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The report evaluates impacts of changing student demand and historic events, comparing tenure-track and non-tenure-track ratios and salary growth against inflation.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & 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Trends in Higher Education  \nBy Brielle Johnson and Melissa Fuesting  \nMay 2025  \nIntroduction  \nIn recent years, higher education institutions have faced pressure to prioritize certain disciplines over others. 1 Financial strain and a looming “enrollment cliff” have compelled colleges and universities to make strategic decisions about allocating their limited resources.2, 3 In particular, there have been heightened pressures to emphasize disciplines that are in greater demand by students or perceived by the public as translating directly from degree to career. Degrees in health professions and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields have risen in popularity among recent graduates, likely as a result of labor market projections of growth in these areas and their practical application in the workforce.4, 5 These changes in student demand and public need have contributed to ade-emphasis on humanities and the liberal arts and an increased emphasis on business, health, and STEM fields across higher ed.6, 7  \nShifts in the prioritization of disciplines are marked by changes in course offerings, department structures, and research and teaching investments. This report takes a longitudinal approach to provide insights on how academic disciplines have changed overtime in terms of faculty salaries, tenure status, and headcount. We examined trends across and within disciplines to explore how recent historic events (e.g., the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic) and shifting priorities may have impacted the higher education faculty workforce.  \nThe Data  \nThis report investigates trends over the past 20 years in the salaries, tenure status, and number of faculty across academic disciplines using data from the CUPA-HR Faculty in Higher Education Survey from 2003-04 to 2023-24.8 The Faculty in Higher Education Survey has served as an industry benchmark for faculty salaries by academic discipline since CUPA-HR  \n1 Ahmed, S. (2024, July 8) . The Death of Humanities Education: Why We Need to Revalue the Arts and Sciences. Medium.  \n2 Dickeson, R. C. (2010). Prioritizing Academic Programs and Services: Reallocating Resources to Achieve Strategic Balance, Revised and Updated. John Wiley & Sons.  \n3 Boeckenstedt, J. (2022, March 22) . Will Your College Survive the Demographic Cliff?. The Chronicle of Higher Education.  \n4 Nietzel, M. T. (2022, July 24) . The Five Most Significant Ten-Year Trends In College Majors. Forbes.  \n5 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2024, August 29) . Fastest Growing Occupations.  \n6 Dutt-Ballerstadt, R. (2019, February 28) . Academic Prioritization or Killing the Liberal Arts?. Inside Higher Ed.  \n7 Curry, D. C. K. (2024, April 8). The Gutting of the Liberal Arts. The Chronicle of Higher Education.  \n8 CUPA-HR. (2024). Faculty in Higher Education Survey, 2003-04 to 2023-24.  \nbegan collecting this data in 1981-82.9 This survey is administered annually, providing upto-date information on recent and historic trends in faculty disciplines. Recent advancements in CUPA-HR’s data collection methods offer opportunities to provide nuanced insights into faculty trends, including comparisons of the proportion of tenuretrack (TT) faculty to non-tenure-track (NTT) faculty by discipline over time.  \nThe Analyses  \nThis report describes trends across academic disciplines over the past 20 years and addresses the following questions: 1) How has an increased prioritization of higher demand programs impacted the size and pay of various disciplines? 2) Do ratios of TT to NTT faculty vary by discipline? 3) Have changes in faculty data trends coincided with recent historic events? The report also highlights noteworthy differences across disciplines regarding growth and pay from 2003-04 to 2023-24.  \nFirst, we will start with a review of trends in faculty discipline size. We will present changes in discipline size from 2003-04 to 2023-24, including an analysis of recent new ass","cbCailhwdgrhi6Bn","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCailhwdgrhi6Bn","pdf",799677,23,"English","# Introduction\n# The Data\n# The Analyses\n# Faculty Disciplines","[{\"question\":\"What data source does the report use to study faculty discipline trends?\",\"answer\":\"The report uses data from the CUPA-HR Faculty in Higher Education Survey covering 2003-04 to 2023-24.\"},{\"question\":\"Which faculty measures does the report analyze across disciplines?\",\"answer\":\"It examines faculty salaries, tenure status (tenure-track vs non-tenure-track), and the number of faculty (headcount) by discipline.\"},{\"question\":\"What disciplines are reported to have fared better or worse in salary and growth outcomes?\",\"answer\":\"Business, Health Professions, Biological/Biomedical Sciences, Engineering, and Legal Professions generally fared better, while English Language/Literature, Liberal Arts and Humanities, Consumer Sciences, Education, and Theology generally fared worse.\"}]","Two Decades of Change - Faculty Discipline Trends in Higher Education - May 2025 | PDF",1792049709,58]