A REVIEW OF NON-TENURE-TRACK FULL TIME FACULTY AT SYSTEMS CENTRIC SYSTEMS ENGINEERING (SCSE) PROGRAMS

摘要

The main objective of this study is to review the status of full-time non-tenure-track faculty (NTTF) at existing graduate Systems Centric Systems Engineering (SCSE) programs in the US, including an examination of hiring policies, roles, working conditions, and barriers against hiring full-time NTTF. A comprehensive survey and other sources were used to gather data from all 30 existing graduate SCSE programs nationwide. Key findings are: (1) fewer than 50% of SCSE programs hire full-time NTTF and among them, the majority of the programs (65%) have fewer than four full-time NTTF; (2) 24% of the total faculty employed by SCSE programs in 2010 are full-time NTTF and most of them (67%) spend the majority of their time teaching; (3) all respondents (65% response rate) who hire full-time NTTF identified industrial experience as the most attractive reason for hiring them; (4) close to 58% of the respondents use a formal search to hire full-time NTTF, while the rest rely on personal and institutional networks and recommendations; and (5) over 80% of the respondents apply policies in hiring and retaining full-time NTTF that are similar to those used for tenured and tenure-track faculty (TTTF) and 32% of them reported that the hiring process for full-time NTTF is decentralized, allowing it to be conducted at the department or school level. The most significant barriers to hiring full-time NTTF are the short contract length being unattractive and a lack of funding to hire them. The present study shows that institutions that started after 1995 and had 40% or more of their full-time faculty as NTTF have produced more masters degree graduates than the remaining SCSE programs that have a lower percentage of full-time NTTF.