Faculty vs Staff: Difference and Comparison

For a country to progress, literacy is viewed as an essential factor. Literary means a person’s ability to use his spoken and written language, to understand and use basic mathematics and numbers, is able to express his ideas, his problem solving abilities and the way he applies all these abilities into his daily life.

Key Takeaways

1. Faculty members are academic professionals who hold teaching and research positions at educational institutions, such as universities or colleges; staff members are non-academic employees who provide administrative, technical, or support services.
2. Faculty members are responsible for delivering lectures, conducting research, and advising students; staff members perform various functions, such as managing finances, maintaining facilities, or providing IT support.
3. Faculty members have advanced degrees and expertise in their academic fields; staff members may have diverse educational backgrounds and skill sets.

Faculty vs Staff

Faculty is a term used for people whose job is to deliver any kind of knowledge or information to the people. They may include teachers, doctors, researchers, etc. Staff refers to a group of people having different or the same educational backgrounds working together on the same platform.

Schools are places where students are taught from the lowest to the higher level of education. Schools employ people who not only are teachers but also many other people who help in maintaining the discipline, organizing the place and keeping it in order. 

The people who teach the students are called faculty or teachers and the ones who do other different jobs are called the administrative staff.

Comparison Table

Parameters of Comparison	Faculty	Staff
Definition	Faculty is a term used for a group of people who can teach students all the knowledge they have in institutions like schools and colleges.	Staff is a term used for a group of people who have different educational backgrounds and are employed by the institution for other jobs except teaching.
Implies	Teachers, professors in a school or college.	Employees other than teachers of a organization.
Educational requirements	The educational requirements depends on the standards and criteria set by the institution.	The educational requirements depends on the job that a person is applying for.
Work	Their job is to teach students of the standard they are appointed in.	Their job is to perform all the administration and support functions.
Examples	Teachers, professors, lecturers, researchers, etc.	Assistant, Dean, president, registrar, clerk, secretary, security crew, etc.

What is Faculty?

A group of people like teachers, lecturers and professors who can a similar job or duty that is to teach the students at a certain school or educational institution are defined as faculty. They are also called the academic staff of an institute.

In other words, in a education facility, faculty is the teaching staff.  Each member of a faculty has different specializations in different subjects as each member teaches different subjects to different classes.

These are people who share their knowledge with the students in the institute and also research on it. Faculty members also have different ranks. 

The first academic rank is teachers then professors then doctors of the field of study they specialised in. Their role in an educational institution is very important.

The faculty members may or may not have regular working hours but the members which have distinguished jobs have higher salaries and also have many benefits in addition to the salary.

What is Staff?

A group of people who work in a institute who perform administrative functions are defined as staff. The staff people include accountants, assistants, counsellors, secretary, office boy, security crew, clerk, registrar, dean, etc.

It also includes the people who help in the maintenance and other works in the institute. The people of staff in a educational institute have different educational backgrounds and responsibilities.

The highest level of responsibility is the administration. These people are responsible for the management of the whole establishment. 

To help these members, a group of people are employed as junior staff that follow the orders given by the higher ups to make the working of the institute more efficient and make it more easy to manage. The working hours of staff members is more regular in comparison to the faculty members.

In general, the staff members are the first to arrive at the institute.

Main Differences Between Faculty and Staff

1. Faculty is a term used for a group of people who can teach the knowledge they have to the students in institutions like schools and colleges whereas Staff is a term used for a group of people who have different educational backgrounds and are employed by the institution for other jobs except teaching.
2. The educational requirements for a faculty member depends on the standards and criteria set by the institution while the educational requirements for a staff member depends on the level of job that a person is applying for.
3. The job of a faculty member is to teach students of the standard or class they are appointed in whereas the job of a staff member is to perform all the administration and support functions they are appointed for.
4. The term faculty implies the teaches or professors in schools or colleges whereas the term staff impiles all the other employees other than teachers in an institution.
5. Examples of faculty members are lecturers, researchers, teachers, professors, etc while examples of staff members are secretary, security crew, registrar, clerk, dean, assistant, president, etc.

References

1. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/434114/summary
2. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10665680303501

Last Updated : 11 June, 2023