Promotion practices in accredited engineering technology programs.

A survey of administrators of accredited engineering technology programs was completed in the spring of 1990 for the purpose of identifying, analyzing, and describing the basic credentials and key concepts related to promotion in academic rank of engineering technology faculty. The survey was limited to programs located in four-year public and private colleges, technical institutes, and community colleges. The results of the survey revealed differences in the relative importance of the criteria utilized in evaluating faculty for promotion within and between the four broad categories of Teaching, Institutional Service, Research and Publication, and Public Service. Administrators responding to this survey also expressed significant differences in opinions between the importance of the criteria as currently utilized in the promotion process and what they felt the importance of the criteria should be. No differences were found in the weightings of promotion criteria by classification of institution. However, teaching at the associate professor rank in associate degree programs was found to be significantly greater than the weighting of the other categories at each of the ranks. In the area of faculty credentials, it was found that there are identifiable basic credentials that faculty must possess before they are considered for promotion in rank regardless of the institutional setting of the programs and the level of degrees awarded. Differences were also identified in the credentials required for promotion to the rank of professor. Few differences were found in the opinions of the administrators regarding promotion at their institutions. The role of research and publication, the need for a doctorate for promotion in rank, and faculty satisfaction with the promotion process were the only points of disagreement between administrators of the four classifications of institutions surveyed