What disciplines are in highest demand, or would you have the most opportunities to teach in, if you'd like to be a full-time online adjunct? I would think business, nursing, and education would be near the top. Any insights?
Agree on nursing, but education is a terrible choice, actually. From the perspective of institutions that hire adjuncts, EdD holders are a dime a dozen. For business it depends. Those who can teach finance, accounting, and statistics are harder for them to find. Marketing and management, not so much.
Indeed! And many schools set the minimum for teaching education courses as a masters with experience. That's pretty much about 50% of all teachers in the country. Throw doctoral holders into that and it's just an overflowing pot. -Matt
CJ has more openings than applicants. Schools would like to start only hiring those with PhDs in criminology or CJ, but they still have to rely on those with sociology degrees.
I wish there were more options for online PhDs in Criminal Justice... I am about to complete my Doctorate in Management with a concentration in Homeland Security. I am hoping that that along with 25 years law enforcement will assist me in getting some of those teaching positions...
While CJ may be a little more flexible than many other fields in what kind of degrees can qualify for teaching, the field is becoming more exclusive. A PhD in criminology or criminal justice is strongly preferred. A person with a PhD in sociology is the second choice when there aren't enough applicants with CJ/criminology degrees. A JD is unacceptable for most tenure-track positions. I haven't really tried to gauge if a JD is acceptable for online positions that require a doctorate. Most of the jobs I see listing a JD as acceptable are for undergraduate programs. From what I have seen, the CJ professors without sociology or CJ/criminology degrees tend to be older. They were hired during a time when doctorates in CJ/criminology were rare and the field was more interdisciplinary. I have a masters in security studies, so I was looking for online, adjunct positions in homeland security and national security studies. I was surprised to see there weren't many jobs out there considering that these programs are becoming increasingly popular. I also didn't get any interviews for any of the online and adjunct openings in CJ that I applied to. I was eventually hired to teach at in a certificate/associates program in CJ at a nationally accredited school based on my work experience. Currently, I'm working on a PhD in CJ and am expecting a lot more job opportunities. So far, all of my program's graduates have done very well in the job market. When my program was looking for a new tenure track professor, they had to move fast on making a decision. By the time they started calling in people for interviews, half of the applicants already found jobs elsewhere. It's ridiculous how many colleges are starting up new CJ programs, especially considering that more than 90% of law enforcement and corrections jobs do not require a degree. Colleges know that CJ programs will bring a lot of new students (money); they don't seem to care or know that most of their graduates will be underemployed.
I am in the sub field of forensics. With the increased courses and degrees offered in forensics, one would think as with CJ, that there is a higher demand for educators. No such luck.
Homeland security (HS) and forensics are both niche markets in CJ, so if a person can land a position teaching those courses, they are more likely to retain those jobs, assuming other factors are favorable, such as performance. Ever since 9/11, a lot of institutions are now offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in HS, but realistically, how big is the job market for employment in HS? HS should probably remain a sub-discipline of CJ. Just look at the evolutionary name-game of CJ: - sociology - police science - administration of justice - justice administration - criminology - criminal justice - criminal justice administration - homeland security My doctorate has a CJ specialization, but I have: - limited collegiate credits in HS (not equal to 18 graduate-level credits) - no field experience in HS (vocational) - over 20 years of traditional experience in law enforcement (vocational) - and extensive state and federal training in HS (vocational). I'm now retired from law enforcement and am teaching CJ and I have been tasked with teaching HS at the collegiate level. I'm able to provide an excellent HS curriculum, due to having received so much state and federal vocational HS training, but nonetheless, I do not have a specific college degree in HS. At the collegiate level, all this HS stuff is still evolving, but now the U.S. is starting to experience a lot of HS graduates with bachelors and masters degrees. HS is a narrow employment field, so it will be interesting to see what happens with the collegiate discipline. I believe that the feds wanted HS as a specific degree field to help combat terrorism, but IMO it is still just a sub-discipline of CJ.
There are even less jobs asking for homeland security degrees. In the past couple of years, I've probably only seen one or two jobs ads in my metro at all levels of government specifically list a degree in homeland security as a requirement or preference. I've noticed that many people think they should get a degree in homeland security if they want to work in intelligence. Now, I've seen several ads ask for national security degrees, but this is not homeland security. National security is really just a sub-field of international relations. It still annoys me to this day that Angelo State University combined security studies with CJ to form a department. The political science department would have been more appropriate. As a matter of fact, the official title of some of the security studies professors was "professor of political science." There was no overlap between the CJ and homeland security professors; however, those with CJ degrees were teaching border and homeland security. I still looked for homeland security jobs with my security studies degree anyway since my program covered terrorism. Homeland security is often paired with emergency management. I haven't seen many openings for that either. When I looked at Sam Houston State University's CJ faculty, I noticed they had professors with chemistry and anthropology degrees teaching forensics.
I teach emergency management and there never seems to be a shortage for qualified EM instructors. Homeland Security is a large program at AMU, but I frequently have students in my classes who have switched over from HS into EM because the of the lack of job opportunities in HS for those with no experience. From my understanding in talking with my HS colleagues, the vast majority of those completing HS degrees already work in the field and are pursuing advancement.