Exogenous Events Impact on Faculty Composition in Higher Education

ABSTRACT: In the 1970’s, higher education faculty were male, full-time, tenured, and U.S. educated. The past 30 years have seen a significant replacement of full-time tenured faculty with non-tenured faculty, leading to a shrinking pool of tenured faculty. During this time non-tenured lectures were hired to teach, and post-doctoral students were employed to support research. These substitutions assisted with the cost-cutting measures. Recent exogenous events related to restricting entrance visas for international students and H-proposed changes in 1B visas for temporary workers threaten to accelerate the changing faculty composition. A portfolio faculty model ensures the continued relevance and competitiveness of higher education in the face of declining international student numbers, declining federal funding, and pressure to place students in a difficult labor market.