Every four to five years, Vanderbilt University–employed faculty are invited to participate in the Faculty Job Satisfaction Survey administered by the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education, part of Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. By participating, Vanderbilt joins many of the nation’s premier R1 AAU universities in acquiring data for robust benchmarking to improve faculty retention efforts, institutional investments, strategic planning and evaluation. By Monday, Feb. 10, eligible faculty will receive an invitation to take the survey directly from COACHE and will have two months to complete it.
“Vanderbilt’s faculty sit at the nexus of our core missions—student experience, transformative scholarship and globally significant research—and our future success requires that we provide a rewarding, vibrant work environment for faculty,” Provost C. Cybele Raver said. “The COACHE survey provides robust data that helps us align institutional priorities and support our faculty. I encourage all eligible faculty to participate.”
Vanderbilt and its peers prioritize participation in the survey for its comprehensive analysis of faculty satisfaction and well-being at the university level, as well as robust benchmarking data from across the industry.
The COACHE instrument gives Vanderbilt faculty the opportunity to provide feedback related to a range of topics, including:
- Nature of work, including the balance between teaching, research and service.
- Institutional leadership and governance, including whether faculty feel their voice is heard and respected in decision-making processes.
- Resources and support, assessing if faculty have the necessary resources to perform to their highest potential.
- Retention, promotion and tenure, understanding whether faculty believe paths of advancement are transparent and fair.
- Recognition, collegiality and collaboration, understanding how faculty feel about their department culture and ability to collaborate locally and across the university.
Pursuing data-backed improvements to faculty experience
Vanderbilt previously participated in the Faculty Job Satisfaction Survey in 2020 and 2016. The data from prior surveys have resulted in more than 70 administrative actions to improve faculty job satisfaction (past reports may be downloaded). Tracey George, vice provost for faculty affairs and professional education, credits this effectiveness to the quality of the survey instrument and the high participation rate by Vanderbilt’s faculty, which exceeded 70 percent in 2020.
“Action is always the goal. COACHE enables us to enhance the Vanderbilt faculty experience through effective, data-driven interventions and strategic planning,” said George, who has overseen each of Vanderbilt’s engagements with COACHE. “I’m eager to dive into this new data set and identify opportunities to act meaningfully on behalf of our faculty.”
All full-time faculty employed by Vanderbilt University are eligible and will receive an invitation to the survey directly from COACHE by Monday, Feb. 10 (VUMC-employed faculty and university academic administrators like the chancellor, provost and academic deans are ineligible). The survey takes approximately 45 minutes to complete and may be completed over multiple sittings.
After the survey closes on April 11, COACHE will anonymize the row-level data and return it to the Office of Data and Strategic Analytics, along with a comparison to peer universities who participated in the survey in 2025. The university will share details and initial outcomes by the end of 2025, with additional action items to follow.
“For this implementation of COACHE, we have opted to receive anonymized row-level data to increase our understanding of faculty feedback in the context of Vanderbilt’s schools and colleges. All data will be held to a small group of survey experts within DSA to ensure that the confidentiality of respondents is fully protected,” said Olivia Kew-Fickus, chief data officer of Vanderbilt University. “This university prides itself on data-backed decision-making, and with this year’s COACHE survey, we will be in the best position possible to elevate the faculty experience and collectively advance our academic mission.”
To learn more and access an FAQ, please visit the COACHE 2025 website. Any faculty who require assistance with the survey are encouraged to contact surveys@vanderbilt.edu.
