quality distance education, especially for underserved groups, Martin writes. Gen Z students are vocal in wanting a practical education that provides real-world work experience, and this generation of incoming students is more skeptical about the value of higher education than generations past. Martin advises that the “enrollment cliff,” a decline in the college-age population expected to begin in 2025, will require colleges and universities to cater to “nontraditional” students, including older individuals and traditionally underserved populations such as single parents and women of color, as well as reframing the mission of higher education from a traditional liberal arts education to a skills-based methodology that prepares students to meet the demands of a changing job market and world.