Teacher Satisfaction

“There is not enough content convergence with other teachers.”

-Teachers

“There is too much content convergence and course overlap. The same course shouldn’t be repeated again year after year. Multiple courses could easily be combined into one.”

-Students

“Universities must consider the personal and professional lives of us students and not only the teacher’s when scheduling classes.

Don’t change class times at the last moment, and keep us students informed of absent teachers more quickly so we can organize our time.

Schedule classes at normal working hours, not late into the night. Respect our employment schedules, travel times and personal lives.

Either book full days on campus or full days remote. Stop booking a distance course and a face-to-face course 10 minutes later. Especially when there’s nowhere quiet on campus for us students to go for the remote class.”

– Student

“Adjunct teachers are not considered ’employees’ nor part of the internal organization and as such, the internal procedures sometimes seem strange to us, cumbersome and above all not within our control.

Universities should offer teachers teaching assistants to provide administrative support; someone who knows the ‘house’.”

– Teacher

“It is often the ‘zapping’ mentality of today’s generation of students that causes learning difficulty and prevents teachers from pushing their course subjects to the end.

You explain a concept, ask the class if there are any questions and get no response or a simple “No”. So you select a student or a team to ask a follow-up question and none of them are capable of explaining, or are willing to explain, what was just covered.

It’s extremely frustrating.”

– Teacher

“Enforce academic standards. Teachers are not automatically respected by students. Beginning from their first semester, universities must require students attend workshops that set professional expectations, rules and expected behavior along with consequences.

Students are no longer in high school and their transformation into the professional world may not be obvious to them. Students need to understand, feel and respect this difference, otherwise the student and their teachers are set up for failure.

Give students a sense of responsibility and professionalism, hold them accountable and empower teachers to enforce consequences.”

– Teacher

“Universities need to incorporate teacher recognition. For example, every semester let students vote for their ‘favorite teacher.’ Teaching can be a thankless job.”

– Teacher

“Universities must pool their tools and software together. For us teachers, juggling several usernames and passwords to different systems within the same university is complicated to manage, moreso when teaching at several universities.

Every year universities integrate new ‘innovative’ platforms and abandon others, and teachers are left to figure it out.”

– Teacher

“As a teacher I’ve had program managers I’ve taught courses for for years suddenly stop responding to my calls and emails, only to discover that that program manager had been posting job announcements on LinkedIn actively recruiting teachers to teach my very course; even stating they have course content to offer (undoubtedly the content I created).”

– Teacher

“Adjunct teachers have similar to superior education and professional experience than full-time teachers yet aren’t offered the same amount of time and compensation to prepare for courses, to grade projects or to create educational content.

Offer adjunct teachers fixed-term contracts with a decent monthly salary as well as the perks that come along with it.”

– Teacher

“It is very difficult for teachers to juggle the planning and get a consistent schedule when teaching in several schools plus other professional obligations.

Universities should recognize this.”

– Teacher

“Teachers must respect the university program, deadlines and their professional situation.

We need teachers to keep us informed of the difficulties they encounter during the courses, such as their relationship with students or course content not adapted to the students’ level, etc.”

– Program Director

“Universities need to do a better job communicating with their students and us teachers need more constructive meetings because a lot of things tend to be left unsaid.

As teachers we sometimes find ourselves doing after-sales service for students.”

– Teacher

“Universities must create events to bring teachers and students together outside of class.

University and teachers must organize more inter-class projects so we can work with new students and not always only with students in our own class.“

– Student

“Universities must align teachers’ hourly rates within schools of the same group. There’s no reason teachers should be paid less to teach the same course at a different campus from the same school.

And improve the slow, unreliable remuneration and of independent teachers. Treat teachers humanely and pay them on time : Payment within 30 days after service should be performed like all other private clients.”

– Teacher

“Universities must communicate their deliverables more clearly, even if they are the same as the previous year. It can be difficult for us teachers to get precise answers from the university.

Academic staff should be more transparent and personable at the management level. Relations with university employees are very random; it depends on the person.”

– Teacher

“Teachers rarely receive student feedback on what is working and what needs improvement for future courses.

Combine this with short-term contracts and (usually) late teacher booking, and this makes it difficult for teachers to plan ahead, manage finances and trust if the university will have them back to teach the following year.”

– Teacher

“I have seen fellow adjunct teacher’s contracts abruptly broken and the teacher replaced in the middle of the semester with no due process.

Falling out with one program director at a university likely means losing teaching opportunities with the entire university for at least the next couple of years, if not forever.”

– Teacher

“Universities need to automate the contract and compensation processes. Some universities still do not offer electronic paychecks, so teachers must receive paper stubs by mail and digitize them themselves.”

– Teacher

“Teachers must be willing to attend ‘student open door’ days and talk to students and their parents.

Teachers must be willing to attend graduation ceremonies of the students they taught and helped.

Break free from time.”

– Program Director

“Course objectives are usually not clearly defined and syllabuses are often oversimplified. Teachers are asked to create and teach 12 to 16+ hours of content using a syllabus theme that is summarized in just 4 lines.

Even when course objectives and intended learning outcomes (ILOs) are clearly defined, syllabuses aren’t designed to reflect student expectations; it is the responsibility of the teacher to uncover this and adapt the content.

It can be hard to balance strict university accreditation requirements with student level and expectations.”

– Teacher

“It can be demotivating for teachers knowing that at the end of the semester students can insult their teachers and complain anonymously and without impunity.

I am shocked by the level of hatred and insults some students have felt comfortable leaving anonymously, but won’t participate or speak in class.”

– Teacher

“The invisible, unpaid hours make adjunct teaching untenable and lead to high teacher turnover.

If total pay for a 15-hour course of 40 students at 80€/hour is 1,200€, estimate 25 unpaid hours of class preparation, grading with feedback, student & administrative emails, occasional catch-up exams and teacher meetings, this becomes 30€/hour, before taxes.

Universities that attract and keep quality teachers understand what really attracts teachers to the profession.”

– Teacher

“Teacher pay rate is based on the teacher’s highest level of education, yet pay does not increase according to the teacher’s number of years of teaching experience, professional experience or student satisfaction.”

– Teacher

“Teachers have invested their career building their reputation, skill set and training content.

Adjunct teacher’s temporary university contracts are increasingly including ‘personal release agreements’ so the university can use the teacher’s name, image, voice, training material and remote course recordings in their advertising and branding.

This is not reflected in teacher compensation.“

– Teacher

“The same university has needed my teaching services every semester for 21 years, but will not offer me an annual fixed-term contract. Further, over those 21 years the hourly teaching rate has increased by less than 1€, while the cost of living has almost doubled.

Universities should not be surprised when the quality of teaching becomes impoverished to the detriment of the experience of students.”

– Teacher

“French regulations now require higher education teachers obtain 10 hours of ongoing certified training each year just to continue teaching the same course content, and it is the responsibility of the teacher to find, take and pay for these certifications out of pocket.

Teaching becomes less profitable each year.”

– Teacher

Student entrance exams and milestones should be required to take certain courses.

It isn’t fair to the qualified students that have to follow a slowed-down or dumbed-down version of a course so all students can participate.

In group projects qualified students have complained they must also do the work of the unqualified students in order for their grades not to suffer.

– Teacher

“A university’s absolute rigidity of class scheduling makes it difficult to teach, let alone arrive to class on time. As a working professional my clients and employer require significant availability on my part, sometimes last minute.

Inflexible teaching hours and unpaid grading outside of class combined with long, unpaid transportation to and from campus makes me question whether or not I want to continue working with some universities.”

– Teacher

Spy on other universities and steal what works. University should see what is happening at other schools and develop specialty programs to improve and stand out from the competition.

Universities should invest more in students and their pedagogical team, not in school advertisements.

– Student