The median salary increase for faculty members at four-year colleges and universities was 3.4 percent for the 2005-6 academic year, according to data being released today by the College  and University Professional Association for Human Resources. Last year's average increase was 3.2 percent.

The data suggest that the gap between private and public colleges in terms of salaries is increasing. This year, the median increase at privates was 3.7 percent while the median increase at publics was 3.1 percent. The public increase was identical last year, but the private increase was 3.4 percent, meaning that the size of the gap in percentage increase doubled -- from .3 to .6 percent in a year. The largest increases that the survey found were at private doctoral institutions (4.0 percent) while the smallest were at public master's and bachelor's institutions (3.0 percent)

Each spring brings a series of salary surveys in higher education, with different emphases. The CUPA-HR survey focuses on disciplinary comparisons and does not feature the institution-by-institution breakdowns that are a key feature of the American Association of University Professors study, which will be released next month. CUPA-HR also does a separate analysis of faculty salaries at community colleges.

Among disciplines, CUPA-HR found that at both public and private institutions, the best paid (leaving out health-related professions) are in law, engineering, and business. The lowest paid disciplines are different in public institutions (visual and performing arts, parks and recreation, and English) and private (parks and recreation, argriculture, and library science).

The following table shows the disciplinary ranges, for all four-year colleges and universities, in selected fields outside of medicine.

Average Salaries at 4-Year Institutions, by Discipline and Rank, 2005-6

A complete report on the salary data may be purchased from CUPA-HR on the association's Web site.