• Introduction
• Title IV Eligible Postsecondary Institutions
• Degree-Granting, Title IV Eligible Postsecondary Institutions
• Full-Time Faculty in Degree-Granting, Title IV Eligible Postsecondary Institutions

This report presents tabulations for staff employed in Title IV eligible postsecondary institutions in fall 1997. Previous Fall Staff reports published by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) have focused on all institutions of higher education that were accredited at the college level by an agency recognized by the Secretary, U.S. Department of Education. The U.S. Department of Education is no longer distinguishing between postsecondary institutions that are accredited at the higher education level and those that have occupation/vocational accreditation. In lieu of this designation, NCES now classifies the postsecondary institutional universe by whether or not institutions grant degrees. This information is available directly from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), conducted by NCES. The majority of this report focuses on degree-granting, Title IV eligible institutions, a subset of all postsecondary institutions eligible to participate in Title IV financial aid programs.¹ The data discussed in this report are from the "Fall Staff Survey," a component of IPEDS.

In fall 1997, 2.81 million staff were employed in all Title IV eligible postsecondary institutions. The majority of staff was female (52 percent) and was employed full time (66 per-cent). Faculty composed 36 percent of all staff, and professional staff accounted for 67 percent of employees in these institutions (table 1 and figure 1).

Table 1.—Number and percentage distribution of employees in Title IV eligible postsecondary institutions, by institution level, gender, employment status, faculty/nonfaculty status, and professional/nonprofessional status: 50 states and the District of Columbia, fall 1997

Figure 1.—Percentage distribution of employees in Title IV eligible postsecondary institutions, by gender, employment status, faculty/nonfaculty status, and professional/ nonprofessional status: 50 states and the District of Columbia, fall 1997

Degree-granting, Title IV eligible postsecondary institutions represent a subset of all eligible postsecondary institutions. Overall, they employed 2.75 million staff, or 98 percent of all staff in eligible postsecondary institutions in fall 1997. Two-thirds of these employees were employed full time. A similar pattern was observed at 4-year postsecondary institutions and 2-year postsecondary institutions, but the difference between the number of full-time and part-time employees was smaller at 2-year postsecondary institutions (table 2).

Looking at the types of professional staff employed in degree-granting, eligible postsecondary institutions, men held more than half of the executive, administrative, and managerial; faculty; and instruction/research assistant positions (figure 2). Women held a majority of the other professional (support/service) positions and the part-time executive, administrative, and managerial positions.

At 4-year institutions, men also held a larger proportion of all professional occupations, except for other professional (support/service) positions. A similar pattern was found at 2-year institutions, but the differences in the number of positions held by men and women were smaller, and women outnumbered men in instruction/research assistant positions.

Table 2.—Number of full- and part-time employees in degree-granting, Title IV eligible postsecondary institutions, by primary occupation, gender, institution level, and control of institution: 50 states and the District of Columbia, fall 1997

Figure 2.—Percentage distribution of employees in degree-granting, Title IV eligible postsecondary institutions, by primary occupation and gender: 50 states and the District of Columbia, fall 1997

An examination of employees in degree-granting, eligible postsecondary institutions by institutional control reveals that the largest concentration of staff was in public institutions at all institutional levels. Full-time staff outnumbered part-time staff at public and private, not-for-profit 4-year institutions and at private not-for-profit and private for-profit 2-year institutions.

In fall 1997, there were about 570,000 full-time faculty employed in degree-granting, eligible postsecondary institutions (table 3), representing 21 percent of all staff in degree-granting, eligible postsecondary institutions (derived from tables 2 and 3). Overall, white, non-Hispanics held 84 percent of all faculty positions (table 3). Asians or Pacific Islanders and black, non-Hispanics composed the second and third largest proportions of all full-time faculty in these institutions (6 percent and 5 percent, respectively). White, non-Hispanics also held a majority of the positions across every faculty rank. Asians or Pacific Islanders held the second largest proportion of faculty positions across the ranks of professor, associate professor, assistant professor, and other faculty. Black, non-Hispanics held the second largest proportion of faculty positions across the ranks of instructor and lecturer.

Table 3.—Number and percentage distribution of full-time faculty in degree-granting, Title IV eligible postsecondary institutions, by rank and race/ethnicity: 50 states and the District of Columbia, fall 1997

Table 4.—Number of postsecondary institutions in the 1997 "Fall Staff Survey" and survey response rates by survey form, and by sector of institution: 50 states and the District of Columbia

Table 5.—Number and survey response rates of postsecondary institutions, by Title IV eligibility, and by degree-granting status and sector of institution: 50 states and the District of Columbia, fall 1997

¹ For the remainder of this report, "Title IV eligible" schools are referred to as "eligible."