Future of Faculty Roles

Overview

The future of the faculty and faculty roles is central to any discussion of the future of higher education. In the winter of 2021, we gathered faculty members of our Futures Collaboratory along with faculty leadership in our Faculty Senate to explore this topic.

Faculty play a central role in the past, present and future of higher education - yet seldom do

we have time or space to think about, explore and imagine how current trends will likely shape

the higher education landscape of the future. We know that faculty roles are changing, evolving - and that

trends of all kinds are influencing the many directions that faculty are feeling pulled (and pushed).

What do faculty want and not want in the university of the future? What are the risks (more

present and discussed) and the opportunities (less discussed) for faculty to evolve together on purpose to

co-create the university of the future? What should be protected in terms of faculty roles -

and what should be interrupted if not dismantled?

What are administrative practices as well as shared governance practices that

best support a thriving faculty culture in the future?

We discussed the landscape of this topic as it is represented - comparing that to how it "feels" to be a faculty member right now, what we collectively see ahead of us as a community.

A final report will be shared by the end of the academic year, but we'll post these two documents as an "in process" snapshot of this work.

Preliminary forecast/synthesis of future of faculty literature.

Scan of academic and gray literature on the future of the faculty.

Relevant to this topic: Scan on neoliberalism and higher education.

Also see items in the tab regarding race and the anti-racist university in this section - relevant to this topic as well.