Where do college professors get their money from?

Asked by: Kayla Carroll  |  Last update: January 1, 2026
Score: 4.6/5 (23 votes)

A professor's salary can be increased by money earned through grants, published articles or books, summer teaching, sabbaticals to work with private or public organizations, overtime, and incentive payments. There also are annual raises which can impact pay especially for tenured professors.

Where do college professors' salaries come from?

The sources can include salary derived from external research funds. For some faculty this added income is received as summer salary. For research faculty, it is often expected that a substantial portion of the gross salary is to be funded by external grants.

Are college professors paid by the government?

In the US, the answer to your question depends on whether the institution is a private or public / state university. Salaries in private schools are not paid by the government.

Do professors get paid by the class?

Professors get paid exactly their salary regardless of how many classes they teach, how many students are in the classes, how many students they advise, how many theses and dissertations they supervise, how many committees they're on, etc.

Can a professor make 200k a year?

Professors in top-paying fields like law and business or at prestigious universities can earn $200,000 or more annually.

How Much Money Do College Professors Make?

18 related questions found

Who is the highest paid professor?

10 of the Highest-Paid Professors in the U.S.
  • David Silvers, Columbia University.
  • Dean Takahashi, Yale University.
  • Khalil M. Tabsh, UCLA.
  • Dan J. Laughhunn, Duke University.
  • William E. Fruhan, Harvard.
  • Mark D. Rosenbaum, University of Michigan.
  • William Friedman, University of Florida.
  • J. Michael Davis, University of Michigan.

How much is professor at Harvard paid?

Average Harvard University Professor yearly pay in the United States is approximately $116,227, which is 16% above the national average. Salary information comes from 23 data points collected directly from employees, users, and past and present job advertisements on Indeed in the past 36 months.

Are professors paid better than teachers?

Professors usually earn more than teachers, with an average salary of $79,000 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Salaries vary based on field of study, rank and title within a professor's department, private vs. public institution, and prestige of the institution.

How many hours a day do professors work?

A full-time instructor can expect to teach 40-50 hours at a minimum, Monday through Friday, with workloads that can range in ten-hour time blocks from 7 a.m. through 9 p.m., depending on the institution. Some schools also offer Saturday options for certain in-demand or rare courses.

Which subject professor has the highest salary?

  • Healthcare - ₹0.1 Lakhs to 90.0 Lakhs per year.
  • Engineering & Construction - ₹0.4 Lakhs to 96.0 Lakhs per year.
  • EdTech - ₹0.3 Lakhs to 100.0 Lakhs per year.
  • Education & Training - ₹0.1 Lakhs to 432.0 Lakhs per year.
  • Financial Services - ₹0.1 Lakhs to 60.0 Lakhs per year.

What benefits do college professors get?

The two most common benefits for faculty are retirement benefits and health insurance benefits. Other benefits that are less common include tuition benefits for the employee and their family members, group life insurance plans, and so on.

Can you be a professor without teaching?

In the US, professors do a mix of teaching and research. At some large universities and medical schools, you may find "research professors" who have little or no teaching responsibilities.

What states pay college professors the most?

However, according to recent data, if you're looking at states overall, the top-paying U.S. states for postsecondary teachers broadly are California, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. In these states, the average postsecondary teacher's salary tends to be well above the national average.

What schools do most professors come from?

One in eight US-trained tenure-track faculty members got their PhDs from just five elite universities: the University of California, Berkeley; Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts; the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor; Stanford University in California; and the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Is a college professor a full-time job?

Typically, full-time faculty members teach 3-5 classes per semester and 35 hours per week is considered full-time. In addition, full-time faculty work only 40 weeks per year (or 10 months) with opportunities to teach during Winter and Summer sessions for extra income.

Do professors get summers off?

Myth 3: Professors Get Summers Off

College students often only interact with professors during the fall and spring semesters. But the reality is that professors rarely take long breaks from academia. For many tenure-track professors, teaching represents less than half their workload.

What does a professor do all day?

A Day in the Life of a Professor. College professors organize and conduct the functions of higher education. They engage in a variety of activities, from running laboratory experiments and supervising graduate student research to conducting large undergraduate lectures and writing textbooks.

Do professors have good work-life balance?

Though professors have flexibility in their roles regarding scheduling, they can face challenges with their work-life balance as they may work long hours to accommodate their various responsibilities.

Do you need a PhD to be a professor?

Many two-year schools only require instructors to have their master's degree for teaching introductory courses, while some four-year institutions accept these types of instructors on a part-time basis. However, most four-year institutions require a research or professional doctorate in the field you intend to teach.

Do professors make a good living?

If you do successfully get a permanent job as a professor, there is also the issue of compensation. Professors are by no means poorly paid, and they typically earn enough to live comfortably and to raise a family.

Who pays full tuition at Harvard?

Harvard costs what your family can afford. We make sure of that. If your family's income is less than $85,000, you'll pay nothing. For families who earn between $85,000 and $150,000, the expected contribution is between zero and ten percent of your annual income.

What does an Ivy League Professor make?

Average salary for full-time instructional staff at Ivy League schools 2022-23. In the academic year of 2022-2023, full-time instructional staff at Harvard University had an average salary of 202,873 U.S. dollars. Princeton University offered the highest average salary in that year, at 203,047 U.S. dollars.

What is the salary of the president of Harvard University?

Alan M. Garber already had one of the most wide-ranging and powerful roles at the university — he was in the room for many of the institution's most pivotal moments. For this, Garber was paid about $946,000 in salary from the university for the 2021-2022 academic year alone, recent Harvard tax filings show.