Of the more than 900,000 faculty members in the United States who were not tenured or on the tenure track in the fall of 2015, or who worked at institutions with no tenure system, nearly half were on contracts whose duration was less than a year. Non-tenure-track faculty members at two-year and four-year for-profit institutions were more likely than those in other sectors to have multiyear contracts. Such faculty members at two-year public institutions were the least likely to have multiyear contracts.
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| 4-year public institutions | full-time | 46,310 | 14.2% | 99,307 | 30.4% | 8,465 | 2.6% | 154,082 | 47.2% |
| 4-year public institutions | part-time | 15,126 | 4.6% | 40,275 | 12.3% | 116,994 | 35.8% | 172,395 | 52.8% |
| 4-year public institutions | total | 61,436 | 18.8% | 139,582 | 42.8% | 125,459 | 38.4% | 326,477 | 100.0% |
| 4-year private nonprofit institutions | full-time | 39,791 | 15.5% | 64,864 | 25.3% | 3,923 | 1.5% | 108,578 | 42.3% |
| 4-year private nonprofit institutions | part-time | 8,429 | 3.3% | 27,256 | 10.6% | 112,465 | 43.8% | 148,150 | 57.7% |
| 4-year private nonprofit institutions | total | 48,220 | 18.8% | 92,120 | 35.9% | 116,388 | 45.3% | 256,728 | 100.0% |
| 4-year for-profit institutions | full-time | 10,186 | 13.3% | 2,307 | 3.0% | 1,252 | 1.6% | 13,745 | 18.0% |
| 4-year for-profit institutions | part-time | 16,566 | 21.7% | 17,954 | 23.5% | 28,077 | 36.8% | 62,597 | 82.0% |
| 4-year for-profit institutions | total | 26,752 | 35.0% | 20,261 | 26.5% | 29,329 | 38.4% | 76,342 | 100.0% |
| 2-year public institutions | full-time | 6,508 | 2.7% | 43,475 | 18.1% | 5,740 | 2.4% | 55,723 | 23.2% |
| 2-year public institutions | part-time | 4,752 | 2.0% | 15,040 | 6.3% | 164,177 | 68.5% | 183,969 | 76.8% |
| 2-year public institutions | total | 11,260 | 4.7% | 58,515 | 24.4% | 169,917 | 70.9% | 239,692 | 100.0% |
| 2-year private nonprofit institutions | full-time | 743 | 27.6% | 304 | 11.3% | 756 | 28.1% | 1,803 | 67.0% |
| 2-year private nonprofit institutions | part-time | 176 | 6.5% | 75 | 2.8% | 636 | 23.6% | 887 | 33.0% |
| 2-year private nonprofit institutions | total | 919 | 34.2% | 379 | 14.1% | 1,392 | 51.7% | 2,690 | 100.0% |
| 2-year for-profit institutions | full-time | 4,365 | 33.5% | 499 | 3.8% | 700 | 5.4% | 5,564 | 42.7% |
| 2-year for-profit institutions | part-time | 4,044 | 31.1% | 213 | 1.6% | 3,196 | 24.6% | 7,453 | 57.3% |
| 2-year for-profit institutions | total | 8,409 | 64.6% | 712 | 5.5% | 3,896 | 29.9% | 13,017 | 100.0% |
| All institutions | full-time | 107,903 | 11.8% | 210,756 | 23.0% | 20,836 | 2.3% | 339,495 | 37.1% |
| All institutions | part-time | 49,093 | 5.4% | 100,813 | 11.0% | 425,545 | 46.5% | 575,451 | 62.9% |
| All institutions | total | 156,996 | 17.2% | 311,569 | 34.1% | 446,381 | 48.8% | 914,946 | 100.0% |
Note: The data cover full- and part-time medical and nonmedical staff who perform faculty duties like instruction, research, and/or public service at 4,584 degree-granting four-year and two-year institutions in the United States that are eligible to participate in the Title IV federal student-aid program, and who have neither tenured nor tenure-track status, or who work at colleges with no tenure system. Medical schools are counted in the data. Non-tenure-track faculty members include adjuncts.
Source: Chronicle analysis of U.S. Department of Education data