Selected Characteristics

This study vas designed to collect data concerning the characteristics of the higher education faculty of Pennsylvania. A population of 21,228 teaching faculty in 118 colleges and universities in Pennsylvania were surveyed by means of college catalogs, records of the Pennsylvania Human Rights Commission, and a mail questionnaire. The catalogs provided information about source of degrees, and limited data on race were obtained from the Human Rights Commission. Tenure status, age, rank, teaching load, sex, place of birth, highest degree, length of experience, and number of national professional conferences attended were obtained from the questionnaire. Highlights of the study indicated: (1) Almost two-thirds of Pennsylvania faculty bad tenure in the academic year 1972-73. (2) A comparable bulging at the higher professorial ranks has not yet Occurred in Pennsylvania. (3) The faculty of Pennsylvania institutions of higher education appears to be an aging faculty. Those over 40 years of age now constitute 56.8 percent of the total. (4) The average teaching load for Pennsylvania faculty is about ten hours. (5) Faculty in the Commonwealth are not particularly inbred. Less than 20 percent have returned to their alma Raters as teachers. (6) Women compose only 21.1 percent of the facility in Pennsylvania; and they are less likely than Pennsylvania men to be tenured and to be at the senior academic ranks. (Author/NJN) The Higher Education Facult