CCollegeMatcher

Communications Teachers, Postsecondary

US occupation · SOC 25-1122

Job titles people report: Communication Arts Professor, Communication Instructor, Communication Lecturer, Communication Professor, Communication Skills Instructor, Communication Studies Professor, Journalism Professor, Mass Communications Professor, Speech Instructor, Speech Professor

Pay and outlook

Median annual wage, May 2025
$78,580
Half earn more, half earn less
Middle half earn
$61,250 – $102,450
25th to 75th percentile
People employed, May 2025
29,420
Wage and salary jobs (OEWS)
Projected change, 2025–35
+2.1%
Growing slower than all jobs (0% to under 3.5%)
Openings a year (projected)
2,400
New jobs plus replacing people who leave
Typical education to enter
Doctoral or professional degree
BLS
  • All figures are for the United States as a whole. Pay varies a lot by state and city.
  • Wages are for everyone working in the occupation in May 2025, at every career stage. They are not starting salaries or figures for new graduates.
  • Growth and openings are BLS projections for 2025–35. They are estimates, not promises. Openings include jobs that open up when people retire or change occupation, not just new jobs.

What the work involves

Teach courses in communications, such as organizational communications, public relations, radio/television broadcasting, and journalism. Includes both teachers primarily engaged in teaching and those who do a combination of teaching and research.

Main tasks

  • Evaluate and grade students' class work, assignments, and papers.
  • Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, and handouts.
  • Initiate, facilitate, and moderate classroom discussions.
  • Compile, administer, and grade examinations, or assign this work to others.
  • Conduct research in a particular field of knowledge and publish findings in professional journals, books, or electronic media.
  • Prepare and deliver lectures to undergraduate or graduate students on topics such as public speaking, media criticism, and oral traditions.
  • Keep abreast of developments and technological advances in the communication field by reading current literature, talking with colleagues, and participating in professional conferences.
  • Maintain student attendance records, grades, and other required records.

Description and tasks from the O*NET® 31.0 Database.

Getting in

Typical education to enter (BLS)
Doctoral or professional degree
O*NET Job Zone 5
Extensive preparation
Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).

Interests it suits

The strongest of the six O*NET interest types for this occupation, highest first. The short glosses are ours.

  • Social: helping, teaching and caring for people
  • Investigative: research, analysis and solving problems with ideas
  • Artistic: creating, designing and self-expression

Fields of study that lead here

From the federal CIP–SOC crosswalk, which links 23 programmes to this occupation. A link means the programme prepares people for this kind of work. It doesn't mean the programme is required, or that it's the only route.

Business

  • Business/Corporate Communications, General
  • Business/Corporate Communications, Other

Find colleges that fit you with our matcher: choose Business at the Major step.

Where many students take business

Ordered by the field's share of degrees awarded times undergraduate enrolment (College Scorecard), among colleges with at least 1,000 undergraduates. Online universities are included. It's a rough measure of how big the programme is. It says nothing about quality. The share counts every programme in the field, not only the ones linked to this career.

Communications & Media

  • Communication, General
  • Speech Communication and Rhetoric
  • Mass Communication/Media Studies
  • Journalism
  • Broadcast Journalism
  • Business and Economic Journalism
  • Cultural Journalism
  • Science/Health/Environmental Journalism
12 more programmes
  • Journalism, Other
  • Radio and Television
  • Digital Communication and Media/Multimedia
  • Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication
  • Public Relations/Image Management
  • Advertising
  • Political Communication
  • Health Communication
  • Sports Communication
  • International and Intercultural Communication
  • Technical and Scientific Communication
  • Communication, Journalism, and Related Programs, Other

Find colleges that fit you with our matcher: choose Communications & Media at the Major step.

Where many students take communications & media

Ordered by the field's share of degrees awarded times undergraduate enrolment (College Scorecard), among colleges with at least 1,000 undergraduates. Online universities are included. It's a rough measure of how big the programme is. It says nothing about quality. The share counts every programme in the field, not only the ones linked to this career.

Visual & Performing Arts

  • Documentary Production

Find colleges that fit you with our matcher: choose Visual & Performing Arts at the Major step.

Where many students take visual & performing arts

Ordered by the field's share of degrees awarded times undergraduate enrolment (College Scorecard), among colleges with at least 1,000 undergraduates. Online universities are included. It's a rough measure of how big the programme is. It says nothing about quality. The share counts every programme in the field, not only the ones linked to this career.

Related careers

Related occupations from the O*NET database, in its order.

← All careers

Sources

This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. CollegeMatcher has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET 31.0 Database · CC BY 4.0

Changes: we show the core tasks in the O*NET database with the highest importance ratings (up to eight, in that order), the top three O*NET interest types by score, and shortened Job Zone names. Titles, descriptions and task text are unchanged.

Wages: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. Projections, typical entry education and training: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2025–35. Fields of study: NCES and BLS CIP 2020–SOC 2018 Crosswalk. All public domain. OEWS · Employment Projections · CIP–SOC crosswalk