Law, Business, and Engineering Professors Are Found to Be Highest-Paid

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Table: Average Faculty Salaries by Field and Rank at 4-Year Colleges and Universities, 2007-8

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By AUDREY WILLIAMS JUNE

The average salary of college faculty members rose 4 percent this year, according to a survey by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources.

Law professors had, for the most part, the highest average pay, no matter what their status or where they worked. Full professors of law earned an average of $129,527 in 2007-8; associate professors earned $94,444, on average. Assistant professors of law earned an average of $79,684, a figure that was topped only by business professors at the same level, the survey found.

Law professors were the top earners as instructors, with an average salary of $63,174.

Other disciplines that commanded high salaries were engineering and business. Average salaries for full professors in those disciplines were $107,134 and $102,965, respectively.

Among new assistant professors, those in business had the highest average salary, at $86,640. Their average pay topped that of their counterparts in law by about $7,700.

The three disciplines with the lowest average salaries for full professors were English, visual and performing arts, and parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies, the survey found. Those faculty members earned about $76,000.

Average salaries at private institutions rose 4 percent, compared with 3.7 percent the year before. At public institutions, average salaries climbed 3.9 percent, the same increase as last year. Public baccalaureate colleges, however, saw a 4.5 percent increase in average salaries, up from 4.2 percent.

The salary information included in the CUPA-HR survey was reported by 838 public and private institutions and covers about 211,400 faculty members. The survey categorizes salaries by discipline and rank rather than by institution, like the annual faculty-pay survey conducted by the American Association of University Professors. The full report is available on the CUPA-HR Web site (http://www.cupahr.org).