By Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D. This series has dragged on longer than I wanted it to be. As I indicated last week, I will conclude it...
By Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.
This series has dragged on longer than I wanted it
to be. As I indicated last week, I will
conclude it this week by responding to a few of the questions readers asked me
in the past few weeks.
Some readers wanted me to compare the salaries of
university teachers in Nigeria and the United States. That’s a difficult task—
for at least two reasons. First, Nigeria and America have vastly different
socio-economic realities, so a comparison of the salaries of university teachers
in both countries can lead to false, misleading equivalencies.
Second, unlike in
Nigeria, there is no uniform salary for university teachers in the US. Teachers
with the same qualification, the same years of experience, the same
disciplinary expertise, etc. may have radically different salaries. Salaries
are determined by a number of factors: scholarly productivity, teaching
effectiveness, need, location, cost of living, discipline, etc. For instance,
teachers in California, Massachusetts, and New York earn higher salaries than
teachers in the American south because of differences in the cost of living of
these places. Teachers in the sciences and in business administration earn way
higher salaries than teachers in the humanities and the social sciences, etc.
The difficulty of the
comparison is made even worse by the differences in the hierarchies and
qualifications of university teachers in Nigeria and the United States. Over 60 percent of Nigerian university
teachers have no PhDs, whereas PhD is the minimum qualification to teach in a
US university. Of course, there are "professors of practice" who have
deep industry experience but have no PhD. But that's usually only in disciplines
that are vocational.
American universities have no graduate
assistants and assistant lecturers in the same way that Nigeria universities
have. In America, people who teach with
a first degree are often master’s degree students who assist full-time teachers,
who have Ph.Ds, to teach basic, lower-division-level courses. They are not
employees of the university. On average, they earn between $500 and $800
monthly, plus tuition waiver. That
translates to between N81,000 and N130,000 per month.
Most people who teach
in American universities with a master's degree are also often PhD students who
are not employees of the university. They earn, on average, between $800 and
$1500 monthly. That is, between N130,000 and N245,000 per month. Note that
these figures vary widely based on location and discipline. Also note that at
least 35 percent of this amount is paid back as tax.
Full-time faculty salaries also vary widely
based on location, discipline, experience, scholarly output, reputation, etc.
The average salary for a new PhD in the humanities and social sciences ranges
from $45,000 (about N7.3 million) per annum in small state universities to
$109,000 (about N17.8 million) per annum in big, rich private universities like
Harvard. Remember, too, that at least 35
percent of this is paid back to the government as tax.
By the way, the
salaries of university teachers, especially in state universities, are public
information. Anybody with Internet
access can find exactly how much any university teacher earns. I read somewhere
that Nigerian university teachers are threatening to go on another strike
because government wants to make their salaries publicly available--or
something close to that.
It is also worth noting
that, in America, university teachers aren’t regarded as constituting “the
critical mass of scholars in the society” who deserve “unique conditions that will motivate them
... to attain greater efficiency, ” as ASUU’s 2009 agreement says of Nigerian
university teachers. Although
universities are central to knowledge production and circulation, many
universities teachers I have met here regard the opportunity to teach as a
privilege, not a reason to claim a special status in society.
As a result, university
teachers in America don’t have a special salary scale. In fact, I know many high
school teachers who earn more money than some university teachers. For
instance, three years ago, I met a high school teacher with a Ph.D. who turned
down a university teaching job because he found his secondary school teaching
more financially rewarding and less stressful than university teaching. Well, the
truth is that, generally speaking, in America, teaching isn’t the profession
people who want to make a lot of money choose. People choose to teach because
they are animated by the passion to learn, unlearn, relearn, share knowledge
and mold the minds of young people.
I do not, by this, mean
that it’s wrong for Nigerian university teachers to demand better remuneration
and conditions of service for themselves. I am just uneasy with ASUU’s
perennially crippling strikes ostensibly to “save” university education from
collapse. Well, I think going on strike every so often to “save” the university
system is like periodically going to war in defense of peace.
Some readers also asked
me to comment on the validity and utility of student evaluations of teachers,
especially because I pointed out that even in America students sometimes abuse
the evaluations to “punish” teachers who push them too hard in a course.
There is no
denying that student evaluations are not entirely reliable. However, they can help point out patterns in
teachers' instructional inefficiencies. A teacher who consistently gets bad
evaluations over the same issues in different years is certainly due for a
reprimand. Besides, I'd rather have "biased" student evaluations than
the current instructional impunity in Nigeria.
There is a lot more to
compare between Nigerian and American university teachers, but I have to stop
here—at least for now.
Concluded
Related Articles:
US-Based Nigerian Professor's Assessment of Nigerian Universities
A UK-Based Nigerian Lecturer's Comparison of British and Nigerian Universities
The Sexual Harassment Epidemic in Nigerian Universities
Finally, Some Good News From Our Universities
On Bauchi's Fake Lecturer--And What Should be Done
A UK-Based Nigerian Lecturer's Comparison of British and Nigerian Universities
The Sexual Harassment Epidemic in Nigerian Universities
Finally, Some Good News From Our Universities
On Bauchi's Fake Lecturer--And What Should be Done
Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke's Fake Doctorate and Professorship
Looking at American Education with Nigerians Eyes (I)
Looking at American Education with Nigerian Eyes II
Looking at American Education with Nigerian Eyes III
Looking at American Education with Nigerian Eyes IV
Looking at American Education with Nigerians Eyes (I)
Looking at American Education with Nigerian Eyes II
Looking at American Education with Nigerian Eyes III
Looking at American Education with Nigerian Eyes IV
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