Faculty Salaries Up 3.4%

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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

Discipline	Full Prof.	Assoc. Prof.	Asst. Prof.	New Asst. Prof.	Instructor
Agriculture	$82,974	$64,667	$55,315	$56,288	$40,998
Architecture	85,441	67,086	53,593	54,101	44,715
Area, ethnic , cultural and gender studies	90,973	66,427	53,655	51,099	38,548
Biological and biomedical sciences	90,040	63,929	54,101	51,883	39,798
Business	102,702	84,095	78,151	80,252	49,271
Communication and journalism	77,496	60,411	49,515	47,806	38,806
Communications technologies	79,178	66,244	52,973	46,959	45,942
Computer and information sciences	98,705	78,944	69,178	68,257	46,672
Education	78,179	60,615	50,296	49,333	40,344
Engineering	107,961	80,206	70,019	68,707	49,592
Engineering technologies/ technicians	79,446	65,687	56,114	56,113	43,452
English language and literature	76,413	57,921	47,249	45,882	34,712
Family and consumer sciences	79,665	62,437	51,055	49,988	38,486
Foreign languages, literatures and linguistics	79,964	60,068	48,900	47,016	37,111
History	80,706	59,470	47,994	45,723	38,030
Legal Professions	136,634	98,530	81,005	79,437	56,667
Liberal arts	74,228	59,982	48,635	47,094	38,620
Library science	77,583	65,296	47,972	49,783	41,059
Mathematics	84,059	61,647	51,547	50,151	37,761
Multi- and interdisciplinary studies	83,214	62,098	51,710	45,928	38,060
Natural resources	85,141	64,326	53,200	51,262	41,482
Nursing	77,583	63,615	53,075	51,716	46,292
Parks and recreation	73,748	59,905	49,618	49,597	39,413
Philosophy and religious studies	82,030	59,429	48,162	46,785	37,906
Physical sciences	89,187	62,743	52,775	51,354	40,256
Psychology	82,554	60,840	50,315	48,698	39,546
Public administration	84,902	63,523	52,311	52,389	43,747
Security and protective services	77,614	62,000	49,711	47,237	40,625
Social sciences	87,079	63,842	52,998	51,720	39,634
Theology and religious vocations	68,214	56,943	45,927	44,731	41,072
Visual and performing arts	73,177	57,843	47,043	45,382	39,102