Nearly two-thirds of college presidents who worked their way up through the ranks in higher education were provosts before taking the helm, but more than a third skipped that traditional step and went directly to the top post from a deanship. Male chief executives were more likely than their female counterparts to have not been provosts. Most of the presidents who never served as provosts led institutions with fewer than 5,000 students.
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Pathway by gender
| Women | 82% | 18% |
| Men | 57% | 43% |
| All | 64% | 36% |
Distribution by institution size
| < 1,000 | 8% | 16% |
| 1,000-4,999 | 43% | 46% |
| 5,000-9,999 | 23% | 17% |
| 10,000-19,999 | 14% | 14% |
| 20,000+ | 12% | 8% |
Note: Figures are based on an analysis of the curriculum vitae of 840 presidents who were in office in 2016 that were publicly available on institutions’ websites or through other sources like LinkedIn. The subset of presidents included in the analysis were identified as “traditionalists,” whose employment history was all in higher education and who had served as a provost or an academic dean on the path to the top post. The study identified 56 percent of sitting presidents as traditionalists, 43 percent as travelers (moving back and forth between employment in higher education and outside it), and 1 percent as “outsiders,” with no previous work experience inside higher education. Percentages may not add to 100 because of rounding.
Source: Deloitte’s Center for Higher Education Excellence and Georgia Institute of Technology’s Center for 21st Century Universities. “Pathways to the University Presidency: The Future of Higher Education Leadership,” 2017. Available at dupress.deloitte.com.