Taking Stock: The Higher Education Professoriate

Professors of higher education are few in number, diverse in interests, productive by most standards, and busy to a fault. Longitudinal data, gleaned in 1972, 1980, and 1986, reveal changes in the age, activities, research methods and professional values of this faculty group. Newly appointed and female faculty are different in some significant scholarly characteristics from their more senior, male counterparts—foreshadowing changes in the professoriate during the next decade. The data and analyses reported here may stimulate both individual and collective reassessments of our professional priorities.