Academic personnel


Academic personnel, also known as faculty member or member of the faculty or academics or academic staff, are the teaching staff of a university: professors of various ranks, lecturers, and/or researchers. The term faculty in this sense is most commonly used in this context in the United States and Canada, and generally includes professors of various ranks: adjunct professors, assistant professors, associate professors, and professors, usually tenured in terms of their contract of employment. In British and Australian/NZ English "faculty" usually refers to a sub-division of a university, not to the employees, as it can also do in North America. Law Enforcement instructors at community colleges are important parts of the certificated faculty.

Overview

In many universities, the members of the administration are also faculty members; many of them begin 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 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.
Most university faculty members hold a Ph.D. or equivalent highest-level degree in their field. Some professionals or instructors from other institutions who are associated with a particular university but do not hold professorships may be appointed as adjunct faculty.
Other than universities, some community colleges and secondary or primary schools use the terms faculty and professor. Other institutions may likewise use the term faculty. In countries like the Philippines, faculty is used more broadly to refer to teaching staff of either a basic or higher education institution.
In North America, faculty is a distinct category from staff, although members of both groups are employees of the institution in question. This is distinct from, for example, the British usage, in which all employees of the institution are staff either on academic or professional contracts.