Community college professors focus on teaching and course planning, with a higher teaching load and more work with students. They face challenges with a diverse student body, but can advance to administrative roles and earn tenure.
A community college professor is a professor who teaches at a community college. Community colleges are also called junior colleges, city colleges, or technical colleges and usually focus on upper-level higher education. Most community colleges also offer programs that allow non-high school graduates to be certified in high school academics, allowing them to continue higher education. A community college professor usually focuses exclusively on course planning and instruction, as community colleges do not focus on research.
A community college professor generally has a higher teaching load than professors at other universities and colleges that award higher degrees. Teaching is typically the exclusive focus of the community college professor, which results in more work with students and less time on private academic pursuits. Another factor leading to increased workload is the absence of postgraduate students, who tend to work as teaching assistants in other institutes of higher education. A community college professor, then, will generally be responsible for grading homework, assignments, and exams taken by his class without outside assistance.
The volume of students passing through a community college also presents unique challenges and opportunities to the community college teacher. Teachers often have to teach many classes during the week and have to work with a very diverse student body. It is usually not difficult for students to get into community colleges, so professors must be able to instruct students at all academic levels. Some community college professors find their work incredibly rewarding because of the amount of influence they have in their students’ lives. Other professors, however, prefer to instruct only higher-level students.
A community college professor’s salary is sometimes slightly less than that of a four-year college professor, and some community colleges may have slightly lower hiring standards. This is because the focus is often exclusively on teaching.
There are many opportunities for advancement at community colleges, and some faculty will eventually find themselves in administrative roles. A community college professor’s salary tends to increase over time, and community college professors are generally distinguished by good teaching. Some community college professors can even become tenured professors, but not all colleges offer that option.
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