Future You Memo No. 8
Is college worth it? | The growth of temporary help (aka adjunct professors) | What jobs are ready for the Future of Work
First, some numbers…
66.1% - of non-tenure-track higher education faculty worked part-time 1
$3,500 - Half of adjunct professors surveyed made less than $3,500 per course 2
89 - TikTok users average 89 minutes a day on the app. Opening it 19 times. 3
Is college worth it?
Students constantly hear the refrain that they must attend college to be successful. As a result, two-thirds of high school graduates enroll in college the following autumn. Almost all students cite getting a better job as a primary reason for attending college.
But as this report shows, the decision to attend college is less important than the choices that come next: which school to attend, and which subject to study.
Read A Comprehensive Return on Investment Analysis by Preston Cooper
Follow-up: What is the financial value of my degree? Search over 30,000 bachelor degrees.
While you pay high tuition, universities rely on adjunct professors
Adjuncts are higher education's version of migrant laborers — professionals hopping from campus to campus with no job security, a meager income, no health insurance or retirement benefits, and little hope for advancement. And their numbers are growing.
College students will likely encounter many adjunct instructors during their time in school, though many won't know it or even care. But are they being duped? Is this a classic bait-and-switch scenario deceiving students and families who assume classes are taught by "real" faculty? Does the increasing reliance on adjunct faculty threaten the quality and viability of higher education?
The full-time, tenure-track professor is a dying breed.
Read The Plight of Adjunct Faculty on America’s Campuses
How to assess jobs “ready” for the Future of Work
The phrase Future of Work has been tossed around repeatedly over the years. But when people talk about the kinds of jobs that fall (or don’t fall) into that concept, it’s not always clear what they mean. As Guild continues to partner with companies, building out catalogs of programs to reskill and upskill talent, it helps to crystallize what we define as the Future of Work and how to measure it. After all, talent strategy shouldn’t be a guessing game, and if employers plan on upskilling their talent one quarter, one year, or even two years from now, they’ll need a precise framework for the Future of Work and what that entails.
Read more about the future work metrics at Guild Education
Till next time…
You cannot see what you don’t look for, and you cannot look for what you don’t believe in. - Darren Hardy, The Compound Effect
https://chronicle.com/article/contract-lengths-of-non-tenure-track-faculty-members-fall-2018
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/04/20/new-report-says-many-adjuncts-make-less-3500-course-and-25000-year
https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/tiktok-users-watch-the-app-for-an-average-of-89-minutes-per-day-and-theres-732m-of-them-worldwide/