The Rise of Adjuncts: The IELTS Reading section often includes passages that explore contemporary academic, social, or scientific issues. The Rise of Adjuncts is one such academic-style passage that presents an important trend in higher education— the increasing reliance on adjunct professors instead of tenured faculty. This topic is highly relevant for IELTS candidates, as it tests a range of reading skills, including identifying main ideas, matching headings, understanding factual information, and interpreting implications. In this article, you will find sample IELTS Reading Test questions with correct answers and clear explanations to help you understand the passage in depth and improve your test performance.
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The Rise of Adjuncts Passage
The Rise of Adjuncts
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Academia is often thought of as an occupation with immense job security. The traditional image is one of a middle-aged professor with his own office, his car park, and a cozy job with a middle-class salary that remains unaffected by upturns and downturns in the ‘real’ business economy. But in the United States today only a minority of professors have anything resembling this lifestyle. For the vast majority, the actual conditions of their employment are very different. They scrape by with low pay, short-term contracts, and few or no employee benefits. Many even qualify for food stamps. This shift in employment conditions has far-reaching consequences not only for academics, but also for students and the quality of education they receive, and for academic freedom more generally.
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Originally, almost all professors were in full-time positions and employed under a system known as ‘life tenure’. Tenure all but guarantees professors a well-paid job until retirement; their position can only be terminated with just cause’. Proving just cause is a lengthy, difficult process that happens rarely — only around 50 of 280,000 tenured professors lose their status every year. The purpose of tenure is to provide shelter for researchers who dissent from dominant opinions, disagree with the authorities of universities, donors, or political authorities, or choose to research topics that may have social importance but seem unimportant or unnecessary to others. In this way, it seeks to keep intellectual pursuits pure rather than at the whim of external interests. Without tenure, professors might prefer uncontroversial research on popular topics, and draw dishonest conclusions in a bid to please authorities and keep their jobs.
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In an era of perpetual cost-cutting and budget-tightening, however, guaranteeing large numbers of academics lifetime employment with related benefits is increasingly untenable. The proportion of university teachers with tenure has slid from 75 percent in 1960 to just 27 percent today. Rising in their place are ‘professor adjuncts’. Adjuncts are temporary, part-time employees who were initially brought in only occasionally as special guest lecturers or to provide cover for tenured professors on parental or research leave. Adjuncts teach individual classes and have no research or administrative responsibilities, and their contracts typically run for a single semester, after which they might be renewed. Over the last few decades, their use has been extended beyond these temporary exigencies, and adjuncts have become a permanent, institutionalized aspect of academic employment. This has created several problems for adjunct professors, who are considered by some to make up a growing ‘academic underclass’. Firstly, because contracts are always temporary, adjuncts rarely qualify for insurance and health benefits, such as time off with remuneration for illness, in the same way as tenured professors. Secondly, recompense for adjuncts is often very low. In order to make a living from their work, adjuncts typically need to win contracts with multiple universities. As a consequence of this high teaching workload—and the lack of paid research opportunities—adjuncts tend to find it hard to publish articles and win research grants, therefore making promotion increasingly unlikely with every year that passes (academic promotion is governed by what is known as a ‘publish or perish’ culture).
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The culture of using adjuncts also has flow-on effects on the quality of teaching that students receive. Because adjuncts come in only for classes, they do not have offices or office hours on campus, and usually do not have the time to meet up with students in small groups or for one-on-one sessions. The disengagement between students and teachers can make it difficult for struggling students to find guidance outside of lectures. Adjuncts are also less tied to the universities they teach at and fail to accumulate reputations over time in the same way as full-time faculty. Also, since they are not as personally invested in the life and identity of a single institution, they are often not as motivated as permanent teaching staff. Finally, it has been reported that many adjuncts practice grade inflation—raising grades higher than deserved—to maintain their job security by keeping students pleased. These outcomes are not because adjuncts are malfeasants or incompetent professors, but rather because of the employment conditions they must work under, and which need to be sought to overcome.
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The rising use of adjunct professors also has implications for the research and pedagogical autonomy of teachers. Because adjuncts do not have tenure, they can be fired with the simplest of explanations. Furthermore, administrators who do not want to give any reason at all can choose to simply not renew an adjunct’s contract after the semester finishes. As such, there is immense pressure on adjuncts to teach in ways that please those who employ them. While only 50 tenured professors lose their jobs in the USA every year, reports emerge every day about adjuncts who have been fired or not had contracts renewed after disputes with faculty or administrators over course design, teaching, or employment issues. As the pool of growing numbers of adjuncts competes desperately for the shrinking amount of tenure-track positions, intellectual conformity can grow as candidates position themselves as safe, mainstream choices. As theoretical physicist Lee Smolin has written, “…it is practically career suicide for young theoretical physicists not to join the field of string theory…” The rising use of adjunct professors is mainly rooted in a need for cost efficiency in education, but it has more diffuse effects on the well-being of academic professionals and students, the quality of the education they receive, and academic freedom in general. Everyone concerned about more than the fiscal ‘bottom line’ needs to follow this trend carefully.
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IELTS Reading Questions and Answers
Below are sample IELTS Reading questions based on the passage "The Rise of Adjuncts." These include matching headings, True/False/Not Given, and multiple-choice question types.
Questions 1–4: Matching Headings
Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number (i–viii) in boxes 1–4.
List of Headings
i. The origins of tenure in academic employment
ii. Negative consequences for research and intellectual freedom
iii. How universities benefit financially from adjuncts
iv. The traditional image of a professor
v. Growing dependence on short-term contracts
vi. Poor communication between students and adjuncts
vii. Problems adjunct professors face
viii. Future prospects for full-time positions
1. Paragraph A → iv
2. Paragraph B → i
3. Paragraph C → v
4. Paragraph F → ii
Questions 5–9: True / False / Not Given
Do the following statements agree with the information in the passage?
Write True, False, or Not Given.
5. Most university professors in the US today are tenured. → False
6. Adjunct professors usually teach more than ten courses per year. → Not Given
7. Adjuncts are often paid less and receive fewer benefits than full-time staff. → True
8. Adjunct professors are often hired to cover for full-time professors on leave. → True
9. Students prefer to be taught by adjuncts rather than tenured professors. → Not Given
Questions 10–13: Multiple Choice
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
10. What was the original purpose of tenure in academic jobs?
A. To reduce university expenses
B. To limit contract renewals
C. To protect academic freedom
D. To avoid hiring adjuncts
→ C. To protect academic freedom
11. Why has the use of adjunct professors increased?
A. Because they are more qualified
B. Because tenured professors refused to teach
C. Because universities want to improve quality
D. Because of budget cuts and financial pressures
→ D. Because of budget cuts and financial pressures
12. What is one consequence of hiring more adjuncts?
A. Students are more involved in research
B. Academic freedom is more protected
C. There is less continuity in teaching
D. Professors retire earlier
→ C. There is less continuity in teaching
13. What is Lee Smolin’s concern about academia?
A. The lack of funding for physics research
B. The future of young physicists in academia
C. The increase in course enrolment
D. The popularity of adjunct positions
→ B. The future of young physicists in academia
Answer Explanations
1. Paragraph A → iv. The traditional image of a professor
This paragraph contrasts the popular image of secure, well-paid academic life with the current reality in the US, which fits heading iv best.
2. Paragraph B → i. The origins of tenure in academic employment
It explains what tenure is and why it was introduced, matching heading i.
3. Paragraph C → v. Growing dependence on short-term contracts
The paragraph shows how universities now depend more on part-time adjuncts instead of tenured staff, matching heading v.
4. Paragraph F → ii. Negative consequences for research and intellectual freedom
Discusses how adjuncts lack protection to explore controversial topics and can be easily dismissed, directly supporting heading ii.
5. False
The passage clearly states that only a small minority are tenured today.
6. Not Given
The passage mentions contracts per semester but does not specify how many courses adjuncts typically teach.
7. True
It clearly states that adjuncts earn less and receive fewer or no benefits.
8. True
Adjuncts were initially hired as temporary replacements for full-time staff on leave.
9. Not Given
The text does not mention student preferences regarding adjuncts versus tenured professors.
10. C
The passage explicitly states tenure protects academic freedom and dissent.
11. D
Universities turn to adjuncts to reduce costs amid financial pressures.
12. C
Short-term contracts mean students cannot build long-term academic relationships.
13. B
Smolin says young physicists avoid theoretical fields due to insecure academic career paths.
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