Over the past decade, universities across the country have invested heavily in initiatives to promote diversity among their faculty, staff, and students. A new study from the University of Missouri has tracked how Black scholars’ representation among both STEM and non-STEM faculty at the country’s top universities has changed throughout the 21st century, with a particular focus on changes since 2016.
The authors leveraged data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System and prior research studies to examine changes in the share of Black faculty at public R1 universities from the 2001-2002 to the 2021-2022 academic years. Overall, the share of Black faculty members across all disciplines and professorial ranks only rose from 3.3 percent in 2002 to 3.8 percent in 2022.
In recent years, there has been a notable increase in the share of Black assistant professors. In 2016, Black faculty represented 4.2 percent of assistant professors. By 2022, that share increased by 40 percent to a rate of 5.9 percent. While the share of Black assistant professors remains lower than all other racial groups, the recent spike since 2016 suggests a positive upward trajectory in the years to come.
At the higher professorial ranks, the share of Black associate professors has gone down slightly from 2016, while the share of Black full professors has slightly increased over the same time period. In comparison, the representation of White professors at all ranks has consistently dropped over the past 20 years.
Since the 2015-2016 academic year, the small increase in overall Black faculty representation has been almost entirely due to increases in Black assistant professors in non-STEM fields. According to their results, the authors found no statistically significant evidence of rapid growth among Black faculty in STEM fields.
The authors conclude that their findings are concerning. They cite prior studies that have found students are more likely to pursue academic fields in which they have been exposed to teachers from similar backgrounds. This suggests that the widening racial diversity gaps between STEM and non-STEM fields could reinforce the current underrepresentation of Black students in STEM fields.
However, considering many of their findings were concentrated at the early-career assistant professor level, the authors believe long-term research in this area will be necessary to properly track faculty diversity trends going forward. They also suggest future studies examine hiring trends by specific fields, as well as by race-gender groups to investigate diversity on a more granular level.
