You mean I get paid to talk about finance?

One of my previous colleagues (and nominally, bosses) used to call this being a "professional sessional", since here in Australia the kind of contract work you're talking about is called "sessional" work because you get a contract for a single semester (session). Anyway, I can tell you from experience that I've met many professional sessionals over the years. Some of them are aspiring PhD-grads (or students), others just seem to enjoy doing it year after year, but all of them seem able to make a living from doing it. In fact, I'd even disagree with the assumption above that sessional's make less money. Here in Australia it's not uncommon to take a pay cut when you move from being a sessional (with 35 - 40 contact hours a week @ ~$100 p/hr) to a full-time staff member (working 37.5hrs @ closer to $50 p/hr), so there's a plus for you! Apart from that, most of what everyone else says is true. Don't expect much respect as a sessional staffmember, and don't expect any great career movement in the job. If you want to be a real academic then you'll probably need a PhD and some serious time looking for a job, but as I said it's entirely possible to be a professional sessional if that's what you want, just know the limitations.

The info on your arrangement is fascinating - I forget how different it is in the UK. Teaching/lecturing with no marking, you're living the dream. It does sound like your outside the classroom time commitment will be much lower than I was imagining - good! Also I should update to say that my US adjunct pay numbers are just from my own acquaintance, and I've gotten a me-mail message from someone who has had much higher pay (more than twice my max!) as an adjunct in the US. (In case anyone in future is using this thread to decide about adjuncting in the US, the take-home message is, check the particulars of your target institution.)

Agreed ranglin, very interesting comments from everyone. Since the money side is so variable if this helps any other UK based reader / prospective lecturer, I specified three discrete points of £36, £55 and £70. Teaching undergraduates pays £36 / hour, with my out of office obligation restricted to tutoring one mock final exam. I'm currently teaching about 100 students divided into two, back to back lectures on the same day. The final for these students is highly standardised, and we (those teaching Finance that is) have precisely zero input into the exam. This course has been taught for decades, and they already have an extensive question bank so admin mixes it up to create each year's final exam. Scoring is done by another group therefore I have no other contractually mandated obligation at this University but on my own I administer a weekly, ten question quiz covering the previous weeks material, which typically runs between 40 to 80 pages of reading. I started the weekly quiz as I found out nobody was otherwise doing the reading to an adequate level. This is my second term teaching so PowerPoints & handouts are already done, and since this is Undergrad prep time is minimal. The two other data points are for teaching at the Masters level. At the lower end I'm lecturing once a week, no quizzes just a single final exam at end of term. I have to first mark the final myself, and since this is a quantitative class either they've gotten it right (which means low effort for myself) or wrong (more effort for me, 'cause I'm big on handing out partial credit where ever I can); figure about one hour per exam averaged across an entire class of 30 or so students. I've then got a brief meet up with the second marker to agree a final score, before the external examiner reviews. As this is my fourth term teaching there I've already got the PowerPoints & handouts done, except for topical market events which I tend to read and write about anyhow (so no extra effort). Prep time for each lecture is maybe thirty minutes, mostly to review models as this is a very much "hand on", quantitative class. The higher data point is for tutoring Masters dissertations; we're paid nine hours for each student and required to meet at least four times. This pays more as the University doesn't have too many people who are willing to supervise in these research areas. Part of the term I keep regular office hours at this University so students know when and were to find me. Most weeks nobody shows up so I while away time using my Bloomberg terminal, and other times I'll see three or four students in a row. I generally arrange my schedule to fit it all into a three day week, with two of the Universities a ten minute walk from each other, the third about five minutes away on The Tube. Titles at my three posts: Sessional Lecturer, Visiting Lecturer, Adjunct Professor. Well, as long as the cheques clear I could give a toss about title.

Forktine, could be; my numbers are based on about 5 institutions where I know the rate, but they're a range from small, private liberal arts to giant state school.

For undergrad humanities courses at reputable US colleges and universities, adjuncts (what are called sessional lecturers in Canada and Aus, not sure about UK) get paid between $1000-$3000 per one-semester course, with no benefits (so no health insurance). In my experience there is a much broader spread, even just for undergrad humanities courses, with some places paying more than $6000/course, and some places I've heard of barely paying minimum wages. And that spread gets much, much larger when you consider other forms of adjuncting -- someone brought in to teach a full-load of specialized courses is probably going to be salaried at a fairly nice level.

LobsterMitten: Even given your correction for the math, I can see an obvious difference here. While sessional staff here also don't get paid explicitly for marking and prep-time (just contact hours, unless you've got a big tutorial group) the rate seems significantly better. Just to give some perspective, the institution I work at pays about $120 p/hr for lectures and about $80 p/hr for tutorials (more for doctoral qualified academics). For a typical 2+2 class (2hr lecture, 2hr tutorial), that still works out at $400 a week for 12 or 13 weeks. Even taking into account the exchange rate between Australia and the US, this seems like a much higher rate than your poor adjuncts, especially considering that some people consider the rates my institution pays to be on the low side! Of course, all you fellows get to call yourself professors, which I kind of envy a little! Anyway, getting a bit off-topic here, but hopefully still interesting for future thread viewers! :)

No, I think I screwed up the math there. Counted far too many hours marking. I think the hourly wage based on my fake numbers would be closer to $16/hr.

not sure about US pay standards Just for fun, a quick and dirty summary with approximate numbers: For undergrad humanities courses at reputable US colleges and universities, adjuncts (what are called sessional lecturers in Canada and Aus, not sure about UK) get paid between $1000-$3000 per one-semester course, with no benefits (so no health insurance). Figuring the hourly rate there.... How many hours is a course? Suppose three classroom hours a week, one office hour, and absolutely bare-bones prep and marking (call it 1 hr of prep for each 1 hr in class, and 20 minutes to mark a 5 pg paper, x 3 in the course, x 25 students = 125 hrs marking for the semester). Then you get about 8.9 hrs marking/week. So about 16 hrs/wk for, say, 14 week semester = 224 hrs. So the hourly wage for an adjunct making $2K for a course, assuming they have only 25 students and put in most minimal out-of-classroom time, is around $9/hr. That number will fluctuate depending on how many students, how many assignments and how labor-intensive the prep and marking is. The incentive to give multiple choice bubble-sheet tests is obvious. And IME to have only 1 hr of prep before a class is something you can typically only do for a very basic course or later in your career once you've already taught the material a few times. A typical tenured or tenure-track faculty member will teach anywhere from 2 to 4 courses a semester, and make somewhere from $40K to $70K/yr (or higher for senior or prestigious people -- probably much more for econ people than philosophers!). But adjuncts who are working full time must take on 5 a semester to make even $20K/yr, again with no benefits or job security, and often they must travel to multiple institutions, since a single school is unlikely to have that many courses they want to farm out - so the commuting costs are higher, as you have to go to multiple job sites in a day.

Wow thanks everyone! I think I do see a way forward, appreciate the feedback and tips. But just to clarify a few points and close this (very helpful to me query) off. I was sorta surprised to see low pay being brought up as an issue; not sure about US pay standards but the range I've experienced to date in the UK market (£36 to £70 per hour gross, net about runs between 71% to 90% depending on how structured i.e., PAYG employee or limited company) is fine by me. Full time permanent contract would indeed represent a pay cut that I'd rather not entertain. In fact the University I've been associated with since 2003 has already put this on the table, so it is an option but then I'm fully in the system and exposed to the TT / non TT and academic infighting crap. I'm looking for a way to dodge that bullshit. And I apologise my query was too long - I'm teaching and have taught almost exclusively Masters level students, and I'm not sure having been through the material with second & third year undergrads I'm interested in the UK equivalent of community college students, however motivated as they might be. Even second and third year finance (201/301 in US parlance) is just a little boring to repeat year in and year out. I've got interviews lined up with two other Universities for Masters level teaching and may let this one go at end of term. I've already caught the lack of respect thing and while it seems a small minority (mostly admin but some academic staff) behave that way, at least with the Universities I'm currently teaching at. That isn't a show stopper for me since there are egotistical jerks everywhere, some fields seem to have far more (banking I'm looking back at you) and if shitting on folks is their trip, then so be it. a) be a banker traveling around the world -- well, after too many years flying 200K+ miles per year, I've had enough. Travel, even Business or First Class travel, in excess is much overrated. If anyone is aspiring to this lifestyle I'd advise be careful what you wish for; sometimes its easier to get in than out. If the academic world again draws you from your vocation, you can pursue a terminal degree, or simply lecture. Both options will, essentially, always be on the table. -- this is seriously valuable advise, and I thank you. Has really altered my perspective somewhat - thanks. So if teaching is what you enjoy, there are a number of ways to pursue that. -- yes, I genuinely enjoy it, in some ways much more so than banking. Don't expect much respect as a sessional staffmember, and don't expect any great career movement in the job. This is great, exactly what I'm looking for. Just to put my motivation on the table - I've got a small business here in London and we've planned for another to enter start up Q1 2010, so at this point in my life I'm looking more for options that maximise free time while minimising work time. Thanks again everyone!