This article presents the results from a survey of political science department chairs regarding the tenure procedures and standards at their colleges or universities. The findings reveal that only a small fraction of the colleges and universities in the United States refuse to offer tenure or are attempting to limit tenure. We also find general agreement regarding the standards for evaluating teaching and service and that research expectations vary according to the highest degree offered by a department.
This article investigates the variables that affect the award of tenure in political science departments in the United States. We examined two dependent variables:(1) whether a department has denied tenure in the past five years, and (2) whether a positive departmental tenure recommendation has been reversed by higher college or university authorities during the same period of time. Five clusters of independent variables were evaluated: (1) college/university and departmental characteristics, (2) the procedures employed to evaluate tenure cases, (3) the instruments used to assess teaching, (4) service expectations, and (5) research and publication standards. We found that the most important factors affecting departmental decisions to deny tenure were whether teaching and substantive publications were treated as equally valuable qualifications, the number of articles a candidate published, and the candidate's level of commitment to advising. Interestingly, reversal decisions by higher authorities were not strongly affected by any of the variables in the analysis.
In recent years, increased attention has focused on how doctoral
programs prepare graduate students to become faculty members at
colleges and universities. One reflection of this interest is the
development of such training programs as Preparing Future Faculty
(PFF), which the Association of American Colleges and Universities
and the Council of Graduate Schools founded in 1993. With financial
support from the Pew Charitable Trusts, the National Science
Foundation, and the Atlantic Philanthropies, and with the
participation of several professional associations, including the
American Political Science Association, PFF has grown to include
nearly 300 colleges and universities nationwide. In the recent past,
21 doctoral departments, including four from political science, have
received funding for PFF. In addition to formal PFF programs, the
literature on graduate education suggests that many doctoral
departments have established their own training routines to assist
graduate students as they prepare to teach and/or to assume faculty
responsibilities.
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