Only a third of faculty members at all colleges were tenured or on the tenure track in the fall of 2015. They were most likely to hold one of those statuses at four-year public institutions, followed by four-year private nonprofit institutions. Even so, more than half of faculty members at four-year public institutions and nearly two-thirds of faculty members at four-year private nonprofit institutions were either not on the tenure track or were working at colleges with no tenure system.
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| 4-year public institutions | full-time | 188,247 | 31.8% | 72,386 | 12.2% | 154,082 | 26.0% | 414,715 | 69.9% |
| 4-year public institutions | part-time | 4,633 | 0.8% | 1,152 | 0.2% | 172,395 | 29.1% | 178,180 | 30.1% |
| 4-year public institutions | total | 192,880 | 32.5% | 73,538 | 12.4% | 326,477 | 55.1% | 592,895 | 100.0% |
| 4-year private nonprofit institutions | full-time | 91,407 | 23.2% | 43,869 | 11.1% | 108,578 | 27.6% | 243,854 | 61.9% |
| 4-year private nonprofit institutions | part-time | 1,417 | 0.4% | 546 | 0.1% | 148,150 | 37.6% | 150,113 | 38.1% |
| 4-year private nonprofit institutions | total | 92,824 | 23.6% | 44,415 | 11.3% | 256,728 | 65.2% | 393,967 | 100.0% |
| 4-year for-profit institutions | full-time | 101 | 0.1% | 87 | 0.1% | 13,745 | 18.0% | 13,933 | 18.2% |
| 4-year for-profit institutions | part-time | 5 | 0.0% | 0 | 0.0% | 62,597 | 81.8% | 62,602 | 81.8% |
| 4-year for-profit institutions | total | 106 | 0.1% | 87 | 0.1% | 76,342 | 99.7% | 76,535 | 100.0% |
| 2-year public institutions | full-time | 44,835 | 15.0% | 15,089 | 5.0% | 55,723 | 18.6% | 115,647 | 38.6% |
| 2-year public institutions | part-time | 204 | 0.1% | 62 | 0.0% | 183,969 | 61.3% | 184,235 | 61.4% |
| 2-year public institutions | total | 45,039 | 15.0% | 15,151 | 5.1% | 239,692 | 79.9% | 299,882 | 100.0% |
| 2-year private nonprofit institutions | full-time | 76 | 2.7% | 28 | 1.0% | 1,803 | 64.5% | 1,907 | 68.3% |
| 2-year private nonprofit institutions | part-time | 0 | 0.0% | 0 | 0.0% | 887 | 31.7% | 887 | 31.7% |
| 2-year private nonprofit institutions | total | 76 | 2.7% | 28 | 1.0% | 2,690 | 96.3% | 2,794 | 100.0% |
| 2-year for-profit institutions | full-time | 3 | 0.0% | 0 | 0.0% | 5,564 | 42.7% | 5,567 | 42.8% |
| 2-year for-profit institutions | part-time | 0 | 0.0% | 0 | 0.0% | 7,453 | 57.2% | 7,453 | 57.2% |
| 2-year for-profit institutions | total | 3 | 0.0% | 0 | 0.0% | 13,017 | 100.0% | 13,020 | 100.0% |
| All institutions | full-time | 324,669 | 23.5% | 131,459 | 9.5% | 339,495 | 24.6% | 795,623 | 57.7% |
| All institutions | part-time | 6,259 | 0.5% | 1,760 | 0.1% | 575,451 | 41.7% | 583,470 | 42.3% |
| All institutions | total | 330,928 | 24.0% | 133,219 | 9.7% | 914,946 | 66.3% | 1,379,093 | 100.0% |
Note: The data cover full- and part-time medical and nonmedical staff who perform faculty duties like instruction, research, and/or public service at 4,584 degree-granting four-year and two-year institutions in the United States that are eligible to participate in the Title IV federal student-aid program. Medical schools are counted in the data. Non-tenure-track faculty members include adjuncts. More data are available at https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/Home/UseTheData.
Source: Chronicle analysis of U.S. Department of Education data
