Separate and Distinct: A Comparison of Scholarly Productivity, Teaching Load, and Compensation of Chiropractic Teaching Faculty to Other Sectors of Higher Education

Abstract

Background: Faculty scholarship, teaching load, and compensation can be indicators of institutional health and can impact curricular quality. Periodic data are published by the US Department of Education for all sectors of higher education, but do not list chiropractic colleges as a separate category. Objective: To report on the scholarly output, teaching load, and compensation of the full-time faculty at one chiropractic college, and to compare those data to national and local norms. Methods: Data on chiropractic faculty were collected from within the institution. External data were collected from the US Department of Education and US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Results: The chiropractic faculty assessed create about one-tenth the scholarly output, carried 2.7 times the course load of external doctoral faculty and 1.4 times the course load typical of 2-year (community) college faculty, received two-thirds the salary typical for all segments of education, and one-half the typical retirement benefits. Conclusion: Results are suggestive of significant deficiencies within chiropractic education that pose risk to the future of the profession. (The Journal of Chiropractic Education 21(1): 1–11, 2007)