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2024 COACHE Faculty Satisfaction Survey

Let your voice be heard by participating in the 2024 Collaborative on Academic Careers in High Education (COACHE) Faculty Satisfaction Survey.

About the COACHE Survey

Since 2005, NC State has actively engaged in the national Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) Faculty Satisfaction survey, developed and administered by the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University. The COACHE survey is a comprehensive, confidential, assessment tool that gauges satisfaction and engagement among both tenured/tenure-track and professional track faculty on a broad range of work-related experiences. Survey results provide benchmarks against institutional peers, as well as comparisons between groups of faculty at NC State, and trends over time. Results inform university leaders of trends and issues involving faculty satisfaction, with the data generated providing justification and evidence for updating policies and implementing initiatives.

Completing the survey is confidential and we encourage robust faculty participation to ensure continued valuable impact for both colleges and the university. The survey should take approximately 25 minutes to complete.

2024 Survey Participation

During the week of February 5, 2024, faculty at NC State who are eligible to participate in the survey will receive an email from COACHE (coachefaculty@opinioncast.com) that includes a unique URL to access the online survey. Between then and when the survey closes the week of April 1, COACHE will send up to five email reminders to non-respondents. 

Please note that the URL in your email from COACHE is just for you; do not forward your email to others or use a URL intended for another faculty member. Once a survey has been submitted using a link, the link cannot be used again to access the survey. If you believe you are eligible to participate and do not receive an email, please check your spam folder. If you can’t find your email, please reach out to COACHE at coachefaculty@abtassoc.com.

Survey Response Rates by College/Unit

We strongly encourage all those invited to participate in the survey to do so. Higher participation means that the data better reflect a variety of faculty experiences, ensuring that the results are more representative and actionable.

College/unit with the current highest 2024 response rate is the Libraries with 71%. The 2024 data is as of April 5, 2024.

College/Unit201820212024
Agriculture and Life Sciences39%28%41%
Design51%18%31%
Education53%35%44%
Engineering44%23%33%
Humanities and Social Sciences55%30%32%
Libraries53%37%71%
Management45%20%33%
Natural Resources51%34%45%
Sciences53%32%40%
Textiles47%33%63%
University College47%42%47%
Veterinary Medicine55%33%36%
NC State Overall49%29%39%

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

The Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) Faculty Satisfaction Survey is a national survey that collects information on areas identified as critical to faculty satisfaction and engagement, and therefore, to recruitment and retention efforts. It is the most comprehensive survey in which NC State asks our faculty to participate, covering topics such as: overall satisfaction with the university; tenure and promotion; interdisciplinary work and collaboration; mentoring; university leadership; shared governance; the nature of work as related to teaching, research, and service; and personal and family policies. NC State also includes a number of campus-specific questions for our faculty. Reports on results from the core COACHE survey provide benchmarks against peer institutions, comparisons between groups of faculty at NC State (e.g., by rank, tenure status), and trends over time. Learn more about results from past surveys and see examples of how NC State has used the results.

NC State has participated in the COACHE survey on a triennial basis since AY 2005-2006. We are now inviting faculty to participate in the spring 2024 survey.

All full time pre-tenured, tenured, and professional track faculty, including librarians and extension faculty, are eligible to participate, with the following exclusions:

  • Faculty hired after December 31, 2022
  • Faculty in their terminal year (i.e., after being denied tenure)
  • Faculty with senior administrative appointments (i.e., SAAO Tiers 1 and 2)

During the week of February 5, 2024, faculty at NC State who are eligible to participate in the survey will get an email from COACHE (coachefaculty@opinioncast.com) that includes a unique URL to access the online survey. Between then and when the survey closes the week of April 1, COACHE will send up to five email reminders to non-respondents. 

Please note that the URL in your email from COACHE is just for you; do not forward your email to others or use a URL intended for another faculty member. Once a survey has been submitted using a link, the link cannot be used again to access the survey.

If you believe you are eligible to participate (see above for eligibility criteria), and do not receive an email, please check your spam folder. If you can’t find your email, please reach out to COACHE at coachefaculty@abtassoc.com.

We strongly encourage all those invited to participate in the survey to do so. The more faculty that participate the more representative and actionable our results will be. Higher participation better enables NC State to drill down to see results for specific population groups, such as by rank, tenure status, and college. However, participation is voluntary.

At NC State, the Office for Faculty Excellence and the survey team in Institutional Strategy and Analysis (ISA) lead an advisory committee comprised of faculty and administrators to plan the spring 2024 COACHE survey, including developing campus-specific questions and developing and implementing a communication strategy. ISA is responsible for analyzing the survey data and preparing summary reports. After receiving the results of the survey, the advisory committee will identify key findings, develop recommendations, and identify and implement strategies to communicate the findings to the campus community.

The survey is confidential. While each eligible faculty member is assigned a unique URL to access their survey, no personally identifiable information is included on the record of responses.

In a process approved by Harvard’s and NC State’s institutional review board, COACHE will provide ISA with their summary analysis, as well as a confidential, de-identified unit-record database. The data will be received and kept on a secure server by the assistant vice provost for institutional survey research and analysis, Dr. Nancy Whelchel. No one outside the survey team in ISA will have access to the unit-record data. To protect confidentiality and guarantee that the results of this survey cannot influence personnel decisions about individual faculty members, ISA staff will disseminate results only with data aggregated in cells of five respondents or more so individual faculty cannot be identified.

  • September 2023: COACHE faculty satisfaction survey advisory committee forms
  • February 2024: COACHE faculty satisfaction survey launches
  • February – April 2024: COACHE dashboard updated regularly with college participation rates
  • April 2024: COACHE survey closes
  • Mid-summer 2024: COACHE sends reports and data to Institutional Strategy and Analysis 
  • Fall 2024: ISA and COACHE advisory committee prepare and distribute reports on results

At NC State, contact:

  • Kimberly Grainger, Associate Vice Provost for Academic Personnel and Policy, Office for Faculty Excellence
  • Nancy Whelchel, Assistant Vice Provost for Institutional Survey Research and Analysis, Institutional Strategy and Analysis

At COACHE:

NameTitleCollege/Division
Nancy WhelchelAssistant Vice Provost for Institutional Survey Research and AnalysisInstitutional Strategy and Analysis (ISA)
Kimberly GraingerAssociate Vice Provost for Academic Personnel and PolicyOffice for Faculty Excellence (OFE)
Hannah McQueenAssistant Director for Survey ResearchISA
Kyle MiskellDirector of External AwardsOFE
Janet Del PinalProgram and Communications SpecialistOFE
Sherry BaileyInternal Faculty Awards Coordinator and Faculty Support SpecialistOFE
David HinksDeanWilson College of Textiles and Chair of the Faculty Well Being Advisory Committee
Marielle PocanAssistant for CommunicationsOffice of the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost
Melvin “Jai” JacksonAssistant Vice Provost for Faculty EngagementOffice for Institutional Equity and Diversity
Laura NelsonAssociate Dean and Director of Academic AffairsCollege of Veterinary Medicine
Kathy WoodfordSenior Employee Relations Strategic PartnerUniversity Human Resources
Josh BoyerDepartment Head, User ExperienceNC State Libraries
Herle McGowanTeaching Professor and Faculty SenateCollege of Sciences
Lincoln LarsonAssociate ProfessorCollege of Natural Resources
Courtney ThorntonAssociate Vice Provost for Strategy, Implementation and CommunicationISA

COACHE’s Impact at NC State

The COACHE Survey results inform university leaders of trends and issues involving faculty satisfaction.  The data generated by the survey provide justification and evidence for updating policies and implementing initiatives. Just a few examples of the many ways the COACHE data have been helpful in the past are listed below.

  • Awards and Recognition 
    • The Provost’s Award for Teaching Excellence was created to award professional faculty for their teaching efforts in 2021.
    • A dedicated position was created in the Office for Faculty Excellence in 2019 to support faculty applying for external awards. 
  • Interdisciplinary (Cross-Silo Work) 
  • Mentorship 
    • The Office for Faculty Excellence has created online resources for mentorship and hosted several sessions on mentorship at New Faculty Orientation and throughout the year.
  • Faculty Well Being Advisory Committee
    • The Provost established the Faculty Well Being Advisory Committee, which uses COACHE data in making recommendations to the Provost.
  • Learning Communities and Affinity Groups
  • University Human Resources initiatives
    • Improvements in spouse and partner hiring programs
    • HR “Management Essentials” workshop for all supervisors
  • Promotion and Tenure Policies and Practices
    • Creating and clarifying policies and practices related to contract and promotion for professional track faculty
    • Provost Faculty Fellow Carolyn Bird is developing a promotion and tenure mentoring program to support the success of faculty. 
    • Provost Faculty Fellow Daniel Monek is working with departments and colleges to create or revise standards and procedures rules for Professional Track Faculty.
  • NC State’s Strategic Plan
    • Track success for goals related to support for teaching, research, and interdisciplinarity
  • NSF ADVANCE Grant
    • COACHE data was included in NC State’s application for an NSF ADVANCE grant, and provided metrics to track the success of programming efforts after the grant was awarded.
  • SEA Change Grant
    • COACHE data was instrumental in evaluating and applying for the awarded SEA Change Bronze recognition.

Past Survey Results

There are multiple ways to learn more about the results of previous COACHE surveys.

Interactive Dashboard

Institutional Strategy and Analysis has developed an interactive dashboard with COACHE trend data (2011, 2015, 2018, and 2021 administrations), filterable by year, tenure track status (tenure track, professional track), tenure status (tenure track only; tenured vs pre-tenured), rank (tenure track faculty only; full, associate, assistant), gender and race/ethnicity. Also included are trend comparisons between NC State overall results and those of our aggregated COACHE peer group.

Reports

Reports with results from past COACHE surveys are available on the ISA website. Reports for each administration of the survey include: a summary overview of findings for NC State faculty overall and by tenure status, faculty rank, and various demographics; a summary overview by benchmark themes; data tables with breakouts by subgroups; data tables with peer comparisons; and a PowerPoint presentation.