Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE)
As Auburn strives to create a robust work environment for current faculty and become a first choice among prospective faculty, it is essential that we periodically assess how our institution is performing and what further might be done at the department, college, or university-wide level to enhance faculty work life.
In 2005, Auburn was among a handful of institutions to join the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE), based at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, to administer a survey assessing job satisfaction among our faculty. For nearly two decades, Auburn faculty have participated in the COACHE study every three years and have provided data that has evaluated our campus from a faculty perspective and informed institutional policies and decisions.
Beginning the week of February 6, 2023, all eligible faculty participants will receive an email from COACHE with a link to the survey. With the exception of first-year faculty, full-time faculty can participate, including tenured, tenure-track, and non-tenure-track faculty.
The web-based survey is anonymous, and the average time to complete the study is 25-35 minutes. All faculty responses are confidential, reported in aggregate, and individually redacted for identifying information by COACHE staff. No one on campus can access individual-level data, and data for units with five responses or fewer are not reported by group. Survey questions are grouped into several themes, including the nature of the teaching, research, and service aspects of faculty work; institutional governance and promotion processes; satisfaction with personal and family supports; levels of climate and collegiality; and other aspects of faculty work-life.
Data from the study will be meaningful only if we have broad participation. In 2020, Auburn achieved a response rate of 42%. Therefore, faculty are asked to support our institution by taking the survey and encouraging their colleagues to do the same.
For questions related to COACHE, contact the Provost’s Office at provost@auburn.edu.
COACHE FAQs
The Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education, or COACHE, based at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, is a consortium of more than 300 colleges and universities committed to making the academic workplace more attractive and equitable for all faculty. The core component of COACHE is a faculty satisfaction survey designed to provide information about the faculty experience at their institution.
The Provost’s Office works with faculty and our institution’s leaders to assess faculty responses and identify institutional needs, develop action plans, and implement best practices to support the recruitment and retention of faculty as well as improve the quality of faculty work life.
The COACHE data provides Auburn’s academic leadership with meaningful and reliable data to identify opportunities for increased faculty engagement, advance our institution’s reputation as a great place to work, and generate ideas directly from faculty that enhance and identify a range of possible improvements.
Auburn has maintained continuous participation in COACHE since 2005, with 2023 marking Auburn’s seventh time participating in the study. For nearly 20 years, the study has provided our institution’s faculty and leadership with reliable data that assesses institutional progress across key areas related to faculty satisfaction. In addition to institutional KPIs, the data provide important insights into various aspects of faculty life at Auburn and allow us to aggregate the data by faculty type, college, and department.
Auburn traditionally has strong participation from faculty; our 2020 response rate was 42% among faculty who were invited to participate (Tenured, Tenure Track, and Non-Tenure Track). As Auburn faculty work toward fulfilling our land-grant mission and meeting our strategic goals, COACHE data allows administrators and faculty to examine data and explore within-campus differences for the overall faculty and across faculty subgroups.
COACHE staff at Harvard will personally inspect each text response for identifying information for redaction. Survey confidentiality is a priority for the COACHE researchers. A COACHE workgroup has been established to review the data and develop recommendations.
