Colleges and universities struggling with dwindling budgets and smaller endowments are increasingly turning to outsourcing faculty in order to cut costs.

“Colleges and universities have effectively been outsourcing instruction for decades now by utilizing part-time and adjunct faculty members,” says Craig Smith, deputy director of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Higher Education Division. “However, as college costs continue to rise and as a result student debt after college becomes unmanageable, more and more students and their families are beginning to ask why increased cost is occurring at the same time as investment in direct instruction has decreased.”