Adjunct Professors: carrying the majority of the teaching load, at a fraction of the cost
Hallway conversations at Osgoode follow a typical pattern in the early weeks of the semester: “Good to see you,” “how are things?” “What courses are you in?” The answer to the last question can be up-in-the-air as students try to arrange the perfect schedule. This leads to inquiries about the professors teaching the over 150 courses offered at Osgoode, with warnings and recommendations traded by word-of-mouth.
In 2015/16, Osgoode had 59 full time faculty members and 133 adjunct faculty members. Full time faculty taught only 68 of 154 (44%) upper year courses and seminars offered at Osgoode this year, not including clinical and intensive program courses or special enrollment courses. Jointly taught courses by full time faculty and adjunct faculty were counted as taught by full time faculty.
Less than half of courses offerings are taught by full time faculty despite salary and benefits for full time faculty being the largest expense line for the school at roughly 33% of the school’s annual expenses. Every full time professor’s individual salary can be looked up on Ontario’s “sunshine list”, a government produced list of the salaries of employees making over $100,000 a year working in a government or publically-funded organization, including universities. Simply dividing the total salary expense by the number of faculty members gives an average salary of over $194,000 per full time professor.
This is in contrast to adjunct faculty who are compensated significantly less at $1,475 per credit hour per semester, adjusted if the course is co-taught, or if it’s a seminar. This means that an average adjunct professor teaching 4 hours a week would receive $5,900 for the semester. While all adjuncts professors are offered pay, a small number decline to accept compensation. Keep in mind, the majority of adjunct professors also have day jobs other than educating law students.
New faculty hires must be approved by a selection committee and receive a majority approval by the faculty. Conversely, adjuncts are hired at the discretion of the Associate Dean. The ratio of courses taught by full time faculty compared to adjunct faculty is not particularly indicative of anything: the school could simply reduce the number of course offerings by adjuncts to improve the ratio; and course offerings vary year-by-year based on sabbaticals.
Of course, there is absolutely no correlation between professor quality and whether they are full time or adjunct. Case in point, Professor Howard Black, the much-liked adjunct professor who teaches Estates each term plus a seminar in Estate Litigation. On the other hand, full time professors are certainly not immune to the fiery criticism of law students over their teaching quality and responses to student feedback.
There will be no definitive answer to whether it is better to have a full time faculty member or practitioners teach any particular course. Some advantages of full time faculty are that courses are generally not at 8:30am or in the evening. However adjuncts often bring tangible, experience-based perspectives, and useful practice advice. Fortunately, students at Osgoode are not wanting for choice.
Accountability on teaching is a necessary discussion given the cost of law school, what contributes to that high tuition (faculty salaries), and what is received in return. Until ratemyprof.com, or the promised reform to teaching evaluations, takes off with Osgoode students, word of mouth will remain the best way to learn.
| Taught by Full Time Faculty | Taught by Adjunct Professors | Total Courses Taught | |
| 2015 Fall Courses |
19 | 18 | 37 |
| 2015 Fall Seminars | 13 | 24 | 37 |
| 2016 Winter Courses | 25 | 18 | 43 |
| 2016 Winter Seminars | 11 | 26 | 37 |
| Total | 68 | 86 | 154 |