Race and Ethnicity of Higher Education Faculty

While the student body has increasingly become more diverse, almost three quarters of the college and university faculty body is White. Among the over 700,000 full-time faculty employed by higher education institutions in fall 2016, 73.2 percent were White, 21.1 percent were faculty of color, 3.1 percent were international, and 2.6 percent were of unknown racial and ethnic backgrounds.

Total Full-Time Faculty, by Race and Ethnicity: Fall 2016

Report Links

Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education: A Status Report
Chapter Ten: Postsecondary Faculty and Staff

Chapter Ten Report Download (PDF) 3.3 MB
Chapter Ten Data Tables Download (XLSX) 144 KB

Source

U.S. Department of Education, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, 2016

Notes:
Data reflect full-time faculty at public four-year, private nonprofit four-year, public two-year, and for-profit institutions. Institutions were categorized into sectors based upon control of the institution and the length of the predominant award granted.

Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander faculty are 0.1 percent of total full-time faculty.