NOW ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS FOR FALL 2025
Fall Quarter submissions are due by March 17 at 11:59 pm (PT). If you have any questions, please email us at continuingstudies@stanford.edu.
We look forward to expanding our course offerings in the liberal arts and sciences, wellness and health, creative writing, business, communication, design, technology, and data science.
We are seeking instructors who can skillfully and engagingly translate complex concepts and cutting-edge topics into course offerings that will engage a general audience of adult learners from the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond.
- All instructors should have an advanced degree OR relevant industry expertise in the area they teach. (Liberal arts instructors should also have completed a PhD in their subject.)
- All instructors should ideally have prior teaching experience.
- All instructors must be physically present in the United States during onboarding and throughout the duration of the course. (This also applies to individuals who teach online courses).
- All instructors must be able to verify their eligibility for employment in the United States according to USCIS Form I-9.
- Courses should be designed to be accessible and engaging to a wide, general audience. Students entering the course with no prior knowledge should be able to succeed.
- Courses should be appropriately challenging, rich in content, thoughtfully designed, and highly organized.
- Instructors should bring intellectual rigor, openness, balance, and integrity to their pedagogy. Subjects and skills being taught should be informed by reliable research and evidence drawn from reputable sources.
- Courses that help students understand how to apply higher-level concepts and theories in practical ways to their everyday lives are likely to be successful. Topics that are primarily theoretical, technical, abstract, narrow, or niche are less popular.
READY TO APPLY?
We encourage you to review our Course Description Guidelines before submitting your proposal(s). Course descriptions that align with our program's mission and reflect these guidelines are more likely to be accepted.
Once you have reviewed the document, you can access our course proposal form here:
STANFORD CONTINUING STUDIES COURSE PROPOSAL FORM
Pay Range
Stanford Continuing Studies calculates instructor salaries using the “Per Classroom Hour” method: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB736Our classroom hour pay rate will always meet the minimum required by CA state law (in 2025) of $148.58 per classroom hour and go up in range to as much as $360 per classroom hour, dependent upon multiple factors, including qualifications, skill sets, teaching experience, duration of the course, the complexity of course, and the final number of enrolled students.
Your salary will be based on the total number of “classroom hours” you teach. “Classroom hours,” as defined by section 515.7 of AB-736 refers to how much time is spent in the “primary forum” of the course, regardless of whether that forum is in-person or virtual.
For example, if the primary forum of your course is a two-hour lecture/discussion held once each week over five weeks, you would be compensated for ten classroom hours at a rate that is at least the classroom hour minimum amount set forth in section 515.7.
“Classroom hours” are all-inclusive of the work done for a course, whether that work is done in or outside of the classroom. As such, the payment model encompasses all course-related work, including course preparation, class time, teaching, grading, office hours, mandated training, and any other administrative requirements, etc., regardless of how much time you spend on these activities.
About Stanford Continuing Studies
The mission of Stanford Continuing Studies is to share the rich educational resources of Stanford University with adult students, to nurture a vibrant learning community, to nourish the life of the mind, and to promote the pleasures of intellectual exploration.Continuing Studies offers more than 600 courses per year, attracting more than 17,000 students. We offer a rich lineup of courses in the liberal arts and sciences, wellness and health, creative writing, and professional development. Most courses meet on Stanford’s campus in the evenings, or on a Saturday. And, for those students who can’t easily make it to campus, we now offer many online courses across various disciplines.
Since the program's inception in 1988, more than 1,000 Stanford faculty and academic staff have taught in Continuing Studies. They are joined by carefully recruited artists, journalists, business people, and academics from neighboring institutions. All Continuing Studies courses are open to adult students everywhere.