Exploring Faculty Career Progression: A Retention and Tenure Perspective. AIR 1995 Annual Forum Paper

This study identified the likelihood of new, tenure-track assistant professor obtaining tenure at a large multicampus university (the University of Missouri system). Logistic regression was used to determine whether certain faculty characteristics help to explain who received tenure. The tenure rate was based on the percentage of new assistant professors who secured tenure by the end of their sixth year. Five cohorts during 1982-1986 of new assistant professors (n=385) from four campuses were tracked, as were 195 full-time assistant professors who had been promoted to associate professor during 1983-1986. Findings indicated: more assistant professors had left the university (44 percent) than had secured tenure (39 percent) in 6 years; of four discipline areas, assistant professors in the health professions were least likely to secure tenure; gender did not help to predict whether an assistant professor received tenure; for those who left, departure was gradual over the 6-year period; and 21 percent of the associate professors were promoted to full professor by the end of their 6th year after receiving tenure. (Contains 21 references.) (SW)