Recent trends have made the transition from business professional to academic increasingly popular as a move to a second career. This article offers a personal perspective on a critical component of a successful transition--the fruitful leveraging of different university communities. The recommendations are in line with studies showing the…

This qualitative study included seven nontenured special education teachers, all of whom were assigned more experienced teachers as mentors. The study was conducted in public elementary and middle schools located in the western suburbs of Chicago, IL. During data analysis, four themes were identified as either obstacles these teachers shared or…

Mentoring is recognized as an effective way to support the development of junior faculty in higher education. Engagement in an informal or formal mentoring program will support the development of junior faculty on the path to tenure. Because the needs of individual faculty vary, many institutions of higher education have implemented formal…

The nature of the faculty has changed dramatically over the last forty years; and today's faculty model no longer meets the needs of students, faculty, or institutions. However, the issue of redefining faculty roles is extremely contentious. In this article we report our examination of open-ended, qualitative data from a larger survey study of…

This research study explored through an embedded case study how selected Non-tenure Track Faculty (NTTF) in Puerto Rico perceived governance and how they participated in the decision-making process. The theoretical framework of this research was based on the principles of shared governance and the Social Exchange Theory. To explore how NTTF…

This article presents new quasi-experimental evidence regarding the effectiveness of teaching-oriented faculty with tenure-track appointment, a model pioneered at the University of California (UC) system. Using data from six cohorts of students at a UC campus, we examine the impact of initial course-taking with three distinct types of…

This book examines tensions and challenges in the professional lives and identities of contemporary academics. Drawing on extensive interviews conducted over seven years with academics in the United States and the United Kingdom, the authors analyze the experiences of four types of academics as they respond and adjust to the demands of…

Continuous changes in social demand and development provide an acute and continuous pressure on universities. The question is whether higher education institutions (HEI) in Ecuador deliver graduates with the competences to provide timely economic, ecological, and sustainable solutions. Additionally, HEIs should prepare graduates to find employment…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to use Senge's theory of the Learning Organization to examine faculty perceptions of the importance of information literacy education and the integration of information literacy instruction at three Mid-Atlantic community colleges. The researcher examined faculty characteristics (gender, race, and age)…

This paper tests for and measures monopsony power in the U.S. higher education labor market. It does so by directly estimating the residual labor supply curves facing individual four-year colleges and universities using school-specific labor demand instruments. The results indicate that schools have significant monopsony power over their tenure…

Organizational pressures influence the restructuring of the academic workforce. This chapter describes the key factors associated with increased hiring of contingent faculty.

As the non-tenure-track (NTT) cohort of writing faculty grows, departments and programs need to provide equitable working conditions for all faculty, including reasonable workloads and protections against unnecessary changes; access to shared governance and curricular decisions; transparent and fair hiring, evaluation, and renewal processes;…

The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMA), a public research university, has demonstrated a long-standing commitment to improving working conditions for non-tenure track faculty (NTTF) with a 20-year track record of progressive policies to improve the support for them. This commitment is manifested through a series of improvements in policies,…

The Academic WorkForce Survey has been conducted every two years since 1986. Between March and June 2018, researchers contacted 797 physics and astronomy departments (including 39 astronomy-only departments) that award a bachelor's degree or higher in physics or astronomy. Responses were received from 720 institutions, a 90% response rate. This…

In any academic department, faculty members retire or leave for a variety of reasons, and new faculty members are hired to replace departing faculty or fill newly created positions. This report focuses on departures, retirements, recruitments, and new hires in physics and astronomy departments. In our Academic Workforce Surveys, we collect the…