Results from the 2021-2022 COACHE Survey & Focus Groups
Areas of Strength
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87% of UNT faculty report mentoring within their department is important - 62% of UNT faculty report mentoring outside their department is important*
- 67% ofUNT faculty report mentoring outside their institution is important*
Overall, UNT faculty believe that mentoring is important. Specifically, UNT faculty perceive mentoring within and outside their departments as important (87% and 62%, respectively) and 67% perceive mentoring outside their institution as important. UNT faculty also report being a mentor (80%) as important and note their satisfaction with opportunities to collaborate within their departments (60%).
Other Areas of Strength
The majority of FOC and URM, White, women, associate, professional, and pre-tenure faculty report satisfaction with opportunities to collaborate within their departments (60% to 65%). The majority of Asian, Associate, and Pre-Tenure faculty report satisfaction with opportunities to collaborate outside of their departments (63% to 69%). Pre-tenure faculty report effective mentorship outside of their institution (70%) and within their department (65%).
Areas of Growth
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58% of URM faculty report engaging in interdisciplinary research - 34% of FOC agree this is support for being a good mentor
- 56% of full professors report engaging in interdisciplinary research or teaching
Fifty-eight percent of URM faculty report engaging in interdisciplinary research and 34% of FOC agree there is support for being a good mentor, and just over half of full professors engage in interdisciplinary research or teaching (56%).
Recommendations and Resources
While many UNT faculty indicated that they are currently conducting or are interested in interdisciplinary work, the COACHE results also identified areas where faculty would like to see improvement in practices that encourage interdisciplinary work and recognize this work in faculty evaluations. These include:
- Recommend further data gathering to identify best practices for measuring and rewarding interdisciplinary work and a review of university policies/resources affecting this type of work.
- Encourage recognition and expressions of support from higher-level administration for interdisciplinary work and regularly highlight such work in communications.
- Develop awards to recognize excellence in interdisciplinary work.
- COACHE offers examples of best practices for interdisciplinary work such as discussing and removing barriers to its practice and using interdisciplinarity of proposed projects as a review criterion (Source: COACHE white paper Benchmark Best Practices: Interdisciplinary Work & Collaboration).
UNT has many mentoring resources available for faculty throughout their career that encourage within-discipline and interdisciplinary research and support.
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Faculty Success provides support for mentoring success through the Faculty Mentoring Program, which includes:
- One-on-One Mentoring pairing new full-time faculty with a departmental mentor.
- The Mentoring Grant program to provide financial support to help faculty gain institutional knowledge, support teaching and/or research efforts, develop professional networks, and promote diversity.
- The Faculty Mentoring Guidebook.
- CREATE Program: For pre-tenure faculty to widen their mentoring and research support by working with an external mentor.
- UNT also has Faculty Resource Groups to provide additional support and mentoring to faculty. Each Faculty Resource Group is a group of faculty members linked by a common background, purpose, ideology, or interest:
- UNT also supports an institutional membership to the National Center for Faculty Diversity and Development (NCFDD) which provides free mentoring resources and webinars for UNT faculty and graduate students.
*= UNT Outshines Peers
NOTE: FOC = Faculty of color (non-White faculty); Professional faculty = Faculty who are not on the tenure track; URM = Underrepresented minority (Black and Latinx)