When it comes to education, there are many people involved in the educational institutions that help in successfully imparting education to the students. These include both academic and non-academic workforce. In this context, you have often heard the terms faculty and staff, end number of times in your day to day life. Faculty refers to the academic staff of the institution that can be your subject teachers or other teachers of your school or college.
On the other hand, staff simply means the administrative staff of the organisation like accountants, office boy, counsellor, registrar, secretary and others. In this article excerpt, we are going to throw light on the difference between faculty and staff. Have a look.
Content: Faculty Vs Staff
Comparison Chart
Basis for Comparison | Faculty | Staff |
---|---|---|
Meaning | A group of teachers who impart education to the students in school or college is known as faculty. | Staff, indicates the entire group of people, employed by the organization. |
Implies | Educators of a school or college. | Employees of any organization. |
Working hours | Irregular | Regular |
What they do? | They perform a teaching function. | They perform administration and support functions. |
Includes | Professors, lecturers, researchers, teachers, etc. | Secretaries, assistant, dean, president, registrar, clerk etc. |
Education Requirement | As per the standards or criteria set by the institution. | Depends on designation. |
Basis of Salary | Rank | Position/Level |
Definition of Faculty
By the term faculty, we mean a body of educators, i.e. professors, or teachers, whose aim is to impart knowledge to the learners at the school, college or university. Simply put, faculty means the teaching or academic staff of an educational system, that are hired with a purpose of providing education to the students.
A faculty is a group of employees, which includes teachers, lecturers, researchers, scholars and professors of different academic ranks such as associate professor, assistant professors and so on. They are specialised in various fields of study and teach different subjects at the institution.
Definition of Staff
The word ‘staff’ has a broad meaning, as it is a collective term, that refers to all the employees working in an organisation who perform regular functions of the establishment i.e. executive, operational, clerical, logistics, sales, support, maintenance and so on.
When we talk about an educational institution, the staff consists of individuals with different educational qualifications. Further, they may be divided into two categories, i.e. academic staff and general staff. The academic staff is responsible for imparting education, i.e. faculty while the general staff includes employees of various levels –
- Top-level staff such as administrators, dean, director, president, etc.
- Middle-level staff includes those employees who perform in-office jobs and support functions like a counsellor, cashier, assistants and so on. They are also responsible for looking after admissions, security, paperwork and documents.
- Low-level staff includes watchman, servants, gardener, guards, cleaners, etc.
Key Differences Between Faculty and Staff
The fundamental differences between faculty and staff are provided below:
- The faculty is described as a group of teachers who impart education to the students in school or college. In general terms, staff implies an entire group of people, employed by the organisation.
- Faculty refers to the educators of a school or college. In contrast to staff, which refers to employees of any organisation.
- The working hours of the faculty are irregular, while regular in the case of staff.
- The faculty is responsible for performing, teaching functions in the organisation. Conversely, the staff members perform administration and supportive functions.
- Faculty may include professors of various ranks like an associate professor, assistant professor, substitute professor, lecturer, researchers, teachers and so on. As opposed to staff, which includes secretaries, assistant, dean, president, registrar, clerk, etc.
- The education requirements of faculty members are as per the standards and criteria set by the institution. On the other hand, the educational qualification of a staff member depends on his designation, i.e. the higher the designation, the higher would be their remuneration.
- The salary of a faculty member depends on his/her rank in the educational institution, whereas the salary of a staff member depends on his/her position/level in the organisation, i.e. higher level attracts higher salary.
Conclusion
Hence, with the above discussion, it is quite clear that there is a huge difference between these two terms. The scope of staff is much wider than the faculty, as the latter is included in the former. Moreover, the term faculty is confined to the education only, whereas workers of any establishment are called staff.
Ashraf Shamseldin Hussein Yahia says
difference between faculty and staff is very clear. explanation is great. this service is of great beneficial thanks for that. (Ashraf Yahia)
Winsome Reid says
Thanks for the information .However I need clarity on the two questions below.
Kerri says
Great Explanation