By the Numbers: Faculty Demographics and the Future Leadership of Higher Education

An aging professoriate, a growing reliance on part-time and nontenured faculty, and students who complete their PhDs and become faculty later in life are all contributing 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.

Too Many Rungs on the Ladder? Faculty Demographics and the Future Leadership of Higher Education, a new issue brief from the ACE Center for Policy Analysis, 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. . . .