Part-Time Teaching Appointments

Part-time academic support staff positions include the titles of Lecturers, Instructors, Adjuncts, and Practitioners. The basic differences are listed below, and detailed descriptions of academic staff can be found in the Faculty Handbook.  

• Lecturers are instructors of record with doctoral degrees.
• Instructors are instructors of record with master’s degrees.
• Practitioners are not instructors of record (ex: mentors, facilitators).
• Adjuncts are appointed to part-time academic status while continuing their principal employment. 

For hiring standing faculty, please connect with the Faculty Affairs team and review the Interfolio@Penn Faculty Recruiting Guide.

Program Managers are responsible for the recruiting, interviewing, degree verification, and reference management processes for part-time academic support staff. Hire requests should be entered into the Part Time Teaching Appointment Form and then be sent to Coral Haas for approval. For Practitioners, complete the Mentor Hire Form.  

Please note that we need to process these requests 10 weeks before the start of the semester in which they are employed.

Once approved, Coral will create the job requisition in Workday and hire your candidate into it. She will then send the appointment letter to the Program Manager for review. Finalized letters will then be sent to the part-time academic support staff for their review and signature. Once a signed letter is received and the hire's information is fully processed in Workday, onboarding prompts will automatically be sent to the hire.

Compensation Policy for Part-Time Faculty

• For a part-time lecturer (a teacher with a doctorate) the standard pay rate is $6,500 per course and $7,200 per course if the individual has taught at GSE for 10 years or more.
• For a part-time instructor (a teacher without a doctorate but with a master’s degree) the standard pay rate is $5,000 per course and $5,600 per course if the individual has taught at GSE for 10 years or more.
• If the course has enrollment of less than nine students, the course should be canceled. However, the teacher can opt to go ahead and teach the class at a reduced per-student rate. We pay $722 per student for a Lecturer, or $556 per student for an Instructor (payment table below) for a course with eight students or less.
• Generally, Programs and Program Managers should take care to guide students such that they do not need a very low enrollment course at the end of their studies to graduate. However, if a low enrollment course is “required for graduation,” meaning the student(s) would not graduate if the course didn’t run, Program Managers can request an exception to the per-student payment. Program managers should contact Coral Haas or Anna Reed with the details to inquire about an exception.
• The 10-year experience premium payment does not get a higher per-student rate if the individual opts to teach a low enrollment course.