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New findings highlight faculty members’ sentiment in the changing academic landscape.
As institutions respond to the evolving challenges of the higher education landscape, faculty remain critical to their overall success. In partnership with Hanover Research, Elsevier assesses faculty sentiment at regular intervals, asking faculty members questions that capture their full experience as professors and scholars.
Our results provide a deep understanding of faculty members’ perspectives on their professional experiences — and paint a picture of the current state of higher education.
Download the infographic for insights into the new Hanover Research survey
We polled faculty members in areas spanning workload, engagement, career advancement and technology systems, allowing us to uncover the shifts — as well as the consistencies — of perceptions over time. These key takeaways illuminate the primary drivers of faculty engagement, future plans and general commitment to their role and their institution.
Workload and demands on faculty members’ time above and beyond their core academic duties have increased. These pressures have serious consequences, from faculty attrition to degradation of quality output by faculty members, which affects both student and faculty outcomes as well as institutional reputation and funding.
Key finding: Most faculty members (81%) say their workload has increased in the past year, up from 65% in 2023.
Since 2023, faculty satisfaction has strengthened across key career touchpoints, including anticipated career path and the promotions process. However, most faculty members we surveyed feel that evaluation still misses important contributions, saying that institutions use over-simplified metrics to evaluate impact. Transparency concerns have grown, and faculty members also feel that their service and student-facing work are under-recognized.
Key finding: Around one-third of faculty members cite lack of transparency (33%) and lack of recognition (32%) as ongoing barriers to advancement.
Faculty members view workflow technology as highly beneficial to their success. Most believe faculty‑specific technology would meaningfully support their career progression, and almost all would like to use such a system to generate web profiles and CVs.
Key finding: Every single respondent reported that faculty information and workflow technology specifically designed for faculty would be helpful to their career success to some degree, with most (88%) saying this technology would be very or extremely helpful.
Insights into the faculty experience
Download infographic for insights into the new Hanover Research surveyThe findings from our survey highlight faculty sentiment at this point in time — as well as how that outlook has evolved since previous surveys. They also unearth insights into the ways academic leaders can help boost institutional success and health, as faculty expertise and engagement drive student and research outcomes, institutional reputation and pedagogical innovation.
The full white paper with our findings will be available soon. Submit the form now to get these insights delivered to your inbox upon release.
Sign up to receive Elsevier's upcoming white paper, created in partnership with Hanover Research, for a closer look at how faculty members are experiencing growing workload pressures, barriers to career advancement and the need for purpose-built systems that better support their success.
Submit the form to get the white paper delivered to your inbox as soon as it is released.
