Through over a decade of collaboration with senior faculty administrators, COACHE has a unique understanding of faculty needs and the intricacies of life in higher education. Based on scholarly literature, interviews with faculty, and focus groups with senior academic administrators, our Faculty Job Satisfaction Survey was crafted by and for academic affairs leaders.
Faculty Job Satisfaction Survey
Gain valuable insights through a customized, adaptive report that includes thoughtful data segmentation out of the box.
Benchmark your faculty's experience of the academic workplace within both internal and national contexts.
Compare your data against a self-selected group of peer institutions, as well as our pool of national results.
Survey Themes
The Faculty Job Satisfaction Survey themes have been carefully curated based on research and ability to effect change. These themes include:
Nature of Work: Research
Nature of Work: Teaching
Nature of Work: Service
Tenured faculty often express dissatisfaction with their service work: too many committees doing, too many reports sitting unread, and too many faculty picking up the slack of those who somehow evade service commitments. Meanwhile, institutions are often encouraged to "protect" pre-tenure faculty from too many time commitments.
Our instrument invites faculty to explore tensions between institutional expectations for service and the recognition it receives in faculty evaluations through questions about the quantity, quality, and equitable distribution of their service work, as well as their institutions' efforts to help faculty be service leaders and while sustaining their other commitments.
Resources & Support
Interdisciplinary Work, Collaboration, & Mentoring
There is a great deal for institutions to gain by embracing interdisciplinary and collaborative work. There has been widespread growth in research collaboration within and between institutions and with off-campus partners, public and private funding for interdisciplinary research has increased, and this type of work attracts many graduate students and early-career faculty. Mentoring on the other hand has always been important in the academic workplace, but has only recently evolved into an intentional practice.
This survey module serves as a clear barometer of how new and evolving policies in this arena are affecting the faculty experience.
Tenure & Promotion
Institutional Leadership
Academic leaders--especially the provost, dean, and department chair--play critical roles in shaping the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of faculty members. By providing clear and guided questions on this matter, respondents are given the opportunity to openly and honestly express their views within a structured framework.
Shared Governance
"Shared governance" means something different to each group on a college campus. Whatever the definition, we know that governance is working when faculty, administrators, and other stakeholders listen respectfully to different perspectives and then work together to make decisions aligned with their shared understanding of their institution's best interests.
Our instrument draws specific attention to the faculty's own communication and decision-making structures, on the culture among faculty, and on the working interactions between faculty leaders and senior administrators.
Department Engagement, Quality, & Collegiality
Appreciation & Recognition
Retention & Negotiation
Participation At-a-Glance
We are dedicated to helping our partners make meaning from their results, and enact data-driven policy changes on their campus. For this reason, participation in the Faculty Job Satisfaction Survey entails a three-year partnership with COACHE. Over the course of those three years, your institution will receive a survey and diagnostic report, along with regular consultations to senior academic leaders on how to make meaning and take action from the data. Enrollment in COACHE is open to all two- and four-year colleges, universities, and state systems.
The typical administration period for the Faculty Job Satisfaction Survey runs from early February through early April. The survey is administered only once in a given year. Enrollment for a given year's survey cohort is open from January - November of the year preceeding survey administration (e.g. Jan '20 - Nov. '20 for a Feb. '21 administration). For information about enrolling your institution in the Faculty Job Satisfaction Survey, please contact us at coache@gse.harvard.edu.
Cost to Participate
Research Universities
Masters Universities
Baccalaureate Colleges & Specialized Institutions
Community Colleges
Historically Black Colleges & Universities
State Systems and Consortia
Supplemental Fees
Custom Questions
Append the survey with up to 15 additional questions. $250 per question.
Pass-Through Variables
Include additional faculty record-level variable information in the Population File, and COACHE will return it in the data file. $100 per variable; five maximum.
Medical School Report
Opt to include a medical school, if applicable. Medical schools will receive separate data tables, including comparison data from other institutions as available, and are not included in the primary Report. Medical school faculty will be included in the Per Record Fee calculation as noted above. $7,500 for medical school report.
