The average Harvard faculty member continues to get more in salary and fringe benefits than his counterpart anywhere else in the country.

According to the American Association University Professors, Harvard is now the only university that pays full-time faculty members an average compensation of more than $17,500 a year. Last year the Association found Harvard to be the only university paying more than $17,000 annually.

This year, however, two schools moved within $1500 of Harvard's mark -- the University of Chicago and Parsons College in lowa.

The Association, which rates professonial salaries on a scale from "F" to "AA", Harvard as a whole only an "A", the second best mark. For the "AA" rating it singled out the Medical School and the School of Dental Medicine, where the average salary for full professors is slightly higher than in the rest of the University.

The University has approved even higher pay schedules for faculty members, which will go into effect July 1. The raises were needed. Dean Ford said, to increased living costs and competition from other colleges. For example, though Harvard's pay scales are the highest, many other colleges offer junior faculty members earlier tenure.