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Indicator III-10
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Institutional Distribution of Humanities Faculty
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NOTE TO READERS: Please include the following reference when citing data from this page:
"American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Humanities Indicators, http://HumanitiesIndicators.org".
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See the
Note on the Definition of Faculty and on the Classification of Disciplines.
The data presented here, which are drawn from the NSOPF, describe both the distribution of humanities faculty among
types of postsecondary institutions and the proportion of humanities faculty relative to those of other fields at each of those
types of institutions. Data from the NSOPF are available as far back as 1988, but, because the institutional distribution
of humanities faculty changed little between then and 2004, only data for the latter year (the most recent available) are provided here.
The NCES, sponsor of the NSOPF, uses the
Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education
to categorize postsecondary educational institutions. (See
2000 Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Learning1 for definitions of institutional types referred to below.)
As Figure III-10a demonstrates, humanities faculty were most prevalent on the
campuses of baccalaureate colleges, constituting 20% of all faculty.
The figure also shows that humanities faculty were a substantial presence at associate’s colleges. Humanities faculty represented over 16% of all faculty working in these institutions, which were second only to baccalaureate colleges with respect to the share of faculty positions claimed by the humanities.
The importance of associate’s colleges to the employment of humanities faculty is further illustrated in Figure III-10b. Depicting the distribution of the humanities faculty population across institutional types, this figure shows that 34% of all humanities faculty taught in associate’s colleges—more than in any other type of institution. While humanities faculty may have been most strongly represented on the campuses of baccalaureate colleges, these institutions employed a relatively small percentage (11%) of all humanities faculty.
Note
1 For a complete description of the classification, see the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Learning, 2000 Edition: A Technical Report (Menlo Park, CA: Carnegie Publications, 2001),
http://classifications.carnegiefoundation.org/downloads/2000_edition_data_printable.pdf.
Note on the Definition of Faculty and on the Classification of Disciplines
Faculty
For the purposes of the Humanities Indicators, a faculty member is defined as an employee of a two-year or four-year
college or a university who teaches credit-earning courses and who may also perform research activities. Faculty thus
include not only individuals who have faculty status in their institutions but also those who are classified as
instructional staff by their employers. Faculty exclude those individuals whose duties are purely research oriented
(even though such individuals may be classified as faculty by their institutions).
Classification of Academic Disciplines
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the collector of the data on which the first indicator in this section
is based (III-9, Number of Humanities Faculty)
sorts postsecondary faculty by academic discipline, using a scheme
that includes six humanities-related categories. Five of these have been combined by the Humanities Indicators for
the purposes of estimating humanities faculty employment. They include:
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English Language and Literature
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Foreign Languages and Literatures
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History
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Philosophy and Religion
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Area, Ethnic, and Cultural Studies
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The sixth BLS category, Arts, Drama, and Music, does not distinguish between faculty who teach the academic study of
the arts (treated by the Humanities Indicators as a humanities activity) and those who teach studio and performing arts.
Consequently, faculty teaching the history and criticism of the fine arts and film are not included in the estimate of the
number of humanities faculty.
The National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF), the source of the data for the other indicators in this section,
conceptualizes the humanities somewhat more narrowly than does the Humanities Indicators, including only those individuals
teaching English, foreign languages, history, philosophy, and religion. Additionally, the NSOPF treats computer science as a natural science (although the
Humanities Indicators considers this discipline to be part of the engineering field and classifies it as such for the
purposes of the other indicators).
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2000 Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Learning
Reproduced from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, The Carnegie Classification of Institutions
of Higher Learning, 2000 Edition: A Technical Report (Menlo Park, CA: Carnegie Publications, 2001),
http://classifications.carnegiefoundation.org/downloads/2000_edition_data_printable.pdf.
Doctoral Institutions
Doctoral/Research Universities—Extensive: These institutions typically offer a wide range of baccalaureate programs,
and they are committed to graduate education through the doctorate. During the period studied, they awarded 50 or more
doctoral degrees per year across at least 15 disciplines.
Doctoral/Research Universities—Intensive: These institutions typically offer a wide range of baccalaureate programs,
and they are committed to graduate education through the doctorate. During the period studied, they awarded at least 10
doctoral degrees per year across 3 or more disciplines, or at least 20 doctoral degrees per year overall.
Master’s Colleges and Universities
Master’s Colleges and Universities I: These institutions typically offer a wide range of baccalaureate programs, and they
are committed to graduate education through the master’s degree. During the period studied, they awarded 40 or more master’s
degrees per year across three or more disciplines.
Master’s Colleges and Universities II: These institutions typically offer a wide range of baccalaureate programs, and they
are committed to graduate education through the master’s degree. During the period studied, they awarded 20 or more master’s
degrees per year.
Baccalaureate Colleges
Baccalaureate Colleges—Liberal Arts: These institutions are primarily undergraduate colleges with a major emphasis on
baccalaureate programs. During the period studied, they awarded at least half of their baccalaureate degrees in liberal
arts fields.
Baccalaureate Colleges—General: These institutions are primarily undergraduate colleges with a major emphasis on
baccalaureate programs. During the period studied, they awarded less than half of their baccalaureate degrees in liberal
arts fields.
Baccalaureate/Associate’s Colleges: These institutions are undergraduate colleges where the majority of conferrals are at
the subbaccalaureate level (associate’s degrees and certificates). During the period studied, bachelor’s degrees accounted for
at least 10 percent, but less than half, of all undergraduate awards.
Associate’s Colleges
These institutions offer associate’s degree and certificate programs but, with few exceptions,
award no baccalaureate degrees.1 This group includes institutions where, during the
period studied, bachelor’s degrees represented less than 10 percent of all undergraduate awards.
Note
1
This group includes community, junior, and technical colleges.
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