One issue of great concern to students, parents, administrators, state legislators, and the general public is the use of part-time faculty and teaching assistants to teach undergraduate courses (Cox 2000). In fall 1998, about 71 percent of undergraduate credit hours across all types of institutions were assigned to full-time faculty and instructional staff, a considerably higher percentage than that assigned to part-time faculty (27 percent) and teaching assistants and other staff (1 percent for each group).

Furthermore, the analysis of the faculty-level data did not find that part-time faculty had a higher likelihood of teaching undergraduate students than their full-time colleagues. For example, at 4-year doctoral institutions, there was no difference found between part- and full-time faculty in terms of their percentages of being engaged in undergraduate teaching activities (69 percent and 70 percent, respectively) or teaching at least one undergraduate class (58 percent and 57 percent, respectively). At 4-year nondoctoral institutions, part-time faculty were even less likely than full-time faculty to report providing at least one type of instruction to undergraduates (85 percent vs. 90 percent, respectively) and, in particular, teaching undergraduate classes (80 percent vs. 86 percent, respectively).