2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Tenure and promotion guidelines for non-PhD granting engineering schools are subject to evolving expectations of those schools and the universities which house them. The “striving institution” may seek to align their guidelines with more prestigious institutions in order to seek gains in stature and reputation. Yet there remain two distinct categories of engineering school: the approximately 200 which offer PhD programs, and a similar number of schools which do not. The research facilities, number of faculty and graduate students, and previous history of obtaining grants at the former are on average far greater than at the latter. A survey of the practices of non-PhD granting engineering schools relative to requiring faculty to obtain external funding to earn tenure and promotion was undertaken to determine whether the paradigm of these schools’ expectations has shifted in recent years. The correlation between funding and reputation was analyzed, as well as practices relative to internal start-up funding for new faculty. There is no correlation between the ranking of the school and the ranking of funding obtained by the school. Additionally, the data from this survey show that most such schools do not have expectations of funding prior to faculty earning tenure. Most non-PhD granting schools demonstrate that scholarship-related accomplishments are an essential requirement for tenure, funded research is not essential given the teaching and other responsibilities for tenure-track faculty.