Dive Brief:
- A study from Harvard University finds associate professors, particularly those who have been in the profession more than five years, are less satisfied with their jobs than both full and assistant professors.
- The promotion process was a key source of discontent, but appreciation and recognition, collaboration, departmental collegiality, institutional support for research and scholarly work, and departmental leadership were also rated negatively, the Chronicle of Higher Education reports.
- Of the nearly 2,200 professors surveyed, 64% said they had never received formal feedback on their progress towards promotion, 20% said professors' quality of life was not a concern to chief academic officers, and 40% indicated a wavering commitment to remaining on their current career paths.
Dive Insight:
Teacher recruitment and retention is recognized as being in crisis in the K-12 sector, but little attention seems to be paid to the same in higher ed.
In many disciplines, faculty members can earn much more working for the private sector than what they earn from their institutions of higher education. And with a declining number of tenure-track positions available across the board, coupled with continued threats to shared governance and the protections guaranteed by tenure, many would-be professors are reconsidering the field altogether.
For professors who are already on board, institutional support for travel, research and professional development is a critical retention tool. And just as a recent panel suggested the importance of identifying clear pathways for promotion and leadership opportunities in schools and districts for K-12 teachers, the same is needed for professors — and these opportunities should not exclusively lead to out-of-classroom appointments.
For individuals who have tenure, there needs to be not only opportunities to continue to grow and convene with others from around the country to share best practice ideas, but opportunities to serve other faculty members and to feel they are contributing to the growth of the institution.