While most tenure-track professors are satisfied with their positions, they still think there is room for improvement, according to the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education, or Coache, survey of 4,500 tenure-track faculty members at 51 institutions.
Professors rated the clarity of tenure standards on their campuses on a five-point scale, with 5 being “very clear” and 1 being “very unclear.” Tenure standards received a mean rating of 3.20; the body of evidence required rated 3.46, tenure criteria rated 3.53, and the tenure process 3.63. Women reported less clarity than men on all tenure-related subjects, and faculty members at private institutions reported less clarity than their counterparts at public institutions.
Faculty members were also asked to rate their level of clarity surrounding tenure expectations for their performance as scholars, teachers, advisers to students, colleagues in their departments, and members of the broader community. Tenure-track professors reported they were most clear about their performance as teachers, with an overall mean of 3.80, then as scholars (3.76), advisers (3.30), colleagues (3.28), campus citizens (3.22), and, lastly, members of the broader community (2.99). Men, on average, had more clarity than women about what their institution expected of them as scholars, and women were clearer than men about their expectations as teachers.
The survey also asked questions about what researchers called the “nature of work.” Professors said they were most content with the particulars of their teaching and how they spent their time. Research came in last. Men were more satisfied than women with how they spent their time and with their research.
Another section of the Coache survey examined the compatibility of the tenure track with raising children, as well as satisfaction with the work-home balance. Professors rated their ability to strike a work-home balance at a very low 2.81 and rated the work-children balance at 3.09. Junior faculty members also rated the effectiveness of policies and practices they cared about on their campuses. They gave higher marks to “informal mentoring” and limits on teaching obligations than they did to child-care policies, financial assistance with housing, and spousal- or partner-hiring programs.
The full survey can be found at http://www.coache.org/reports.
http://chronicle.com Section: The Faculty Volume 53, Issue 6, Page A12