Faculty status in a climate of change

Schools of dentistry that continue to conduct predoctoral dental education programs were surveyed to determine the status of full-time faculty and permit a comparison to responses made in 1980 to the identical survey. The response rate was 72.7 percent and included a representative distribution of schools. Since 1980, there has been a decrease in the number of full-time clinical faculty while at the same time the proportion of clinical faculty with tenure has increased. The development of dual tracks and the appointment of full-time, nontenure-trackfaculty forecasted in 1980 has come to fruition. Such appointments represent an increasing proportion of clinical faculty. The mean age of faculty has not changed appreciably due primarily to early retirement, and the five-year turnover rate remains relatively constant at 33 percent. Dental schools, at least as reflected in the tenure review process, would appear to be imposing more stringent expectations for scholarship. This finding, coupled with the growing concern that in the future there will be a shortage of adequately trained clinical faculty capable of entering the mainstream of biomedical or behavioral research within academic health centers poses a challenge for all concerned with the viability of dental faculties.

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