Enrollment Growth and Faculty Hiring at Public Research Universities

Declines in state appropriations have decreased the ability of public research universities to hire faculty, particularly tenure line faculty. Many universities have grown nonresident enrollment as a substitute for state funding. This study investigates whether faculty hiring was associated differently with nonresident enrollment growth versus resident enrollment growth. Grounded in labor demand theory, to study this relationship we estimate institution-level panel statistical models for the academic years 2002–2003 to 2016–2017. Results indicate that nonresident enrollment growth had a stronger positive association with full-time tenure line hires than resident enrollment growth. In contrast, employment of full-time and part-time non-tenure track faculty was not associated differently to nonresident versus resident enrollment growth. The institutional policy implication is that nonresident enrollment growth may be a viable strategy to finance tenure line faculty hires. However, state policymakers should recognize that many public research universities and most regional public universities face weak nonresident enrollment demand and are unlikely to compensate for declines in state funding by growing nonresident enrollment.