Washington — Almost two-thirds of the 3.6 million people employed in the fall of 2007 by colleges with students eligible for federal aid were full timers, according to a report released today by the U.S. Education Department.

The report also said full-time professors earned an average of $98,020 a year.

The report, “Employees in Postsecondary Institutions, Fall 2007, and Salaries of Full-Time Instructional Faculty, 2007-08,” collected data from more than 6,000 institutions that participated in Title IV student-aid programs. The report, which was based on data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, includes information on salaries, gender, race, and faculty ranks.

Among other findings, the report said that, in 2007, institutions and administrative offices, excluding medical schools, employed just over 1.3 million full-time professionals. Of the total, 47 percent had faculty status, including 21 percent with tenure.

Of full-time faculty members with tenure that fall, 66 percent were men and 34 percent were women. Among the 149,000 full-time employees hired during a four-month period, 33 percent were faculty members. —David DeBolt