Academic Ranks (United States) - Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

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Academic ranks (United States)From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For ranks and types of professors, see Professors in the United States

Academic ranks in the United Statesare the titles, relative importance and power, of professorships held inacademia.

Contents

1 Most common hierarchy

2 Background

3 Temporary faculty and special appointments

4 Other teaching and research personnel

5 Administrative ranks

5.1 Officers of the corporation

5.2 Academic administrators

6 See also7 References

Most common hierarchy

For regular faculty (not counting administrative positions such as chairmanships or deanships), the descendinghierarchy in most cases is:

Distinguished and/or Endowed Professor(Other such titles of special distinctionvary by institution)

Professor("Full Professor," i.e. upon exhausting all normally-expected promotions)

Associate Professor(On-Track to be a "Full Professor")Assistant Professor(On-Track to be an "Associate Professor")

Clinical Professor, Instructor, Lecturer, Research Associate, and Research Professor(non-tenure track

positions)

AdjunctProfessor or other faculty rank (for part-time faculty)

Background

Traditionally, Assistant Professorhas been the usual entry-level rank for faculty on the " tenure track", although thisdepends on the institution and the field. Then, promotion to the rank of Associate Professorusually indicates that atenure-track professor has been granted tenure at the institution. Those hired as Assistant Professors on a

traditional tenure track will usually attain the rank of Associate after six to a maximum of eight years, or theiremployment will be terminated at most universities. It is usually another six to ten years before an AssociateProfessor can be considered for promotion to full Professor.

Faculty of professional fields such as law, medicine, business, or engineering also can include ranks of "ClinicalProfessor" or "Professor of Practice," which are traditionally not tenure-track, and tend to emphasize practical skilltraining rather than scholarly research. Likewise for the less-common class of " Teaching Professor," which canalso apply to non-professional fields. Recently, some institutions have created separate tenure-tracks for suchpositions.

Other faculty who are not on the tenure track in the U.S. are generally classified as Lecturers(Senior LecturersorResearch Associate) or Instructors, who may either teach full-time and/or have some administrative duties, buthave no research obligations, or who may only have research obligations, but no teaching duties. Both Lecturers andInstructors may hold Masters degrees or Ph.D.s, and the term "professor" may be loosely applied to persons holdingeither of those positions; only the title of "Dr." is reserved exclusively for those who have already obtained doctoraldegrees. In academic medicine, Instructorusually denotes someone with a PhD or MD who has completedresidency, fellowship, or other postdoctoral training but who is not tenure-track faculty. Alternatively, the titlesInstructorand Lecturermay be used as a placeholder for a pre-tenure-track employee who has not yet completed
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a doctorate; upon doing so, he/she is promoted to the typical starting point of "Assistant Professor." Any faculty titlepreceded with the qualifier "Adjunct"theoretically denotes part-time status (usually less than half-time). Adjunctfaculty may have primary employment elsewhere (either another school or as a practicing professional), thoughmany doctorate-holders are forced to cobble together a living from several adjunct jobs as "freeway flyers" (to theadvantage of institutions, which do not have to pay for retirement and health benefits, and gain a workforce that canbe shrunk as demand dictates). [Note that while "Professor" as aproper noun(with a capital "P") generally implies aposition title, the common noun"professor" in the US appropriately describes anyone teaching at the college level,regardless of rank; also, as aprenominaltitle of address, it can be capitalized without implying the title rank.]

Although "Professor" is often the highest rank attained by a senior faculty member, some inst itutions may offersome unique tit le to a senior faculty member whose research or publications have achieved wide recognition. This ismost often a "named chair": for example, the "John Doe Professor of Philosophy". Named chairs typically but notexclusively include a small discretionary fund from an endowment set aside for the chair's use. Large researchuniversities also offer a small fraction of tenured faculty the title of "Distinguished Professor" to recognize outstandingand broad contributions to the advancement of a field of study. The most prestigious academic appointment is theUniversity or Institute Professor. Such faculty members are not usually answerable to deans or department headsand may directly report to the University Provost.

In research, faculty who direct a lab or research group (1 to 30+ people) can be called Principal Investigator, or PI,though this refers to the management role and is not usually thought as an academic rank.

Excepting special ranks (such as endowed chairs), academic rank is dependent upon the promotion process of each

college or university. Thus, a tenured associate professor at one institution might accept a lower ranking position atanother university (i.e., an assistant professorship on the "tenure track"). In some cases, an assistant professor whoaccepts a position of similar rank at another university may negotiate "time towards tenure", which indicates ashorter probationary period, usually in recognition of prior academic achievements.

Temporary faculty and special appointments
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principal_Investigator


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Modifier Example Explanation

Adjunct

Adjunct Professor

Adjunct Associate Professor

Adjunct Assistant Professor

Indicates a part-time or temporary appointment; also may denote a

faculty member from another academic department whose research or

teaching interests overlap substantially with those of the appointing

department; may also denote basis of instructorship from professional

experience rather than academic study, e.g. a retired engineer whose

second career is teaching may be an adjunct professor of engineering.

Visiting

Visiting Professor

Visiting Associate Professor

Visiting Assistant Professor

Almost always indicates a temporary appointment, often to fill a vacancy

that has arisen due to the sabbatical or temporary absence of a regular

faculty member.

Research

Research Professor (Senior

Research Associate or Senior

Research Scientist)

Research Associate Professor

(Research Associate or

Research Scientist)

Research Assistant Professor(Associate Research Scientist

or Assistant Researcher)

Instructor

Indicates a full-time research position with few or no teaching

responsibilities. Research professorships are almost always funded by

grants or fellowships apart from the regular university budget; Instructors

may be funded by either grants or the university.

Clinical

Clinical Professor

Clinical Associate Professor

Clinical Assis tant Professor

Indicates a full- or part-time non-tenured teaching position with limited

research responsibilities, especially in the health science but also in law,

business, and engineering; e.g. teaching students or residents, either in

their office or on campus, with a minimum of 5075 hours per year. [1]At

a law school, "clinical" professors may have highly variable teaching and

research responsibilities, but generally supervise student pro bono law

practice.

Emeritus

Professor Emeritus

Associate Professor Emeritus

Assistant Professor Emeritus

Indicates a retired faculty member, who is usually not paid a regular

salary but often retains office space and access to the university's

facilities.

The ranks of Lecturer and Senior Lecturer are used at some American universities to denote permanent teachingpositions (full or part-time) with few or no research responsibilities.

Other teaching and research personnel

Fellowships and Research scientist positions are most often limited-term appointments for postdoctoral researchers.They are not usually regarded as faculty positions, although some teaching may be required. The definition ofscientist position is vague, usually regarded as a technician, but in some cases advanced level after a postdoc.Rank of research personnel without a professor title is:

Ass istant or Junior Scientist

Senior Sc ientist

Research Scientist

Senior Research Technician

Research Assistant

Postdoctoral Fellow

Postdoctoral Research FellowPostdoctoral Associate

Postdoctoral Research Associate
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Teaching assistants are typically graduate students who have varying levels of responsibility. A typicalundergraduate class, for example, comprises lecture and small-group sessions, with a faculty member giving thelecture, and teaching assistants leading the small-group sessions; in other cases, the teaching of an entire classmay be entrusted to a graduate student. (See generallyA Handbook for Mathematics Teaching Assistants(http://www.maa.org/programs/tahandbook.html), published by the Mathematical Association of America.)

At most American universities, research technicians, lab managers, and related personnel are generally regarded asadministrative staff rather than faculty.

At some universities, librarians have a rank structure parallel to that of the regular faculty (Assistant Librarian,

Associate Librarian, Librarian). Some senior librarians, and often the head librarian, may have faculty or faculty-equivalent rank.

Administrative ranks

Officers of the corporation

President or Chancellor

Provost (sometimes called 'Chancellor', or 'President' or 'Warden')

Associate Provost (rare)

Ass istant Provost (assists the Provost, as do any associates; not superior to vice presidents)

Vice-Chancellors or Vice Presidents (of Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, Finance, etc.)

Associate Vice-Chancellor or Associate Vice President

Ass istant Vice-Chancellor or Assistant Vice President

Academic administrators

Deans (often also Full Professors)

Associate Deans (often also Full Professors)

Ass istant Deans

Directors of Administrative Departments

Associate/Assistant Directors of Administrative Departments

Chairs or Heads of Academic Departments

America's system of higher education is highly variable, with each of the 50 states and the 6 non-state jurisdict ionsregulating its own public tertiary institutions, and with each private institution developing its own structure. In general,the terms "President" and "Chancellor" are interchangeable (like "Premier" and "Prime Minister"), including the vicepresidents, associate and assistant vice presidents, and so on. The dominant paradigm is president, vice president,associate vice president, and assistant vice president.

Some university systems or multi-campus universities use both titles, with one title for the chief executive of theentire system and the other for the chief executives of each campus. Which title refers to which position can behighly variable from state to state or even within a state. In California, for example, the chief executive officer of the

entire California State University system of 23 campuses is called "Chancellor" while the CEO of each individualcampus is called "President" - so, there is an officer called "Chancellor of the California State University," and thereis the "President of San Francisco State University." In the University of California, by contrast, the terms arereversed - so there is the "President of the University of California", and below that person in the hierarchy is the"Chancellor of the University of California, Los Angeles", and so on.

The term 'Warden' is almost never used in the United States in an academic sense. Where it isused, it typicallymeans "provost" or "dean".

Deans may head an individual college, school or faculty; or they may be deans of the student body, or a section of it(e.g., the dean of students in a law school); or they may be deans of a particular functional unit (e.g., Dean of

Admiss ions, or Dean of Records); or they may be deans of a particular campus, or (unusually) of a particular building(e.g., a university with an elaborate performing arts complex might designate a very senior administrative facultymember as "Dean of the [Name] Performing Arts Center."

Academic department heads and chairs serve the same function, and there may also be associate and assistantdepartment heads or chairs (though this is unusual).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Californiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_State_Universityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_systemhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higher_educationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_(education)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vice-Chancellorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provost_(education)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chancellor_(education)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_Association_of_Americahttp://www.maa.org/programs/tahandbook.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teaching_assistants


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See also

Professors in the United States

Listof academic ranks

Handbook of Faculty Titles (http://euro.ecom.cmu.edu/titles/titlebook.htm) by Michael I. Shamos, Ph.D., J.D.,

Carnegie Mellon University

References

1. ^Academic Promotions (http://www.meds chool.ucsf.edu/acf/promotions/), UCSF School of Medicine Ass ociation of

Clinical Faculty. Retrieved 2009-08-01.

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