The retention of quality faculty is an important factor in the university’s mission to be the preeminent institution of higher education in the region. The university strives to retain faculty by several means; these include salary, benefits package and campus life. Table 6.4 shows the retention rate for faculty by the semester of hiring.
6.5.1
Salaries
Tables 6.5 through 6.10 show how salaries at AUS have Professor $90,061 changed over the past years relative to AAUP average Associate Professor $79,713 salaries for Category IIA (Master’s) institutions For this Assistant Professor $63,657 evaluation only the salaries of full-time AUS faculty Instructor $46,232 whose major regular assignment (at least 50 percent) is All Combined $70,250 instruction. These data demonstrate that progress has been made at all professorial ranks, especially during the Table 6.5 AUS Faculty Average past two years. In the most recent two years, particular Annual Salary in US$ by Rank, 2007–2008 progress has been made with regard to the salaries of professors and associate professors. This was accomplished, in part, by using a portion of the 2007–2008 salary increase pool to assign an across-the-board dollar amount to all professors and associate professors. In contrast, ground was lost at the instructor rank between 2006–2007 and 2007–2008 despite providing some funds to that rank. For 2008–2009, salary allocations include directing a portion of the increase toward those with salaries below $50,000. That will affect a few assistant professors, but primarily instructors. It also should be borne in mind that there is currently no income tax in the UAE, and all US citizens receive the direct financial benefit of an approximately $85,000 salary exclusion allowance upon which no US income tax is imposed. Therefore, a large portion of the salary of most faculty who are US citizens and Green Card holders is tax-free income.
Maximum 75th percentile Median 25th percentile Minimum
$117,303 $82,456 $72,975 $53,168 $36,000
Table 6.6 Distribution of Faculty Salary, 2007–2008
Comparison between faculty salaries at AUS and those reported by AAUP are useful, but do not provide information about the situation in the Gulf region. Faculty and administrators alike receive only anecdotal information about salaries offered to potential faculty by universities in the region—as much as 50 percent higher than paid by AUS. On the other hand, there are universities in the region from which AUS has been able to recruit faculty with ease. Although at this point only two AUS faculty have been lost to much higher paying institutions, it would be AAUP AUS very desirable to have information about the Professor $91,197 $84,667 salaries of faculty elsewhere in the Middle East. Associate Professor $69,363 $73,564 $56,313 $60,868 The data are, however, not available; none of Assistant Professor $45,164 $45,944 these countries has reporting requirements from Instructor $69,062 $67,080 which data are made public. In addition, All Combined institutions have no history of sharing Table 6.7 Comparison of AAUP and AUS information and are unlikely to begin doing so, Average Faculty Salaries, 2006–2007 a factor that stems from the fact that regional 62 …. AUS Self-Study Report 2008