Too Many Rungs on the Ladder?

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Too Many Rungs on the Ladder?

September 01, 2008

There is a dearth of young permanent faculty who will have the time and opportunity to advance up the academic career ladder into positions of administrative leadership at colleges and universities. This scarcity of young academics seems to be the combined result of three developments: an aging professoriate, rising numbers of part-time and non–tenure-line faculty, and students completing doctoral education and entering the professoriate later in life. This issue brief describes the demographics of junior faculty, explains why there are so few young adults in the professoriate, outlines the level of experience expected of current leaders, and discusses the implications for the future leadership of higher education.

Too Many Rungs on the Ladder? (PDF) 81 KB

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