The meaning of guest, contract/ contractual and a part-time lecturer and the difference between them.

     You might have asked yourself as a tertiary institution student - why are some of my lecturers looking better and organised than others? Why are some more comfortable compared to others who are not also newly employed? Or as a job seeker you get a job advert for the post of contract or part-time lecturer and you wonder what makes the difference among these set and permanent/ regular lecturer. Here is the answer to your question/questions.

- A guest lecturer is a professional or an expert who may lecture one or two classes on his profession. They are not usually academics, they do it due to passion and status, they have immense knowledge of their field. They are needed for a specialist skill which can not be met through a permanent staff, for instance, a professional lawyer may be employed as a guest lecturer to teach business law in school of management or employed to teach food law in the department of food science or department of Nutrition. They usually get a gift payment not salary.

- A contract or contractual lecturer work as a full time lecturer but always have a much "less salary" compared to that of regular or permanent lecturer. The contract is usually renew from time to time e.g after every two years.

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The need for a contract lecturer arise when the school management is trying to be economical, perhaps, no much fund to run the school at a particular period, the government places embargo on employment or the school management want to know the competency of the individual first. They might later be permanent, but think twice before you take that contract lecturing position because you may never be permanent.

- A part time lecturer may be needed when a regular/permanent or a contract lecturer is not available ( on sabbatical, due to maternity leave, illness or is engaged in other approved project e.t.c). Part time lecturer can complete a curriculum but they don't teach on full time basis and they may not teach on regular hour. They are paid per hour i.e if they teach for an hour in a day (at $10/hour) and they do this for 15 days, their salary would be $10 × 15 making $150.


     In  government owned institutions, government are only concerned with the payment of full time permanent lectures. The school is responsible for paying other type of lecturers from the income they generate internally.
     In private institutions, the school pays all, but on the basis of the type of employment offered to the individual, be it regular, contract, part time or guest lecturer.