About AFT Higher Education

The AFT represents approximately 400,000 academic workers (full-time and part-time faculty, academic professional staff, postdocs, researchers and graduate employees) at public and private colleges and universities. With more than 400 affiliates across the United States, we are the largest and fastest-growing higher education union in the country.

Saving Lives, Building Futures, Powering the Economy

Through the AFT’s joint campaign with the American Association of University Professors, we are fighting to make higher education the public good it should be—affordable and accessible, not a privilege for the wealthy—and to ensure our institutions are drivers of strong state and regional economies; sites of world-class, lifesaving research; and incubators of a vibrant democracy. Learn more about our campaign here.

The AFT Higher Education division supports affiliates with the tools and resources necessary to build power and capacity on campus, in their state capitols and in their communities, by offering guidance and solutions for strategic campaigns and federal- and state-level legislative advocacy and by providing trainings and workshops, reports and publications.

AFT Higher Education’s program and policy council helps guide our division’s work and develop divisional priorities, programs and resources, including our Higher Education Professional Issues Conference. For more information, please contact us at highereddept@aft.org.