Provost Announces Findings of COACHE Faculty Survey

UMass COACHE wordmark

Provost John McCarthy has announced the release of the results of the UMass Amherst-COACHE Faculty Job Satisfaction Survey. The COACHE Summary Report, along with summaries of the findings, are presented on the Office of Faculty Development (OFD) website, with thematic summary reports to be released biweekly through the spring semester.

In the announcement, co-signed by vice provost of faculty development Michelle Budig and the UMass Amherst COACHE Steering Committee, McCarthy states “UMass Amherst faculty are the core strength in our institution’s fulfillment of its research/creative activity, teaching and public service missions. To better understand faculty’s perceptions and experiences of our campus as a place to thrive, we are pleased to provide the results of the UMass Amherst-COACHE Faculty Job Satisfaction Survey...In the coming year, together with faculty members, the MSP, the Faculty Senate, and college leadership, we will use these findings to inform decision-making and programming in support of faculty success at UMass Amherst.”

The survey, administered by the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) at Harvard University, assesses issues and trends in work satisfaction among college and university faculty. The campus-level report from COACHE focuses on broad thematic areas from the survey, with results disaggregated by gender, race/ethnicity, and rank. Throughout the spring 2021 semester, summary reports, prepared by members of the COACHE Steering Committee and OFD staff, will be released on the findings of thematic areas of the survey.

The provost notes that the UMass Amherst-COACHE Survey “was conducted in February-April of 2020, a time of great change and challenge to our campus. Given the pressures that faculty worked under, we are grateful for the 539 faculty who were able to complete the survey. All full-time faculty, including tenure-track and non-tenure track faculty on continuing appointments, comprised the study population. Our response rate for survey completion was 38%, a higher rate than those of our peers.”

Areas of strength identified in the survey include teaching, mentoring, shared governance, and leadership. Broadly, 74% of our faculty are satisfied with UMass Amherst as a place to work, stating that the best aspect of UMass Amherst is the quality of their colleagues and ranking UMass Amherst more highly, relative to peer institutions, on all aspects of shared governance and on senior leadership. Areas of concern focused on departmental collegiality and engagement, and to a lesser extent, the equitability of teaching and service loads, clarity and support around promotion to full professor, departmental mentorship, support for engaging undergraduates in research, benefits, and facilities.

Reports and findings from the survey will be presented and shared broadly to faculty, leadership and administrators for discussion and feedback. Reports will also be used to guide and inform initiatives for improvement.