Dive Brief:
- Inside Higher Ed has released its latest survey of college and university chief academic officers, which reveals surprising data on several emerging topics in higher education.
- According to the survey of more than 600 provosts and academic executives at two and four-year schools, 53% believe their institutions place strong emphasis on diversifying faculty ranks, and 40% believe that curriculum should be revised to emphasize diversity.
- More than 60% of academic leaders believe that there will be no change in the institutional reliance on adjunct professors to meet teaching needs, but fewer than 50% believe that college is preparing students for workforce performance.
Dive Insight:
Higher education is at a clear crossroads about the altruism of diversity on campus, and the utility of education in meeting workforce needs. This dissonance becomes clearer in this survey, and should prompt college presidents and chancellors to have more substantive discussions with faculty about both areas, which will be critical to development in the near future.
If provosts are unable to see an institutional commitment to diversity and the impact on revenue and teaching capacity, it will be difficult to retain or hire quality faculty, build innovation or to meet certain public funding metrics which reward access and success for marginalized or underrepresented student groups.