Faculty vs. Staff — What's the Difference?
Edited by Tayyaba Rehman — By Fiza Rafique — Updated on September 25, 2023
"Faculty" refers to the academic teaching personnel at an educational institution, while "staff" encompasses all employees, including administrative and support roles. Both are essential for the institution's functioning.
Difference Between Faculty and Staff
Table of Contents
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Key Differences
In educational settings, the term faculty is predominantly associated with those who have a direct role in academic teaching and research. They are the professors, lecturers, and researchers who are specialized in their fields and play a pivotal role in educating students. Staff, on the other hand, has a broader scope, encompassing every individual employed by the institution, regardless of their specific duties.
Beyond the realm of teaching, faculty members might also be involved in academic research, mentoring, and curriculum development. Their primary focus is the academic growth and advancement of the institution and its students. Staff, meanwhile, includes those who handle administrative tasks, maintenance, student services, and various other non-teaching roles essential for the smooth running of the institution.
The distinction between faculty and staff becomes clearer when considering their roles in a university. The faculty would be the professors teaching courses, supervising theses, and publishing research papers. In contrast, the staff would comprise the registrars, librarians, counselors, janitors, and IT support, among others.
To further clarify, while all faculty members are part of the institution's staff (since they're employed by the university), not all staff members are part of the faculty. The faculty represents a subset of the staff, specifically those involved in academic endeavors.
Comparison Chart
Primary Role
Academic teaching and research.
All employed individuals, regardless of specific duties.
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Scope
Specific to educational roles.
Broad, including administrative and support roles.
Inclusion
A subset of the staff.
Includes everyone employed, including faculty.
Main Environment
Predominantly educational institutions.
Any organization or institution.
Main Responsibilities
Teaching, research, mentoring, and curriculum development.
Varied, depending on specific job roles.
Compare with Definitions
Faculty
A division within a university or college comprising related subjects.
She's a member of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
Staff
All the people employed by a specific organization.
The company has a staff of over 500.
Faculty
A body of persons with a specific profession or occupation.
The medical faculty held a conference.
Staff
A long stick used as an aid in walking or as a weapon.
He walked with the help of a wooden staff.
Faculty
The academic teaching personnel of an educational institution.
The faculty at the university is renowned for its research.
Staff
A group of officers assisting an officer in command of an army formation or administration headquarters.
The general and his staff reviewed the plans.
Faculty
An inherent mental or physical power
Her critical faculties
The faculty of sight
Staff
A stick or cane carried as an aid in walking or climbing.
Faculty
A group of university departments concerned with a major division of knowledge
The Faculty of Arts
The law faculty
Staff
A stout stick used as a weapon; a cudgel.
Faculty
A licence or authorization from a Church authority
The vicar introduced certain ornaments without the necessary faculty to do so
Staff
A pole on which a flag is displayed; a flagstaff.
Faculty
An inherent power or ability
The faculty of speech.
Staff
A rod or baton carried as a symbol of authority.
Faculty
A talent or natural ability for something
Has a wonderful faculty for storytelling.
Staff
Pl. staffs A rule or similar graduated stick used for testing or measuring, as in surveying.
Faculty
(used with a sing. or pl. verb) The teachers and instructors of a school or college, or of one of its divisions, especially those considered permanent, full-time employees.
Staff
A group of assistants to a manager, executive, or other person in authority.
Faculty
One of the divisions of a college or university
The faculty of law.
Staff
A group of military officers assigned to assist a commanding officer in an executive or advisory capacity.
Faculty
All of the members of a learned profession
The medical faculty.
Staff
The personnel who carry out a specific enterprise
The nursing staff of a hospital.
Faculty
Authorization granted by authority; conferred power.
Staff
Something that serves as a staple or support.
Faculty
(Archaic) An occupation; a trade.
Staff
(Music) A set of horizontal lines and intermediate spaces used in notation to represent a sequence of pitches, in modern notation normally consisting of five lines and four spaces. Also called stave.
Faculty
The academic staff at schools, colleges, universities or not-for-profit research institutes, as opposed to the students or support staff.
Staff
A building material of plaster and fiber used as an exterior wall covering of temporary buildings, as at expositions.
Faculty
A division of a university.
She transferred from the Faculty of Science to the Faculty of Medicine.
Staff
To provide with a staff of workers or assistants.
Faculty
(Often in the plural): an ability, power, or skill.
He lived until he reached the age of 90 with most of his faculties intact.
Staff
To serve on the staff of (an organization).
Faculty
An authority, power, or privilege conferred by a higher authority.
Staff
A long, straight, thick wooden rod or stick, especially one used to assist in walking.
Faculty
(Church of England) A licence to make alterations to a church.
Staff
A series of horizontal lines on which musical notes are written; a stave.
Faculty
The members of a profession.
Staff
The employees of a business.
The company employed 10 new members of staff this month.
The company has taken on 1600 more highly-paid staff.
Faculty
Ability to act or perform, whether inborn or cultivated; capacity for any natural function; especially, an original mental power or capacity for any of the well-known classes of mental activity; psychical or soul capacity; capacity for any of the leading kinds of soul activity, as knowledge, feeling, volition; intellectual endowment or gift; power; as, faculties of the mind or the soul.
But know that in the soulAre many lesser faculties that serveReason as chief.
What a piece of work is a man ! how noble in reason ! how infinite in faculty !
Staff
(uncountable) A mixture of plaster and fibre used as a temporary exterior wall covering.W
Faculty
Special mental endowment; characteristic knack.
He had a ready faculty, indeed, of escaping from any topic that agitated his too sensitive and nervous temperament.
Staff
A pole, stick, or wand borne as an ensign of authority; a badge of office.
A constable's staff
Faculty
Power; prerogative or attribute of office.
This DuncanHath borne his faculties so meek.
Staff
A pole upon which a flag is supported and displayed.
Faculty
Privilege or permission, granted by favor or indulgence, to do a particular thing; authority; license; dispensation.
The pope . . . granted him a faculty to set him free from his promise.
It had not only faculty to inspect all bishops' dioceses, but to change what laws and statutes they should think fit to alter among the colleges.
Staff
(archaic) The rung of a ladder.
Faculty
A body of a men to whom any specific right or privilege is granted; formerly, the graduates in any of the four departments of a university or college (Philosophy, Law, Medicine, or Theology), to whom was granted the right of teaching (profitendi or docendi) in the department in which they had studied; at present, the members of a profession itself; as, the medical faculty; the legal faculty, etc.
Staff
A series of verses so disposed that, when it is concluded, the same order begins again; a stanza; a stave.
Faculty
The body of person to whom are intrusted the government and instruction of a college or university, or of one of its departments; the president, professors, and tutors in a college.
Staff
(engineering) An arbor, as of a wheel or a pinion of a watch.
Faculty
One of the inherent cognitive or perceptual powers of the mind
Staff
(surgery) The grooved director for the gorget, or knife, used in cutting for stone in the bladder.
Faculty
The body of teachers and administrators at a school;
The dean addressed the letter to the entire staff of the university
Staff
(military) An establishment of officers in various departments attached to an army, to a section of an army, or to the commander of an army. The general's staff consists of those officers about his person who are employed in carrying his commands into execution.
Faculty
An inherent mental or physical power.
His faculty for remembering names is impressive.
Staff
A form of token once used, in combination with a ticket, for safe train movements between two points on a single line.
Faculty
The members of a particular profession, especially medicine or law.
He was a respected member of the legal faculty.
Staff
(transitive) To supply (a business, volunteer organization, etc.) with employees or staff members.
Staff
A long piece of wood; a stick; the long handle of an instrument or weapon; a pole or stick, used for many purposes; as, a surveyor's staff; the staff of a spear or pike.
And he put the staves into the rings on the sides of the altar to bear it withal.
With forks and staves the felon to pursue.
Staff
A stick carried in the hand for support or defense by a person walking; hence, a support; that which props or upholds.
The boy was the very staff of my age.
He spoke of it [beer] in "The Earnest Cry," and likewise in the "Scotch Drink," as one of the staffs of life which had been struck from the poor man's hand.
Staff
A pole, stick, or wand borne as an ensign of authority; a badge of office; as, a constable's staff.
Methought this staff, mine office badge in court,Was broke in twain.
All his officers brake their staves; but at their return new staves were delivered unto them.
Staff
A pole upon which a flag is supported and displayed.
Staff
The round of a ladder.
I ascended at one [ladder] of six hundred and thirty-nine staves.
Staff
A series of verses so disposed that, when it is concluded, the same order begins again; a stanza; a stave.
Cowley found out that no kind of staff is proper for an heroic poem, as being all too lyrical.
Staff
The five lines and the spaces on which music is written; - formerly called stave.
Staff
An arbor, as of a wheel or a pinion of a watch.
Staff
The grooved director for the gorget, or knife, used in cutting for stone in the bladder.
Staff
An establishment of officers in various departments attached to an army, to a section of an army, or to the commander of an army. The general's staff consists of those officers about his person who are employed in carrying his commands into execution. See État Major.
Staff
Hence: A body of assistants serving to carry into effect the plans of a superintendent or manager; sometimes used for the entire group of employees of an enterprise, excluding the top management; as, the staff of a newspaper.
Staff
Plaster combined with fibrous and other materials so as to be suitable for sculpture in relief or in the round, or for forming flat plates or boards of considerable size which can be nailed to framework to make the exterior of a larger structure, forming joints which may afterward be repaired and concealed with fresh plaster.
Staff
Personnel who assist their superior in carrying out an assigned task;
The hospital has an excellent nursing staff
The general relied on his staff to make routine decisions
Staff
The body of teachers and administrators at a school;
The dean addressed the letter to the entire staff of the university
Staff
A strong rod or stick with a specialized utilitarian purpose;
He walked with the help of a wooden staff
Staff
Building material consisting of plaster and hair; used to cover external surfaces of temporary structure (as at an exposition) or for decoration
Staff
A rod carried as a symbol
Staff
(music) the system of five horizontal lines on which the musical notes are written
Staff
Provide with staff;
This position is not always staffed
Staff
Serve on the staff of;
The two men staff the reception desk
Staff
A group of people who work for an organization to provide a particular service.
The hotel staff was very accommodating.
Staff
The personnel who assist a director in some professional operations.
The nursing staff worked tirelessly.
Common Curiosities
Are faculty members not considered staff?
Faculty members are a subset of staff in educational institutions.
Are all professors part of the faculty?
Yes, professors, lecturers, and researchers are typically considered faculty in educational settings.
Can "staff" refer to employees outside of education?
Yes, "staff" can refer to employees in any organization or industry.
Is faculty exclusive to universities?
No, faculty members can be present in schools, colleges, and other educational institutions.
What primarily distinguishes faculty from staff?
"Faculty" refers to academic teaching personnel, while "staff" includes all employees of an institution.
Who handles administrative duties at a university?
While faculty focuses on academics, the administrative duties are usually handled by non-faculty staff.
Who might be included in "staff" but not "faculty"?
Positions like registrars, librarians, maintenance personnel, and IT support are staff but not faculty.
Is the term "faculty" used globally?
While common in American and some other educational systems, not all countries use "faculty" in the same context.
Who typically manages the non-academic operations in schools?
The non-academic operations are usually overseen by non-faculty staff members.
Can a college have multiple faculties?
Yes, colleges can have different faculties, like the Faculty of Arts, Science, or Engineering.
Can "faculty" ever refer to a non-academic context?
Rarely, but "faculty" can also mean an inherent mental or physical power.
Does "staff" always refer to people?
While "staff" usually denotes employees, it can also mean a long stick used for walking.
How versatile is the term "staff"?
"Staff" is versatile, referring to all employees in an organization or specific groups, and can even denote a walking stick.
What roles do faculty members usually have?
Faculty members teach, conduct research, mentor students, and develop curricula.
In which context is "faculty" used to refer to capability?
"Faculty" can mean an inherent ability, like "faculty of speech" or "faculty of reasoning."
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Fiza RafiqueFiza Rafique is a skilled content writer at AskDifference.com, where she meticulously refines and enhances written pieces. Drawing from her vast editorial expertise, Fiza ensures clarity, accuracy, and precision in every article. Passionate about language, she continually seeks to elevate the quality of content for readers worldwide.
Edited by
Tayyaba RehmanTayyaba Rehman is a distinguished writer, currently serving as a primary contributor to askdifference.com. As a researcher in semantics and etymology, Tayyaba's passion for the complexity of languages and their distinctions has found a perfect home on the platform. Tayyaba delves into the intricacies of language, distinguishing between commonly confused words and phrases, thereby providing clarity for readers worldwide.
