The Future Role of Faculty

During the last 20 years, there have been major disruptions in higher education including: a decrease in state funding of public institutions, an increase in technology, a shift in student demographics, and a growth of interdisciplinary work. These disruptions have produced new needs for higher education to address. As individual institutions begin to address the future needs of higher education, they must pay close attention to the development of faculty. Faculty development is a “strategic lever for institutional excellence and quality, and a critically important tool for fostering institutional readiness and change in response to the array of complex demands facing universities and colleges” (Austin & Sorcinelli, 2013, p. 97). Given the importance of faculty in institutional success this paper discusses more details about each of these disruptions, the future role of faculty, and a few faculty development models worthy of consideration.