Office of Faculty Development

COACHE Frequently Asked Questions

What is The Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE)?

COACHE is a collaboration of colleges and universities committed to gathering peer diagnostic and comparative data academic administrators need to recruit, retain, and develop faculty members, who are critical to the long-term future of any institution. The core element of COACHE is an electronic survey specially designed for full-time faculty members to provide information about their experiences at their institutions.

The Tenure-Track Faculty Job Satisfaction Survey and the Tenured Faculty Job Satisfaction Survey ask faculty members to assess their experiences regarding promotion and tenure, the nature of their work, policies and practices, and the general climate, culture and level of collegiality on their campuses. The survey has a national scope in that FSU is one of more than 160 colleges and universities from different parts of the country that have participated in the survey. However, the main reason FSU is participating is that we want to learn more about how faculty members feel about their job at FSU. The COACHE Surveys also provide participating faculty members with a powerful tool to share their thoughts on work/life with academic administrators. Each question in the survey is built to generate a report of not simply "interesting" data, but actionable diagnoses that FSU can use to improve the quality of life of our faculty members.

Why should I complete a COACHE Job Satisfaction Survey?

Simply stated, your FSU needs to know what you think of your work experience - the level of support you are receiving at work, the reasonableness of your performance expectations, and the kinds of policies that are important to your success at this institution. Without this information, it is not very easy for academic administrators at FSU to identify the areas that can and should be improved. And because the survey directly addresses issues that can impact policies and strategic planning at this institution, it is imperative that you make your views known.

There are thousands of faculty members around the country getting the same survey. Your answers - after they are compared with those of faculty at peer institutions - will identify areas that are particularly important to FSU in the context of nationwide results. Ultimately, your answers will not only help improve FSU, but many others as well.

I get surveyed all the time. How is the upcoming COACHE Faculty Satisfaction survey different?

The Tenure-Track Faculty Job Satisfaction Survey differs from most others you get because it focuses specifically on tenure-track faculty members. An important purpose of COACHE is to learn what tenure-track faculty have to say. Studies indicate that neither the concerns nor the opportunities to express them candidly are the same for junior and senior faculty. In a broader survey, the voice of junior faculty will be lost, and institutions will be no better informed to improve the quality of work/life for the next generation of scholars. COACHE designed the survey through a process that included extensive research, discussions with focus groups, and pilot studies at numerous and varied colleges and universities. The result is a survey "by junior faculty, for junior faculty," in which every question is designed to produce an actionable policy response.

The Tenured Faculty Job Satisfaction Survey is a direct outcome of COACHE's work with pre-tenure faculty. After years of studying the experiences of pre-tenure faculty, COACHE determined that the relationships and perceptions of tenured faculty are a central component of pre-tenured faculty satisfaction. However, the experiences of tenured faculty are quite different from their counterparts. So, rather than simply revising the Tenure-Track Faculty Job Satisfaction Survey, COACHE went through the same rigorous process of reviewing the literature, conducting focus groups, administering extensive cognitive interviews and piloting the instrument. As with the pre-tenure instrument, the Tenured Faculty Job Satisfaction Survey is a product of dialogue with faculty about what matters and what institutions can do to improve the quality of their professional life.

How long will the COACHE survey take?

The duration of the survey varies according to survey and the respondent, but the Tenure-Track Faculty Job Satisfaction Survey typically takes approximately 20 to 25 minutes to complete online. Because the Tenured Faculty Job Satisfaction Survey is in its first year, it is more difficult to estimate completion times. However, we expect that it should take slightly more than 30 minutes.

I am worried about my answers to the COACHE surveys not being anonymous. Can my identity be determined in any way?

Confidentiality and anonymity is assured in all COACHE analyses and reports. Your name and email addresses are retained by the COACHE Office solely for the sake of reminding respondents to begin or to complete their survey. When COACHE submits the survey report to UNC-GA and FSU, only the aggregate data will be presented in the report. No identifiers are matched to reported responses, and no disaggregated data will be presented for any subgroup with fewer than five respondents