A Career in Higher Education

includes teaching, research and student service activities at colleges or universities at both the undergraduate level and the graduate (or postdoctoral) level.

Resources on College and University Teaching in 106 Page 

• The Chronicle of Higher Education (also available online; includes faculty and administrative job listings)
• Graduate School and You: A Guide (grad student shelf) by Council of Graduate Schools
• Good Start: A Guidebook for New Faculty in Liberal Arts Colleges by Gerald Gibson
• Shattering the Myths: Women in Academe by Judith Glazer-Raymo
• Working for a Doctorate: A Guide for the Humanities and Social Sciences by Norman Graves and Ved Varma
• Calling: Essays on Teaching in the Mother Tongue by Gail Griffin
• Getting What You Came for: The Smart Student’s Guide to Earning a Master’s or Ph.D. by Robert Peters
• Tomorrow’s Professor: Preparing for Academic Careers in Science and Engineering by Richard Reis.

Preparation for a Faculty Career

To teach, perform research and administer education programs (at the director level) requires a Ph.D. degree. Working toward a doctorate requires more rigorous academic performance than the master’s degree and may take 4-6+ years to complete. To enter a doctoral program is a major decision that requires the utmost commitment and careful advance observation of the daily work of graduate students and faculty.

First half of a doctoral program:
Most programs require 1-2 years of coursework, a preliminary decision on the focus of research through working with faculty members and depending on the discipline, the completion of a comprehensive exam or research proposal.

Last half of a doctoral program: This period requires a shift in focus to intensive research and the development of a dissertation whose purpose is to showcase new and innovative research or the application of principles to practical problems. Advanced candidates for the Ph.D. will typically exercise more autonomy in time management, may TA or teach their own courses, interact more closely with faculty advisors and other colleagues and defend their dissertation before a panel of faculty members.

The Ph.D. Program Application Process 
The ABCs of Getting a Ph.D.
A Day in the Life of a Duke PhD Student
Duke Faculty Tips on Adjusting to Graduate School
 

Higher Education Career Paths

Faculty
Higher education institutions offering undergraduate and advanced degrees employ research and teaching professionals who are working toward or have obtained a doctorate. Some academic disciplines will require applicants to have postdoctoral research experience. Community Colleges employ individuals with master’s or Ph.D. degrees. Faculty in higher education institutions may be hired on the tenure-track with the expectation that they will fulfill the requirements for permanent faculty status at the end of a trial period of approximately 7 years. Other faculty will be hired on a temporary contract basis. Since the 1970s, the proportion of tenured and tenure-track faculty members in the American professoriate has decreased from about 57 percent to about 35 percent, while the proportion of full-and part-timers working off the tenure track has grown from about 43 percent to 65 percent.

Focus on Teaching Undergraduates
Individuals especially interested in teaching undergraduates will choose academic disciplines and apply to Ph.D. programs where they can receive training and get teaching experience as TA’s and instructors.

Focus on Conducting Research
Those primarily interested in pushing the boundaries of knowledge, will apply to graduate schools that offer research assistantships
( RA’s) and focus on educating scholars to discover, communicate and publish knowledge in traditional or emerging disciplines in the humanities, social sciences, sciences and engineering. Research faculty may teach undergraduates, but they and their institutions will be valued for their productivity in winning grants, in the publication of book and journal articles, and accumulating citations, honors and awards.

What Do Faculty Do?

Administration of Schools, Departments and Programs
Individuals who enjoy supporting college and advanced student development outside the classroom and educating students in leadership skills, will enter administration through many routes, but increasingly through professional degrees related to psychology, educational administration or student personnel.

Focus on Academic Administration
In colleges and universities, provosts, also known as chief academic officers, assist presidents, make faculty appointments and tenure decisions, develop budgets, and establish academic policies and programs. With the assistance of academic deans and deans of faculty, they also direct and coordinate the activities of deans of individual colleges and chairpersons of academic departments. Fundraising is the chief responsibility of the director of development and is also becoming an essential part of the job for all administrators.
College or university department heads or chairpersons manage departments that specialize in particular fields of study, such as English, biological science, or mathematics. In addition to teaching, they coordinate schedules of classes and teaching assignments; propose budgets; recruit, interview, and hire applicants for teaching positions; evaluate faculty members; encourage faculty development; serve on committees; and perform other administrative duties. Those who fulfill these roles usually come through the faculty route.

What Deans Do

Focus on Student Services
Higher education administrators also direct and coordinate the provision of student services-- international student services, health and counseling services, career services, financial aid, and housing and residential life, as well as social, cultural, recreational, and related programs. Registrars are custodians of students’ records. Directors of admissions manage the process of recruiting, evaluating, and admitting students, and work closely with financial aid directors, who oversee scholarship, fellowship, and loan programs. Athletic directors plan and direct intramural and intercollegiate athletic activities, seeing to publicity for athletic
events, preparation of budgets, and supervision of coaches. Other increasingly important administrators direct public relations, distance learning, and technology. These positions require at minimum a master’s degree and relevant experience, but there are opportunities for bachelor’s degree holders to qualify for administrative internships and entry-level positions.

Administration Profile: Community College Career Counselor

Types of Post-secondary Institutions

Research Universities grant academic degrees at all levels (bachelor, master, and doctorate) in a variety of subjects. Universities are generally divided into academic departments, schools or faculties. Public university systems are funded by state tax revenue and student tuition in the main and regulated by government-run higher education boards. A private university is funded primarily by endowments and student tuition and is run without the control of any government entity. Universities are usually among the foremost research and advanced training providers in every society. Most universities offer courses in subjects ranging from the natural sciences, engineering, architecture or medicine, to sports administration, social sciences, law or humanities. Major universities have their own libraries, computer labs, research laboratories/centers/institutes, astronomical observatories, botanical gardens, hospitals and clinics, business incubators, student unions, restaurants, and sports centers.

Liberal arts colleges primarily educate undergraduates with an emphasis upon the liberal arts, a curriculum aimed at imparting general knowledge and developing general intellectual capacities, in contrast to a professional, vocational, or technical curriculum. Liberal arts colleges have traditionally emphasized interactive instruction (although research is still a component of faculty work in these institutions). They are known for being residential and for having smaller enrollment, class size, and teacher-student ratios than universities. These colleges encourage a high level of teacher-student interaction at the center of which are classes taught by full-time faculty rather than graduate student TAs (who teach the classes at Research I and other universities).

Community colleges, sometimes called technical colleges, county colleges, junior colleges or a city colleges, are educational institutions providing the first two years of postsecondary education, granting certificates, diplomas, and  Associates' degrees that allow students who wish to eventually obtain a bachelor's degree at a four-year college to complete the necessary "core" requirements to attend the college of their choice. Students range in age and objectives from

• Teenagers in high school taking classes under a concurrent, or dual, enrollment policy (which allows both high school and college credits to be earned simultaneously)
• Working adults taking classes at night to complete a degree or gain additional skills in their field
• Students with graduate degrees who enroll to become more employable or to pursue lifelong interests. "Reverse transfers" (or those transferring from a university) constitute one of the fastest growing new community college cohorts.

Online Universities
One threat to enrollment at community colleges is the rapidly increasing popularity of for-profit e-learning and online universities, such as the University of Phoenix, which is now the 16th-largest university in the world. The market research firm Eduventures estimates that 10% of college students will be enrolled in an online degree program by 2008. Many community colleges have supplemented their offerings with online courses to stave off competition from exclusively e-learning schools.

2006-07 Faculty Salary Survey   

from the American Association of University Professors (AAUP)
Average Salaries of Assistant Professors
( Data from 1,428 reporting institutions)
Percentiles
Doctoral Institutions    Bachelor’s Institutions
95th  $82,894        $64,012
80th  $71,763        $54,484
60th  $66,263        $49,694
40th  $61,883        $46,621
20th  $56,952        $42,469
 

Advice to a Junior Faculty Member

As a junior faculty member you are likely to work harder than you did as a graduate student, but you have more control over what you're working on. Some responsibilities are the same: you must teach classes, write papers for conference presentation or publication, and meet deadlines. However, you now have additional duties, such as evaluating the papers of others in your field (peer reviews), reviewing books/journals, publishing and writing reference letters. You will spend more time than you anticipate writing letters of recommendation for students. To get started, ask colleagues for sample recommendation letters. Consult your colleagues about the ethical issues that are inherent in the writing of recommendations.

Look to senior faculty as mentors. They know the norms and pitfalls of the institution. Find mentors outside your department with whom you can have more open discussions about your professional development.

Take the time to understand the history of your department. In the first year of faculty meetings, you may not want to speak as a newcomer. As a new hire, you don't know the history behind some of the issues. As a result, you may unwittingly align yourself with one camp of faculty and against another camp.

Now that you have research and travel funds, take full advantage of conferences as a unique opportunity to meet peers in your field and allow them to put a face with your publications. Small conferences can provide more time to meet people than large conferences. In the tenure review you must give a list of people outside your department who can evaluate your work and provide a reference.
From www.rackham.umich.edu/StudentInfo/workshops/2000Winter