UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The information brief, “Nature of Work Benchmark—Teaching” from the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) steering committee is now available to the Penn State community. The brief features findings from the 2025 COACHE Faculty Satisfaction Survey and focuses on faculty perceptions of the environment for teaching. It was produced by the COACHE Steering committee, working in collaboration with the Penn State Office of Planning, Assessment, and Institutional Research (OPAIR).
About the brief
The brief provides a summary of benchmark scores by faculty group, including breakouts by campuses, tenured, tenure-line, non-tenure line, women, men, underrepresented minority (URM) faculty and non-URM faculty. COACHE benchmark measures combine several related survey questions into a single score to capture an overall theme. In addition, the brief highlights faculty satisfaction scores on a range of individual survey items related to teaching, including recognition for teaching efforts, workload and number of courses taught, to name a few areas covered in the survey.
Future reports
The “Nature of Work Benchmark—Teaching” brief is the second brief to be produced by the COACHE steering committee. Earlier in spring 2026 the committee released a summary of “Top COACHE Benchmark Scores” organized by themes like governance, leadership, tenure, benefits and nature of work. The COACHE steering committee plans to release additional analyses of the survey results in year three of the partnership with COACHE. The briefs and results from the COACHE Faculty Job Satisfaction Survey can be found on the COACHE website.
About the COACHE survey
A joint effort of the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost and the University Faculty Senate, the COACHE Faculty Job Satisfaction Survey was open to all eligible full-time faculty during the spring 2025 semester. The survey is designed to provide insights into the experiences of faculty members across Penn State, identify areas of potential improvement, strengthen community and drive positive change at the campus, college and department levels. Topics covered by the survey included shared governance; engagement; collegiality; recruitment and retention; appreciation and recognition; interdisciplinary work; institutional leadership; resources and support; and promotion and tenure.
Sharing out the survey results in fall 2025 kicked off the second year of the three-year process, during which the University-wide steering committee and unit committees reviewed the results, gathered additional feedback from faculty and recommended priorities for action. In year three, beginning fall 2026, the University Action Plan will be implemented, the COACHE committee will engage with peer institutions and begin to evaluate progress.
More information is available on the COACHE website and questions can be emailed to coache@psu.edu.