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| This article was originally published as the Executive Summary of the Statistical Analysis Report of the same name. The sample survey data are from the NCES National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF). | |||
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In the recent past, postsecondary education has undergone dramatic changes that have required colleges and universities to examine new ways to efficiently manage their limited resources (Chronister and Baldwin 1999). These changes—including increased enrollments of nontraditional students, reductions in state funding, increased availability of distance education instruction and technologies, and increased use of contingent and contract personnel—have led to a reexamination of key faculty issues such as salary, scholarly productivity, teaching performance, and tenure. The literature examining tenure concerns has relied largely on data from two national studies conducted by the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES): the National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF), conducted in 1988, 1993, and 1999; and the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System "Salaries, Tenure, and Fringe Benefits of Full-Time Instructional Faculty Survey" (IPEDS-SA), conducted annually since 1987. Using data from NSOPF:93 and NSOPF:99, this report focuses on changes in the tenure status of full-time instructional faculty and staff at 2- and 4-year institutions between the fall of 1992 and the fall of 1998.1 It analyzes changes in tenure status by level and control of institution, program area, and the faculty's academic rank, gender, and race/ethnicity. These analyses are based on instructional faculty and staff; that is, faculty and staff with some for-credit teaching responsibilities (e.g., teaching one or more classes for credit, or advising or supervising students' academic activities).2
Tenure Status of Full-Time Instructional Faculty and Staff The literature examining issues of tenure status at postsecondary institutions—some of it anecdotal—suggests a slight decline in the proportion of tenured faculty in recent years (Lee 1995; Chronister and Baldwin 1999; Kirshstein, Matheson, and Jing 1997). Data from the first two cycles of NSOPF, for instance, show that the proportion of full-time instructional faculty and staff with tenure at postsecondary institutions decreased from 58 percent in the fall of 1987 to 54 percent in the fall of 1992 (Kirshstein, Matheson, and Jing 1997). More recent data from NSOPF:99 indicate that across all postsecondary institutions, 53 percent of full-time instructional faculty and staff were tenured in the fall of 1998 (figure A). Another 19 percent were on tenure track but not tenured. The remaining full-time faculty3 either were not on a tenure track although the institution had a tenure system (18 percent), or they taught in an institution that did not have a tenure system (10 percent).4
Between the fall of 1992 and the fall of 1998, while the proportion of full-time instructional faculty and staff on tenure track decreased from 22 to 19 percent, the total percentage of faculty who either were not on a tenure track or worked at institutions without a tenure system increased from 24 to 28 percent (figure A). Thus, whereas there was no significant difference in the percentage of tenured faculty between 1992 and 1998, the opportunities for future tenure declined during that period. | |||
Figure A.—Percentage distribution of full-time instructional faculty and staff, by tenure status: Fall 1992 and fall 1998
NOTE: This figure includes only faculty and staff with instructional responsibilities for credit (e.g., teaching one or more classes for credit, or advising or supervising students' academic activities).
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 1993 and 1999 National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF:93 and NSOPF:99). |
 Tenure Status by Institutional Type The tenure status of full-time instructional faculty and staff was examined across 4-year and 2-year institutions, and public and private institutions. In both the fall of 1992 and the fall of 1998, full-time instructional faculty and staff who taught at 4-year institutions were more likely to be on tenure track than were those who taught at 2-year institutions (table A). Between the fall of 1992 and the fall of 1998, 4-year institutions showed both a decrease in the proportion of full-time instructional faculty and staff who were on tenure track, and an increase in the total percentage of faculty who either were not on a tenure track or worked at institutions without a tenure system (table A). Thus, while there were no significant differences in the proportion of tenured faculty between 1992 and 1998 for either 2- or 4-year institutions, the opportunities for future tenure declined at 4-year institutions.
In both the fall of 1992 and the fall of 1998, full-time instructional faculty and staff employed at public institutions were more likely than those at private institutions to have tenure (table A). Between 1992 and 1998, the proportion of faculty who were not on a tenure track at public institutions increased from 15 to 17 percent. Thus, as in 4-year institutions, the opportunities for future tenure declined at public institutions between 1992 and 1998. |
Table A.—Percentage distribution of full-time instructional faculty and staff, by tenure status and level and control of institution: Fall 1992 and fall 1998
*All public and private not-for-profit Title IV degree-granting institutions in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. NOTE: This table includes only faculty and staff with instructional responsibilities for credit (e.g., teaching one or more classes for credit, or advising or supervising students' academic activities). Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding. SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 1993 and 1999 National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF:93 and NSOPF:99). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tenure Status by Gender The gender gap in tenure among full-time instructional faculty and staff found in previous studies was also apparent in both 1992 and 1998. Across postsecondary institutions in the fall of 1992, full-time male instructional faculty and staff were more likely than their female counterparts to report having tenure (61 percent of male faculty vs. 40 percent of female faculty; figure B). In the fall of 1998, 60 percent of male faculty, compared to 42 percent of female faculty, reported that they had tenure.
Gender differences in tenure were apparent at both 4-year and 2-year institutions in the fall of 1992 and the fall of 1998. For instance, in the fall of 1998, 61 percent of male faculty compared to 40 percent of female faculty were tenured at 4-year institutions, and 53 percent of male faculty compared to 47 percent of female faculty were tenured at 2-year institutions (figure B). |
Figure B.—Percent of full-time instructional faculty and staff who were tenured, by gender and level of institution: Fall 1992 and fall 1998
*All public and private not-for-profit Title IV degree-granting institutions in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
NOTE: This figure includes only faculty and staff with instructional responsibilities for credit (e.g., teaching one or more classes for credit, or advising or supervising students' academic activities).
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 1993 and 1999 National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF:93 and NSOPF:99). |
| Tenure Status by Race/Ethnicity Like previous studies, NSOPF:99 found racial/ethnic differences in tenure status among full-time instructional faculty and staff. The NSOPF data also indicate some changes between 1992 and 1998.5 Among full-time instructional faculty and staff at postsecondary institutions in the fall of 1998, White, non-Hispanics were more likely than Black, non-Hispanics to report having tenure (54 vs. 44 percent; table B).6 This pattern held for 4-year but not 2-year institutions.7
The distribution of tenure by race/ethnicity was somewhat different in the fall of 1998 than in the fall of 1992 (table B). Among full-time instructional faculty and staff in the fall of 1992, Whites were more likely to have tenure than were Asians/Pacific Islanders, Hispanics, and Blacks. By the fall of 1998, White faculty were more likely than Black faculty to have tenure, but not more likely than Asian/Pacific Islander and Hispanic faculty. |
Table B.—Percent of full-time instructional faculty and staff who were tenured, by level of institution and race/ethnicity: Fall 1992 and fall 1998
#Too small to report. 1In 1998, respondents were allowed to report more than one racial/ethnic category; however, very few respondents (about 1 percent) reported more than one category. Those persons were placed into the largest minority racial/ethnic category they selected. 2All public and private not-for-profit Title IV degree-granting institutions in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. NOTE: This table includes only faculty and staff with instructional responsibilities for credit (e.g., teaching one or more classes for credit, or advising or supervising students' academic activities). SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 1993 and 1999 National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF:93 and NSOPF:99). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Footnotes
1NSOPF:99 was conducted in 1999 and asked faculty and instructional staff about their activities in the fall of 1998. NSOPF:93 was conducted in 1993 and asked faculty and staff about their activities in the fall of 1992. 2Instructional faculty and staff represented 88 percent of all postsecondary faculty and instructional staff in the fall of 1992 and 91 percent in the fall of 1998. Fifty-eight percent of instructional faculty and staff were employed full time in the fall of 1992, and 57 percent were employed full time in the fall of 1998. 3For brevity, this report sometimes uses the term "faculty" to refer to instructional faculty and staff. 4The increase in the percentage of full-time instructional faculty and staff who worked at institutions that did not have a tenure system (from 8 percent in 1992 to 10 percent in 1998) may be due, in part, to an overall increase in the proportion of postsecondary institutions that had no tenure systems in place for their faculty. Data from the "Institution Survey" of NSOPF indicate that 29 percent of postsecondary institutions did not have a tenure system in the fall of 1992 (Kirshstein, Matheson, and Jing 1996), compared with 34 percent in the fall of 1998 (Berger, Kirshstein, and Rowe 2001). 5In 1998, although respondents were allowed to report more than one racial/ethnic category, very few respondents (about 1 percent) reported more than one category. 6American Indian/Alaska Native respondents made up only 0.8 percent of the overall sample. Because the group is so small, analyses involving the comparison of this group to others, particularly if subdivided further, are inadvisable because the resulting standard errors are very large and very few apparent differences would achieve statistical significance. For this reason, this report excludes the American Indian/Alaska Native category from analysis, though estimates for this group are shown in the tables. For brevity, White, non-Hispanic and Black, non-Hispanic are referred to as White and Black, respectively, throughout the report. 7Compared to 4-year institutions, estimates for 2-year institutions were based on small sample sizes and generally had large standard errors. Thus, some differences that appear large for 2-year institutions were less likely to be statistically significant.
References Berger, A., Kirshstein, R.J., and Rowe, E. (2001). Institutional Policies and Practices: Results From the 1999 National Study of Postsecondary Faculty, Institution Survey (NCES 2001–201). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Chronister, J.L., and Baldwin, R.G. (1999). Marginal or Mainstream? Full-Time Faculty Off the Tenure Track. Liberal Education, 85(4): 16–23. Kirshstein, R.J., Matheson, N., and Jing, Z. (1996). 1993 National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF:93): Institutional Policies and Practices Regarding Faculty in Higher Education (NCES 97–080). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Kirshstein, R.J., Matheson, N., and Jing, Z. (1997). Instructional Faculty and Staff in Higher Education Institutions: Fall 1987 and Fall 1992 (NCES 97–470). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Lee, J. (1995). Tenure. Washington, DC: National Education Association.
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