A Look Into the UNC System’s Growing Dependence on Adjunct Labor

Over the past several years, universities in the UNC system have become increasingly reliant on adjunct faculty — ​​part-time, non-tenure-track instructors who are hired on a contractual basis to teach specific courses.

Since 2002, the number of part-time professors across the UNC system has increased by over 600%, while the number of full-time tenured professors has only increased by 30%, full-time tenure-track by 13% and full-time non-tenure-track by 121%, according to data from the American Association of University Professors, a union and membership association of faculty and other academic professionals that was established to define the standards and policies for the profession. 

A spokesperson for the UNC system said they do not keep centralized data on numbers of adjuncts teaching systemwide and referred inquiries to individual campuses.

Within the UNC system — comprised of 16 universities — each school uses these types of professors differently. While bigger schools, like UNC-Chapel Hill, have certain courses that have over three-quarters of sections taught by adjuncts, smaller schools like UNC Asheville have less than 10% of their total instructional workforce occupied by the part-time professors.

In 2024, UNCA went through a structural budget deficit, forcing the school to greatly reduce its reliance on adjunct professors. While five years ago the school might have been using adjuncts more extensively, within the past two years, that rate has decreased. They are typically only used at the Western North Carolina institution when there is a great need.

“We use adjuncts strategically,” UNCA Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Yvonne Villanueva-Russell, said. “So there are a number of experts that live in the region, and we want to utilize their expertise as a value add to our curriculum. So sometimes [we] employ an adjunct who can teach a class on business law or an ensemble on Afro-music, which is beyond the expertise or the capacity of our faculty. Sometimes an adjunct really adds something to the curriculum, and so I think it’s a really smart use to expand your curriculum without making a long-term investment in somebody.”

Utilizing individuals who have specific expertise is a common reason for hiring adjuncts, and one that can satisfy a short-term need. This strategy allows for more niche courses, but doesn’t necessarily lend a hand to long-term positions, as these kinds of courses are not typically offered over several semesters.

“UNC Charlotte leverages the expertise of adjunct faculty to complement the work of our full-time faculty,” Buffie Stephens, director of Media Relations at UNCC, said. “As North Carolina’s urban research university and Charlotte’s only R1 institution, we benefit from our location in the Charlotte region by drawing on the valuable experience of leaders across the community, including business, non-profit, arts, education, healthcare and more, who serve as adjuncts.”

Though it isn’t a significant increase, the number of adjunct faculty at UNCC has risen over the past five years, with an average 2.1% increase per semester, while full-time employees have seen an average 0.6% increase.

Villanueva-Russell also said that sometimes, when classes are in high demand, like a first-year English class or an introductory Spanish course, more professors are needed, making adjuncts come into play more.

This sentiment of supply and demand is a large force behind UNC-CH’s use of adjuncts, as well. 

The UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media has about 1,200 undergraduate students — a number that is continually rising. Each of these students is required to take two specific courses in the school to begin their degree, and about 80% of those classes are taught by adjuncts, according to Livis Freeman, the assistant dean for course management and staffing.

“Those are skills courses, so you can only have 20 students per course,” Freeman said. “We can’t just make bigger courses and use fewer instructors, so we couldn’t survive without [adjuncts].”

Freeman started as an adjunct instructor at UNC-CH in 2014 before moving through the ranks to obtain the position he has now. However, while this career growth worked for Freeman, this pathway isn’t as common or easy for others.

Wade Maki, the faculty assembly chair of the UNC System and a UNC Greensboro professor, said that many adjunct professors often teach courses at several institutions in an attempt to earn enough money for a full-time job when specific universities won’t offer them.

Maki said that while universities have grown in student populations, budgets have not kept pace. He said that there has been less growth in tenure lines and more growth in two places: non-tenure track full-time professors and adjuncts.

A tenure line for a professor refers to a permanent, full-time faculty position that is granted after an individual has worked for several years in a probationary role. Tenure is an open-ended role that provides job security, preventing possible dismissal, making it a highly coveted position.

“Sometimes it’s because that person is just the right expert for a class that no one else is available to teach, but often the phrase that gets used is [that] there’s a ‘stable of adjuncts,’ where you’ll have a few full-time tenured people, a few full-time non-tenured people, and then you’ll have a whole bunch of adjuncts to cover an entire department’s worth of courses,” Maki said. “So all three of those [types of professors] are utilized to make the budgets work while still offering all of the courses that need to be offered.”

Most adjuncts are typically paid out of funds that would have been given for a full-time position, but by breaking up that money amongst several individuals, rather than consolidating it in one place, more people can be hired.

Glenn Colby, senior research officer for the AAUP, said that a common issue is that administrative salaries are taking money away from what could be allocated to faculty. He said that a big issue is the corporatization of higher education, in general, making schools feel as though they need to hire more administrators who can bring in more money for the institution, rather than spending money on full-time professors who can actually expand the educational welfare of the school.

“If there are 500 administrators in a system, the presidential salaries are not what’s causing the problem; it’s the fact that there are so many other administrators and their pay might be increasing as well,” he said. “So the administration will claim that it can’t afford to create or even maintain tenure line positions, and you have to ask: Well, why is it that they can afford to pay themselves more money?”

Colby said that through his work, over time, he has seen administrative salaries continue to increase at a greater rate than faculty salaries, and the UNC system is no exception.

In the past 13 years, according to AAUP data, the money spent by UNC-CH on management employees has increased by about 50%, whereas the money spent on faculty has gone up by about 30%.

“So they’re paying non-faculty, especially managers, higher and higher wages,” Colby said. “And they’re probably using that to say, ‘well, we can’t afford to hire more full-time people,’ so they’ll hire adjuncts, and that’s the story. It’s a familiar story.”

It is clear that money is often the driving factor behind the allocation of teaching positions, and thus, it is a big factor in the increased use of adjunct professors, especially at a school like UNC-CH, where, though they pay these individuals around $6,000 per course, they don’t receive as many benefits as full-time individuals.

“You often pay to park, you are often not given any travel or equipment funding, you are just a hired gun to teach a class,” Maki said. “And it also means, if somebody doesn’t like you or your class, whether that’s students or other faculty, that can be the end of your employment. And it’s not like you get fired, you simply don’t get offered another course.”

This tactic can be beneficial for universities, but not always for the professors themselves, or even the students. 

While it’s not always the case, if an individual is teaching at numerous institutions or working another job to supplement their income, they can’t provide as much one-on-one focus for students as full-time professors can.

At UNC-CH, university enrollment has increased by around 11% from 2014 to 2024, according to the UNC-CH Enrollment Planning Working Group Report. So while university populations nationwide are growing and more faculty are needed, using more part-time professors is likely not the most beneficial solution. But as universities become more focused on bringing in as much money as possible, it’s a trend that will likely continue, according to Maki.

“Nationally, what you’ll find is [that] adjuncts have been a growing percentage overall, because universities grew as we moved from a society where only a few people went to college to where half or more than half go to college,” he said. “To support that growth, adjuncts have been the people filling that gap.”

This article was first published by UNC Media Hub.