A Large Racial Gap Persists in Faculty Posts in American Higher Education

In 2009, the latest year complete data is available, there were 728,977 full-time instructional faculty at degree-granting institutions in the United States. Of these, 39,715, or 5.4 percent, were Black. This data includes faculty at the nation’s historically Black colleges and universities. Therefore, the Black percentage of the faculty at predominantly White institutions is undoubtedly significantly lower.

The racial gap in faculty posts is most pronounced at the full professor level. In 2009, there were 177,581 full professors at degree-granting institutions. There were 6,086 Blacks in full professor posts. Thus, Blacks made up only 3.4 percent of all full professors.

There were 148,989 associate professors in 2009. The 8,163 Black associate professors made up 5.4 percent of all faculty at this rank.

Blacks were 6.4 percent of the assistant professors and 7.5 percent of the instructors.

Related Articles

4 COMMENTS

  1. I am a full prof at the University of Tampa, which was founded in 1931 and since c. 1990 tripled in size, from small college to medium size university, with over 6 thousand full-time students in 2011-12.

    UT has never had one single tenured black faculty member.

  2. The numbers are disappointing and are even more so if we look at full time faculty by disciplines. That is the number of blacks faculty in business and engineering disciplines. I teach finance and economics and find just a few blacks at the conferences that I attend.

Leave a Reply

Get the JBHE Weekly Bulletin

Receive our weekly email newsletter delivered to your inbox

Latest News

California State University Sacramento Launches Black Honors College

Officially launching for the fall 2024 semester, the Black Honors College will support students from all backgrounds who study Black history, life, and culture by providing them with a specialized curriculum and mentoring opportunities.

Higher Education Gifts or Grants of Interest to African Americans

Here is this week’s news of grants or gifts to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.

In Memoriam: Norman B. Anderson, 1955-2024

Dr. Anderson was the assistant vice president for research and academic affairs at Florida State University at the time of his death. He had an extensive career in clinical psychology, which led him to become the first African American chief executive officer of the American Psychological Association.

Georgia State University Launches Program to Support Black Women in Tech

While Black women account for roughly 29 percent of the Georgia State University undergradaute student body, they represent only 10 percent of the university's computer science majors and 18 percent of the computer information systems majors.

Featured Jobs