The tenure system is a ubiquitous feature of American higher education. Of the roughly 1,400 four-year institutions that the Carnegie Classification system categorizes as bachelor's, master's, or doctoral institutions, 87 percent reported that they have a tenure system. The present study provides information about the prevalence of general tenure…

The pursuit of tenure in higher education is arguably the dominant focus of tenure track faculty throughout the United States' higher education environment, if not a world-wide phenomenon. By applying Vroom's Expectancy theory of motivation, this study intends to investigate the relationship between research productivity and motivation to conduct…

Across the United States, colleges and universities are adding a significant number of adjuncts and non-tenure track instructors to fill their respective classroom voids as subsequently, fewer opportunities for tenure-track status professors are being made available. While there is an economic value in hiring non-tenure track faculty, many…

The mission of higher education and the activities of faculty are often described in terms of teaching, research, and service. Additionally, tenure has been the standard model for employment in American college and universities since 1940. The traditional model of faculty earning tenure through high standards of teaching, research, and service is…

Changes in the representation, career advancement, and workplace perceptions of Black faculty at research universities in the United States over time, in comparison to White faculty were examined. Based on the analysis of data from the 1993, 1999, and 2004 National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF) surveys, we found that although the overall…

This is the second publication released from the 1993 National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF), a study about faculty and instructional staff in U.S. higher education institutions. The document presents findings from the institution survey of NSOPF-93 regarding their policies and practices toward faculty and staff, including: full-time,…

This paper assesses public and private, four-year college or university faculty satisfaction in the context of the complexity of satisfaction and the importance of the interaction between faculty professional values or expectations and institutional values. Satisfaction is defined as the extent to which faculty perceive that the institution…

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the graying of America's college and university faculty coincided with new federal regulations that prohibited mandatory retirement. So in order to both encourage faculty retirements and assume better control of when positions would be vacated about half of all U.S. colleges and universities adopted various…

This report, based on a survey of 480 academic officers in accredited nonproprietary institutions of higher education, focuses on institutional policies concerning tenure systems, hiring practices, and employee benefits. Survey results are broken down by the following categories: 4-year public, 4-year private, 2-year public, and other (2-year…

This report compares findings from faculty surveys conducted as part of the 1987-88 National Survey of Postsecondary Faculty, which is limited to faculty and staff with instructional responsibilities, and the 1992-93 National Study of Postsecondary Faculty, which includes instructional as well as noninstructional faculty. In particular, the report…