Faculty Headcount and Demographic Data: Methodology Update 2018

Since 2001, Academic Affairs has been publishing a headcount of faculty by school, by series, by gender, and by ethnicity.  This is the “Faculty Workforce” report used and cited by campus agencies and is the main reference point for a wide variety of campus users. Since this report began in 2001, the description of the faculty body and the method for counting heads has remained consistent, but has not been reexamined to determine if this description or methodology accurately reflect how faculty appointments function now or if it could be improved.

The Faculty Workforce Report provides an overview to answer the basic questions such as “How many faculty work at UCSF?”  “What percentage of Ladder Rank Professors are African American?”  ”How many HS Clinical faculty does the School of Medicine have?”  “What is the gender ratio for faculty in the School of Nursing?” This report is used for external reporting, internal planning, and to complete many form questions from outside agencies and grant institutions. 

Updates and refinements to the methodology were necessary based on the:

• Evolution of the faculty population and appointment types
• Evolution of the information systems governing faculty data

Definitions of “Faculty Workforce”

• Historical definition: “Any person with a faculty appointment receiving pay from UCSF.”
• Historical method: Derived from payroll data; faculty are identified by payroll title and counted where they are paid.
   
• Revised definition: “Appointees in the five faculty series who have a significant professional commitment to the University as defined by percent effort or percent pay via UCSF or a formal affiliation (VAMC, Fresno, BCHO, Gladstone, or HHMI).”
• Revised method: Derived from Advance; faculty are identified by academic title and counted in their academic home department.

The evolution of faculty appointments and the technology managing faculty appointments have driven the revision to the definition and methodology to identify the faculty workforce at UCSF. The revised headcount methodology will begin with the 2018 Faculty Workforce Report to ensure that we address the progression of the faculty population and take advantage of advanced information systems to better serve our faculty.

For details regarding how this affects headcount at the campus and school levels, please see the PowerPoint presentation regarding the refined methodology and comparisons between the calculations for 2017 regarding series, rank, gender, and URM status. 

The 2018 workforce report counted 254 more faculty than the previous method counted in 2017. For a review of the increase to the total faculty, click here.

Tiny URL: http://tiny.ucsf.edu/facultyheadcountupdate