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Faculty Perspectives on Current Topics in Higher Education

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A survey of the American professoriate’s views on current issues in higher education
  • Dates
    July 2025 – November 2025

Challenge

Current issues in academia create polarized environments that affect faculty work and university functioning. 

Faculty at American universities hold diverse perspectives regarding current issues in higher education. These issues often emerge within polarized environments, where opinions may be shaped by personal beliefs or political ideologies. To better understand these viewpoints, the researchers plan to survey faculty on topics such as workplace expectations and diversity. Their goal is to gain insight into how these issues influence faculty work environments and the broader functioning of universities.

Solution

NORC will survey faculty at American universities about current issues in higher education.

NORC will administer a survey to faculty across American universities. The faculty selected for the survey have previously participated in a Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) survey and individually agreed to be contacted for future research. COACHE is based at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and has been administering surveys to U.S. faculty since 2005.

The survey will take approximately 10 minutes to complete and asks questions about workplace experiences, political preferences, political knowledge and engagement, perspectives on diversity in academia, and thoughts about local issues within the institution. Faculty who participate in this survey help advance insights that could improve the advice and support that scholars, teachers, and university leaders receive across the American professoriate.

Result

Researchers will analyze survey data to gain a deeper understanding of the range of faculty perspectives on current issues in higher education.

The researchers intend to combine the data from this contemporary survey with anonymized data from the COACHE Faculty Job Satisfaction Survey to advance insights on the current American professoriate and their views on current topics such as diversity in higher education. This project will develop and assess narrative structures which may be used by faculty and administrators when communicating about current issues in higher education and academic values in their micro and macro environments.

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