Shifting Demographic Realities May Require Higher Education To
Re-examine Its Traditional Career Ladder
Sept.
22, 2008
An aging
professoriate, a growing reliance on part-time and non-tenured faculty,
and students who complete their PhDs and become faculty later in life
are all factors that contribute to a scarcity of young permanent faculty
who will have the time and opportunity to advance up the traditional
career ladder to a college presidency, a new issue brief by the American
Council on Education (ACE) concludes.
Too
Many Rungs on the Ladder? Faculty Demographics and the Future Leadership
of Higher Education examines why so few young adults are in the
professoriate and discusses the implications for the future of the
nation's colleges and universities. The report, which analyzes data from
the Department of Education's 2003-04 National Survey of Postsecondary
Faculty, suggests that the longstanding career ladder to top
administrative posts in academia may have too many steps given these
shifting demographic realities.
Among the key
findings:
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Only 3 percent of all faculty are aged 34 or younger and hold the
types of permanent positions that typically lead to advancement (tenured
or tenure-line positions at four-year institutions and full-time
positions at community colleges).
-
Nearly half (48 percent) of all faculty at four-year institutions
were either not in tenure-track position or worked at institutions that
do not offer tenure. At community colleges, 62 percent of faculty hold
part-time positions.
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Women aged 45 or younger working in permanent positions make up
only 5 percent of faculty at four-year institutions, and 6 percent of
faculty at community colleges. Likewise, people of color aged 45 or
younger working in permanent positions make up only 4 percent of faculty
at four-year institutions and 6 percent of community college
faculty.
“With
fewer young permanent junior faculty in the professoriate, the current
path to a college presidency may not allow them the opportunity to rise
through the ranks in the same way their predecessors did,” said
Jacqueline E. King, assistant vice president and director of ACE's
Center for Policy Analysis and author of the issue brief. “If this
current model—which typically includes stints as a tenured faculty
member, department chair and chief academic officer—is no longer
working, higher education must find ways to alter the career ladder so
that people can skip rungs and rise to the presidency with fewer years
of experience, or become more open to individuals from areas other than
academic affairs.”
According to
King, other factors that contribute to the dearth of young adults at the
bottom rungs of the higher education career ladder include the increased
prevalence of postdoctoral appointments and the rising number of male
and, in particular, young female academics who take time away from their
careers to care for young children. At community colleges, it appears
that for many faculty, teaching may be a second career.
Further
restricting the number of young people coming into the professoriate
could be the troubled economy, which may result in faculty delaying
their retirements.
The “time
crunch” for junior faculty aspiring to higher education leadership
is also a function of the experience level currently demanded of college
presidents. Previous research conducted by ACE found that current
presidents have an average of 22 years of experience in their current
and prior two positions alone, plus an average of eight years of
experience as full-time faculty. ACE research and extensive anecdotal
evidence suggest that boards and search committees seek leaders with
this type of extensive experience because the demands of leading
colleges and universities are so great.
“If the
demands of leading higher education institutions continue to grow, many
potential future leaders may opt out of taking on that enormous
responsibility at the time their peers are contemplating
retirement,” King added.
Too Many
Rungs on the Ladder? Faculty Demographics and the Future Leadership of
Higher Education is part of the Spectrum
Initiative; Advancing Diversity in the College
Presidency, a multiyear, national agenda
designed to diversify and broaden executive leadership talent in higher
education.
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