5 Charts Depicting How Faculty Have Changed in Last 20 Years

Amid shifts to align college programs with workforce needs, higher education institutions have largely de-emphasized disciplines that don’t seem to prepare students explicitly for a particular job, according to a recent report from the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources that analyzed trends in faculty pay and head count over a 20-year period.

To take one example, from 2003–04 to 2023–24, the English language/literature discipline reported growth in non-tenure-track faculty but a drop in overall faculty. Additionally, English faculty are among the lowest paid and have seen only slight increases in the median salary. To CUPA-HR researchers, “these findings suggest broad divestment in English Language/Literature,” says the report, which was released earlier this month. The liberal arts and humanities disciplines saw similar drops.

Meanwhile, the health professions saw the largest growth. According to the report, data on the 29 disciplines covered—which includes both tenure-track and non-tenure-track teaching faculty—reflects the pressure on colleges and universities to focus on academic programs “that are in higher student demand and perceived as directly connected to job preparation.” That includes the STEM fields and those with clear pathways to a career. Below, Inside Higher Ed breaks down the findings into five charts.

Some Disciplines Grow, Others Shrink

The health professions saw by far the largest growth, more than doubling the number of faculty over the 20-year time period. According to the report, the expansion in health professions faculty could stem from “shortages in the healthcare workforce and increasing healthcare demands related to an aging U.S. population,” which is boosting enrollment rates.

Comparing Faculty Pay

Over the last 20 years, disciplines that pay the most and least have remained fairly consistent, with theology and English at the bottom and business, engineering and legal professions at the top. In fact, business has paid the most as a discipline since 2015–16. The report attributes this to “how Business faculty salaries tend to be higher than other fields due to competition with industry, and careers in the private sector for many areas of Business … are typically more lucrative than working in higher ed.”

Investments in Salaries Show Colleges’ Priorities

Tenure-track faculty consistently received the lowest pay increases relative to other higher ed employee groups, and were the only group whose raise in 2023–24 fell below the rate of inflation, according to the report. None of the median salaries in the 29 disciplines included in the report kept pace with inflation over the 20-year period.

Tracking Faculty Growth

Growth in the number of assistant professors who are generally on the tenure track can serve as a way to gauge discipline growth. Among students, business is a popular discipline, so hiring more assistant professors in this field could reflect an effort to meet increasing demand, according to the report.

CUPA-HR researchers urged institutions to regularly evaluate programs to ensure they are meeting students’ needs and to “better convey the value of liberal arts and humanities degrees and courses to students, employers, and society at large.”

“A narrow focus on degree-to-career programs may not adequately prepare students for current and future workforce needs,” the report states. “In addition to teaching students technical, job-specific skills, a college degree should prepare students to manage novel and complex challenges that require analytical thinking, empathy, and creativity. The liberal arts and humanities provide students with these valuable and versatile skill sets that may be more flexibly applied to address the complex and uncertain needs of the future workforce.”