Nearly half of all full-time instructional staff employed in 2015 at U.S. institutions of higher education worked at doctoral universities. Over all, employees with the rank of professor were the largest group among full-time instructional staff, representing just over a quarter of such staff. When counted together, however, full-time instructors, lecturers, and instructional staff with no academic rank exceeded the number of full-time professors.
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Doctoral universities
Highest research activity | 70,920 | 49,330 | 53,795 | 11,412 | 16,283 | 10,030 | 211,770 |
Higher research activity | 20,363 | 21,458 | 19,522 | 6,962 | 7,038 | 3,051 | 78,394 |
Moderate research activity | 9,747 | 10,382 | 10,238 | 2,914 | 3,269 | 1,488 | 38,038 |
Total | 101,030 | 81,170 | 83,555 | 21,288 | 26,590 | 14,569 | 328,202 |
Master’s colleges and universities
Larger programs | 27,131 | 27,446 | 27,623 | 9,455 | 6,956 | 4,549 | 103,160 |
Medium programs | 7,425 | 7,920 | 8,406 | 1,958 | 1,706 | 909 | 28,324 |
Smaller programs | 3,112 | 3,712 | 4,146 | 1,104 | 753 | 159 | 12,986 |
Total | 37,668 | 39,078 | 40,175 | 12,517 | 9,415 | 5,617 | 144,470 |
Baccalaureate colleges
Arts and sciences focus | 9,505 | 8,675 | 8,554 | 1,679 | 879 | 1,303 | 30,595 |
Diverse fields | 4,180 | 4,930 | 6,573 | 2,124 | 671 | 1,034 | 19,512 |
Total | 13,685 | 13,605 | 15,127 | 3,803 | 1,550 | 2,337 | 50,107 |
Baccalaureate/associate colleges
Mixed baccalaureate/associate | 1,229 | 1,341 | 1,457 | 2,130 | 105 | 1,436 | 7,698 |
Associate dominant | 1,236 | 1,345 | 1,540 | 3,511 | 138 | 2,540 | 10,310 |
Total | 2,465 | 2,686 | 2,997 | 5,641 | 243 | 3,976 | 18,008 |
Associate colleges
High transfer; high traditional students | 3,681 | 2,906 | 3,331 | 9,655 | 1,370 | 2,407 | 23,350 |
High transfer; mixed traditional/nontraditional students | 3,591 | 2,841 | 3,137 | 6,158 | 201 | 3,990 | 19,918 |
High transfer; high nontraditional students | 1,136 | 635 | 915 | 2,263 | 126 | 1,610 | 6,685 |
Mixed transfer/career and technical; high traditional students | 1,346 | 820 | 928 | 8,035 | 42 | 2,872 | 14,043 |
Mixed transfer/career and technical; mixed traditional/nontraditional students | 1,534 | 897 | 1,088 | 4,608 | 4 | 4,096 | 12,227 |
Mixed transfer/career and technical; high nontraditional students | 2,619 | 1,358 | 1,639 | 3,694 | 82 | 3,730 | 13,122 |
High career and technical; high traditional students | 322 | 349 | 214 | 2,561 | 2 | 2,744 | 6,192 |
High career and technical; mixed traditional/nontraditional students | 382 | 320 | 258 | 2,275 | 94 | 3,181 | 6,510 |
High career and technical; high nontraditional students | 824 | 468 | 463 | 4,244 | 55 | 2,657 | 8,711 |
Total | 15,435 | 10,594 | 11,973 | 43,493 | 1,976 | 27,287 | 110,758 |
Special-focus 2-year institutions
Health professions | 68 | 79 | 49 | 2,395 | — | 1,155 | 3,746 |
Technical professions | 1 | 2 | 1 | 600 | — | 415 | 1,019 |
Arts and design | 5 | — | — | 88 | — | 299 | 392 |
Other fields | 48 | 25 | 29 | 459 | 2 | 230 | 793 |
Total | 122 | 106 | 79 | 3,542 | 2 | 2,099 | 5,950 |
Special-focus 4-year institutions
Faith-related institutions | 1,298 | 556 | 546 | 467 | 114 | 270 | 3,251 |
Medical schools and centers | 6,309 | 6,388 | 14,006 | 3,131 | 55 | 793 | 30,682 |
Other health-professions schools | 964 | 1,313 | 2,250 | 1,562 | 699 | 809 | 7,597 |
Engineering schools | 144 | 116 | 114 | 19 | 7 | 3 | 403 |
Other technology-related schools | 27 | 31 | 74 | 373 | — | 24 | 529 |
Business and management schools | 188 | 210 | 132 | 37 | 59 | 392 | 1,018 |
Arts, music, and design schools | 1,336 | 672 | 580 | 1,414 | 22 | 1,339 | 5,363 |
Law schools | 644 | 239 | 130 | 47 | 8 | 48 | 1,116 |
Other special-focus institutions | 249 | 162 | 182 | 57 | — | 199 | 849 |
Total | 11,159 | 9,687 | 18,014 | 7,107 | 964 | 3,877 | 50,808 |
Tribal colleges
Number | 3 | 24 | 36 | 708 | 8 | 116 | 895 |
No classification
Number | 634 | 848 | 1,063 | 1,184 | 210 | 896 | 4,835 |
All institutions
Total | 182,201 | 157,798 | 173,019 | 99,283 | 40,958 | 60,774 | 714,033 |
Note: Data represent full-time instructional staff at degree-granting institutions in the United States that have 15 or more employees and that participate in Title IV federal financial-aid programs. Institutions are grouped by their 2015 Carnegie Classifications of Institutions of Higher Education. Instructional staff can include, in addition to faculty members, nonfaculty members who are primarily involved in instruction, among them adjuncts and some postdoctoral students. Part-time employees are excluded. “No academic rank” indicates instructional staff members who are not assigned standard academic ranks. More data are available at nces.ed.gov/ipeds/Home/UseTheData.
Source: Chronicle analysis of U.S. Department of Education data