Apart from the historical role played by part-time instructors in community colleges, research on part-time faculty is relatively new. There is a short summary of the current literature on the topic of part-time faculty in community colleges. It investigates the growth of part-time faculty since 1960. There are advantages and disadvantages of using part-timers to deliver instruction.
Part-Time Faculty as The Majority
Since the early 1960s, the number of part-time faculty instructors at two-year colleges has grown steadily.  According to Lombardi, part-time faculty constituted 38.5% of the instructors in 698 junior colleges in 1962. Moderately this number increased to 40% in 1971. Three years later grew to nearly 50%. Nearly 60% of the faculties in two-year colleges were employed part-time. It understands that community colleges rely heavily on part-time faculty for the delivery of instruction. The trend is certain to continue.
Advantages for Employing Part-Time Faculty
1) In community colleges, part-time faculties are employed for a variety of reasons. Part-time faculty saves institution money. Shrinking financial resources institutions of higher education are forced to seek alternative methods for delivering costly services. In both salaries and benefits, adjunct faculties are less costly than full-time faculty. They are paid one-third of the salary of full-time faculty. They have limited rights to raises. They are rarely promoted to higher-paid, more prestigious positions.
2) The use of part-time faculty in community colleges increases institutional flexibility in matching the demands of varying enrollments. Adjuncts are contracted to teach at the beginning of each term and must have their contracts renewed to teach each subsequent term. Therefore, when matriculation drops, the number of part-time faculty are easily adjusted by not renewing contracts.
Third, part-time faculty are advantageous because they bring "real world vocational experience" to the community college environment. In other words, they enrich academic preparation for the professions.
Fourth, part-time faculty themselves benefit from teaching part-time at community colleges. According to Reed, "professionals in fields other than teaching are grateful for being able to teach part-time because of the prestige and fulfillment it adds to their work lives". Further, adjuncts see part-time work as a method by which to secure full-time employment.
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