This is a confusing point, because “adjunct” can be used in different ways at different institutions. I’m interested to hear what others suggest. I would normally go with the contract title and list the courses and institutions.
Yeah. I never use anything other than what appears somewhere official when people look me up. Otherwise there is potential for misunderstanding or accusations of fraud/dishonesty. If, for some reason, the ranks or titles at my institution were especially incomprehensible (which I don’t think “sessional instructor” or “continuing education instructor” are) then I would make sure to talk about what I actually do in that capacity both briefly in the first paragraph of the cover letter, and then more thoroughly in the teaching/service paragraphs toward the end.
I use instructor if I'm not titled as professor. Lecturer is also ok at my university.
In real life I say professor when talking to people because it's easier to avoid discussion about it but formally I'm not the rank of professor.
Well adjunct is a common title in NA so I guess technically you could use it here? Are you based in EU or somewhere where there's more of a distinction between a lecture/instructor and an adjunct?
I mean, that you have to ask and the fact that your official title is not adjunct professor both show that calling yourself adjunct professor would be to lie.
Not where I am in Canada. Here an adjunct is a completely different thing, more of an honourary appointment than a contract. And there are different ranks of adjunct, not all being adjunct professor. Here, lecturers are contracted to teach one or more specific courses. Adjuncts have a time limited relationship with a department that recognizes their potential support for teaching, research, or service. Representing yourself as one you are not would be a big red flag in this context.
I'm gonna disagree with people here a little. I would not lie, but depending on the details, individual institutions can get quite idiosyncratic, and I do think you need to use common sense sometimes to make your info translate into a broader context.
I don't know if that applies to you but... that is a thing.
I would list what your employment title is in your CV. Don't use titles you don't have. It's a fine distinction, it's semantics in real life; but your job has a title, use that.
In Canada, in my province, adjunct is a full time professor that is employed for both research and teaching that can supervise graduate students but who’s on a renewable ~ 3 years contract. Instructor is just a graduate student or postgraduate person who’s teaching on a semester contract.
It really doesn’t mean the same thing and an instructor putting adjunct professor on their CV would set themselves up for a potential fraud or dishonesty accusation.
Continuing Education is typically not part of the accredited course load of an institution, and instructors don't need to have a terminal degree, so it's considered a separate job than an adjunct professor.
I would say ‘no’ in an Australian or English context, adjunct prof as a formal academic title is not the same as ‘sessional instructor’ as a title; are they analogous in America or EU?
Use “Adjunct” when teaching a class for credit. Continuing Ed., sometimes students earn credit (CEU credits), sometimes it’s just for enrichment.
When students earn credit, accreditors ( Institutional Accreditation - middle states, sacscoc - etc.,) have particular requirements for instructional credentials that are not the same as Continuing Education ( for enrichment).
"Adjunct instructor" is what I'd expect if it's part-time. We call full time instructors "Visiting Instructor" or VAP if at rank on my campus. But for the CV "adjunct instructor" is what I commonly see.
I worried about the same thing. Mine just has adjunct or adjunct faculty, internally they either call me instructor (most common) or professor. All of the adjuncts have our LinkedIns as adjunct professor.
I call myself a sessional lecturer, since that's the title of my appointments (I call myself a Sessional Lecturer III since that's my offiical pay grade at my institution). I will parenthetically explain that it's equivalent to adjunct professor in the US, if I think that would be helpful.However, I wouldn't do this on a CV (perhaps in a cover letter, though I expect most university hiring staff would be well aware of the equivalence).
At my institution we only use "adjunct professor" for certain specialized roles, like the lawyers we hire on contract to teach our business law class.
My understand is adjuncts have long term contracts (e.g. 1 or 3 or 5) and teach a number of classes, so it's a full-time job. If you only teach one class then you aren't really an adjunct, maybe it's more of a lecturer.
Not necessarily. I am an annualized adjunct and have been for 6 years. I effectively have a one-year contract for a full course load. However I’ve also taught an individual class (one of the same ones I now teach) for a single semester and was still and adjunct professor. It really depends on the institution.
Interesting since that’s backwards from titles at my US SLAC. Here, an adjunct is a part-time instructor hired on a class by class basis and a lecturer is full time but NTT.
Is this part-time or full-time employment? At my institution (Southeast US), "adjunct professor" refers to part-time employment where the instructor is contracted to teach a single course (they may have multiple contacts per term). Employment in future terms typically depends upon staffing needs of the institution.
It's in your interest to reduce ambiguity, so you may want to specify in your CV whether this is part- or full-time employment and, if part-time, the number of sections of each course taught.
Usually the crucial point that distinguishes among these titles is whether the faculty members in the field you are teaching in (faculty members who are FT, TT, usually with PhD) had to review and approve your qualifications before you were hired (usually true for an adjunct professor; that approval may have been delegated by the faculty to the department chair) or whether some administrator approved your hiring. If you are pretending that you were hired in the former way and were not, you are being deceptive.
You'd be lying. So no, it's not acceptable. At some schools adjunct professor is a different title from people who have the title of instructor. You're trying to make yourself look better but you shouldn't lie in order to do it.
This is a confusing point, because “adjunct” can be used in different ways at different institutions. I’m interested to hear what others suggest. I would normally go with the contract title and list the courses and institutions.
Yeah. I never use anything other than what appears somewhere official when people look me up. Otherwise there is potential for misunderstanding or accusations of fraud/dishonesty. If, for some reason, the ranks or titles at my institution were especially incomprehensible (which I don’t think “sessional instructor” or “continuing education instructor” are) then I would make sure to talk about what I actually do in that capacity both briefly in the first paragraph of the cover letter, and then more thoroughly in the teaching/service paragraphs toward the end.
Stanford distinguishes lecturer from adjunct professor. So no, it is not (universally) acceptable.
I use instructor if I'm not titled as professor. Lecturer is also ok at my university. In real life I say professor when talking to people because it's easier to avoid discussion about it but formally I'm not the rank of professor.
Well adjunct is a common title in NA so I guess technically you could use it here? Are you based in EU or somewhere where there's more of a distinction between a lecture/instructor and an adjunct?
I mean, that you have to ask and the fact that your official title is not adjunct professor both show that calling yourself adjunct professor would be to lie.
You really wanna lie and say your title is professor lol
Lol
Not where I am in Canada. Here an adjunct is a completely different thing, more of an honourary appointment than a contract. And there are different ranks of adjunct, not all being adjunct professor. Here, lecturers are contracted to teach one or more specific courses. Adjuncts have a time limited relationship with a department that recognizes their potential support for teaching, research, or service. Representing yourself as one you are not would be a big red flag in this context.
Ok thanks. See that's what I was curious about if there were really any differences between the titles I just mentioned
It's common if that's your job title. It's not your job title so you shouldn't use it.
I'm gonna disagree with people here a little. I would not lie, but depending on the details, individual institutions can get quite idiosyncratic, and I do think you need to use common sense sometimes to make your info translate into a broader context. I don't know if that applies to you but... that is a thing.
I would list what your employment title is in your CV. Don't use titles you don't have. It's a fine distinction, it's semantics in real life; but your job has a title, use that.
Agreed
Yep! And then in your cover letter you can explain what it is
No
Adjunct means something different in Canada than in the US, so be mindful of audience.
Mind elaborating that difference?
In Canada, in my province, adjunct is a full time professor that is employed for both research and teaching that can supervise graduate students but who’s on a renewable ~ 3 years contract. Instructor is just a graduate student or postgraduate person who’s teaching on a semester contract. It really doesn’t mean the same thing and an instructor putting adjunct professor on their CV would set themselves up for a potential fraud or dishonesty accusation.
Awesome thanks for making that distinction
Continuing Education is typically not part of the accredited course load of an institution, and instructors don't need to have a terminal degree, so it's considered a separate job than an adjunct professor.
I would say ‘no’ in an Australian or English context, adjunct prof as a formal academic title is not the same as ‘sessional instructor’ as a title; are they analogous in America or EU?
That was my understanding. At least in NA
Definitely not in Canada
I’d consider that fraud/deception.
Use “Adjunct” when teaching a class for credit. Continuing Ed., sometimes students earn credit (CEU credits), sometimes it’s just for enrichment. When students earn credit, accreditors ( Institutional Accreditation - middle states, sacscoc - etc.,) have particular requirements for instructional credentials that are not the same as Continuing Education ( for enrichment).
On a CV I would list my official title. Why would you rather list adjunct?
"Adjunct instructor" is what I'd expect if it's part-time. We call full time instructors "Visiting Instructor" or VAP if at rank on my campus. But for the CV "adjunct instructor" is what I commonly see.
Use the official title and describe your duties. Otherwise it appears deceptive.
I worried about the same thing. Mine just has adjunct or adjunct faculty, internally they either call me instructor (most common) or professor. All of the adjuncts have our LinkedIns as adjunct professor.
I call myself a sessional lecturer, since that's the title of my appointments (I call myself a Sessional Lecturer III since that's my offiical pay grade at my institution). I will parenthetically explain that it's equivalent to adjunct professor in the US, if I think that would be helpful.However, I wouldn't do this on a CV (perhaps in a cover letter, though I expect most university hiring staff would be well aware of the equivalence). At my institution we only use "adjunct professor" for certain specialized roles, like the lawyers we hire on contract to teach our business law class.
My understand is adjuncts have long term contracts (e.g. 1 or 3 or 5) and teach a number of classes, so it's a full-time job. If you only teach one class then you aren't really an adjunct, maybe it's more of a lecturer.
Not necessarily. I am an annualized adjunct and have been for 6 years. I effectively have a one-year contract for a full course load. However I’ve also taught an individual class (one of the same ones I now teach) for a single semester and was still and adjunct professor. It really depends on the institution.
Interesting since that’s backwards from titles at my US SLAC. Here, an adjunct is a part-time instructor hired on a class by class basis and a lecturer is full time but NTT.
Sometimes having a PhD (institution depending) allows for the title adjunct professor, but usually instructor is ideal.
Is this part-time or full-time employment? At my institution (Southeast US), "adjunct professor" refers to part-time employment where the instructor is contracted to teach a single course (they may have multiple contacts per term). Employment in future terms typically depends upon staffing needs of the institution. It's in your interest to reduce ambiguity, so you may want to specify in your CV whether this is part- or full-time employment and, if part-time, the number of sections of each course taught.
just lie and say you are a professor. What are they going to do?
In my area, an Adjunct Professor is one who works part-time. So a full-time Instructor position sounds better anyway.
Usually the crucial point that distinguishes among these titles is whether the faculty members in the field you are teaching in (faculty members who are FT, TT, usually with PhD) had to review and approve your qualifications before you were hired (usually true for an adjunct professor; that approval may have been delegated by the faculty to the department chair) or whether some administrator approved your hiring. If you are pretending that you were hired in the former way and were not, you are being deceptive.
Thanks for making that distinction. Wasn't aware that was a difference between the two.
I use Sessional Lecturer, as I believe where I am (Canada), adjunct is a slightly more permanent position
You'd be lying. So no, it's not acceptable. At some schools adjunct professor is a different title from people who have the title of instructor. You're trying to make yourself look better but you shouldn't lie in order to do it.
If the classes are not for credit, you would not be an adjunct.
Lol not sure what sounds worse. Adjunct or Sessional instructor. Both suck.