Difference Between Faculty and Staff

Last updated on August 5, 2017 by Surbhi S

When it comes to education, there are many people involved in the educational institutions that
help in successfully imparting education to the students. These include both academic and non-
academic workforce. In this context, you have often heard the terms faculty and staff, end
number of times in your day to day life. Faculty refers to the academic staff of the institution that
can be your subject teachers or other teachers of your school or college.

On the other hand, staff simply means the administrative staff of the organisation like
accountants, office boy, counsellor, registrar, secretary and others. In this article excerpt, we are
going to throw light on the difference between faculty and staff. Have a look.

Content: Faculty Vs Staff

1. Comparison Chart
2. Definition
3. Key Differences
4. Conclusion

Comparison Chart
 BASIS FOR
FACULTY STAFF
COMPARISON

Meaning A group of teachers who impart Staff, indicates the entire group
education to the students in school or of people, employed by the
college is known as faculty. organization.

Implies Educators of a school or college. Employees of any organization.

Working hours Irregular Regular

What they do? They perform a teaching function. They perform administration and
support functions.

Includes Professors, lecturers, researchers, Secretaries, assistant, dean,

teachers, etc. president, registrar, clerk etc.

Education As per the standards or criteria set by Depends on designation.

Requirement the institution.

Basis of Salary Rank Position/Level

Definition of Faculty

By the term faculty, we mean a body of educators, i.e. professors, or teachers, whose aim is to
impart knowledge to the learners at the school, college or university. Simply put, faculty means
the teaching or academic staff of an educational system, that are hired with a purpose of
providing education to the students.

A faculty is a group of employees, which includes teachers, lecturers, researchers, scholars and
professors of different academic ranks such as associate professor, assistant professors and so on.
They are specialised in various fields of study and teach different subjects at the institution.

Definition of Staff
The word ‘staff’ has a broad meaning, as it is a collective term, that refers to all the employees
working in an organisation who perform regular functions of the establishment i.e. executive,
operational, clerical, logistics, sales, support, maintenance and so on.

When we talk about an educational institution, the staff consists of individuals with different
educational qualifications. Further, they may be divided into two categories, i.e. academic staff
and general staff. The academic staff is responsible for imparting education, i.e. faculty while the
general staff includes employees of various levels –

 Top-level staff such as administrators, dean, director, president, etc.

 Middle-level staff includes those employees who perform in-office jobs and support
functions like a counsellor, cashier, assistants and so on. They are also responsible for
looking after admissions, security, paperwork and documents.
 Low-level staff includes watchman, servants, gardener, guards, cleaners, etc.

Key Differences Between Faculty and Staff

The fundamental differences between faculty and staff are provided below:

1. The faculty is described as a group of teachers who impart education to the students in
school or college. In general terms, staff implies an entire group of people, employed by
the organisation.
2. Faculty refers to the educators of a school or college. In contrast to staff, which refers to
employees of any organisation.
3. The working hours of the faculty are irregular, while regular in the case of staff.
4. The faculty is responsible for performing, teaching functions in the organisation.
Conversely, the staff members perform administration and supportive functions.
5. Faculty may include professors of various ranks like an associate professor, assistant
professor, substitute professor, lecturer, researchers, teachers and so on. As opposed to
staff, which includes secretaries, assistant, dean, president, registrar, clerk, etc.
6. The education requirements of faculty members are as per the standards and criteria set
by the institution. On the other hand, the educational qualification of a staff member
depends on his designation, i.e. the higher the designation, the higher would be their
remuneration.
7. The salary of a faculty member depends on his/her rank in the educational institution,
whereas the salary of a staff member depends on his/her position/level in the
organisation, i.e. higher level attracts higher salary.

Conclusion

Hence, with the above discussion, it is quite clear that there is a huge difference between these
two terms. The scope of staff is much wider than the faculty, as the latter is included in the
former. Moreover, the term faculty is confined to the education only, whereas workers of any
establishment are called staff.