COACHE Faculty Job Satisfaction Survey
Assessing faculty satisfaction to plan for the future and improve outcomes in recruitment, development, and retention
COACHE Priorities for Action
In spring 2026, the COACHE steering committee will be using four priorities: Cultivating Trust through University, Strengthening Faculty-Administration, Recognizing and Appreciating Faculty, and Removing Barriers to Faculty Productivity and Success to develop a University Action Plan. Read more about the priorities, the process for identifying them, and next steps in the process in this news story and on this webpage.
COACHE Faculty Survey Reports
The preview report that provides an overview of Penn State’s results from the COACHE Faculty Job Satisfaction Survey is now available. Read more about this report and access the report here.
A comparison of the common questions from the COACHE faculty survey and the ModernThink staff survey is available here.
About the COACHE Faculty Survey
In February 2025, Penn State launched the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) Faculty Satisfaction Survey, a national survey administered by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This effort is sponsored by the Office of the Provost in partnership with University Faculty Senate.
The COACHE survey was chosen because of its excellent reputation and record of success. COACHE conducts the Faculty Satisfaction Survey at hundreds of institutions nationwide and it is an effective tool that will help us identify areas of strength, and for improvement, in the experience we offer our faculty members. It will also help us understand how we perform in key areas relative to our peers.
Topics covered by the survey included:
- shared governance,
- engagement,
- collegiality,
- recruitment and retention,
- appreciation and recognition,
- interdisciplinary work,
- institutional leadership,
- resources and support,
- promotion and tenure, and more.
Goals
The survey is a commitment to the future. The results will help us identify areas of strength and for improvement, to make Penn State the best it can be as an employer and as a place where faculty can build rewarding, impactful careers.
The COACHE faculty satisfaction survey will help us to identify opportunities and challenges at the college, campus, and department/school level and to best plan for the future to improve outcomes in faculty recruitment, development, and retention.
Participation
In spring 2025, the COACHE survey was sent to nearly 6,000 faculty members with a final University-wide response rate of 33%. The survey population included:
- all eligible* full-time faculty — tenure-line, tenured, and non-tenure-line – across the University
- Included: academic unit heads such as department heads, division heads, directors of academic affairs, and school directors
- Excluded: college- and campus-level academic administrators such as vice chancellors, assistant/associate deans, and deans/chancellors
* Faculty who have been employed for at least one year in a faculty role at Penn State and who were not in their terminal year after being denied tenure.
Survey responses are confidential. The privacy of all participants is paramount, and will be upheld in all published results, including the analysis Penn State will receive from COACHE following the survey’s conclusion.
Timeline
Penn State has entered into an initial three-year partnership with COACHE.
Penn State is currently engaged in year two of the partnership. More details about the year two timeline are available on the Year Two page.
Committees
Steering Committee
- Abby Diehl, associate vice provost for Faculty Affairs, Office of Faculty Affairs; committee tri-chair
- Betty Harper, assistant vice provost for assessment, Office of Planning, Assessment, and Institutional Research; committee tri-chair
- Michele Stine, teaching professor of biobehavioral health, College of Health and Human Development; past chair, University Faculty Senate; committee tri-chair
- Stephen Cohen, assistant teaching professor of English, Penn State Abington; University Faculty Senate representative
- Laura Cruz, research professor, Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence
- Greg Filbeck, vice chancellor and associate dean for academic affairs, Penn State Behrend
- Ed Fuller, professor of education, College of Education
- Laszlo Kulcsar, senior associate dean, College of Agricultural Sciences
- Keefe Manning, professor of biomedical engineering and surgery, College of Engineering
- Frantisek Marko, Distinguished Professor of Mathematics, Penn State Hazleton; chair, University Faculty Senate
- Kerry Newman, director, strategic communications, Undergraduate Education and Faculty Affairs
- Pauline Thompson, professor of psychology, Penn State Brandywine; 2025-26 Administrative Fellow
- LaWanda Ward, associate professor and director, Center for the Study of Higher Education; Faculty Affairs Resident, Spring 2026
COACHE Data Review and Action Planning Committees
As part of the year two process, COACHE Data Review and Action Planning Committees were formed at the campuses and for the University Park colleges and the University Libraries. These pages list the members of the college/libraries and campus committees.
Frequently Asked Questions
Please see below for a series of updated FAQs. These FAQs were updated on: October 27, 2025.
What is COACHE?
COACHE is the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education, which is run out of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. COACHE administers the faculty job satisfaction survey, processes the data, and provides reports.
What is the purpose of the survey?
It is a third-party faculty job satisfaction survey, designed to provide eligible full-time faculty with a vehicle to share assessments of their experiences in their careers, including shared governance, engagement, collegiality, recruitment and retention, appreciation and recognition, interdisciplinary work, institutional leadership, resources and support, promotion and tenure, and more.
The survey’s purpose is to use the data collected to improve these areas.
How will Penn State use the results to make meaningful change?
Penn State’s administration and the University Faculty Senate are deeply committed to enhancing the faculty experience based on real insights from this survey. This University-wide effort is part of a larger initiative to understand employee job satisfaction and identify areas for improvement.
Why did Penn State decide to conduct this survey?
The survey is a key priority of the University Faculty Senate that has been discussed across multiple years and the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost has supported the recommendation to proceed with the survey.
Penn State is conducted the COACHE survey because it provides an ongoing process of feedback, conversation, and adjustment in partnership with our faculty. This is part of an overarching effort to gather data about employee satisfaction at Penn State.
Who is sponsoring this effort, and who is on the committee leading the effort?
The COACHE survey is sponsored by the Office of the Provost in partnership with the University Faculty Senate. The COACHE steering committee members can be found on the website.
Who was eligible to take the survey?
The COACHE survey was open to all full-time faculty — tenure-line, tenured, and non-tenure-line — at all campuses, who have been employed for at least one year in a faculty role at Penn State and who are not in their terminal year after being denied tenure. These faculty had the opportunity to respond to the survey between February and April 2025.
Why were part-time faculty not included?
The Harvard Graduate School of Education, where the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) is housed, does not include an option for part-time faculty in the COACHE faculty satisfaction survey.
Why were staff not included?
Penn State also conducted a separate third-party staff survey in Spring 2025. The results of the staff survey were announced in October 2025. More information on the staff survey can be found at staffsurvey.psu.edu.
Is the survey confidential? Who will have the raw data, and how is participants’ data protected?
The survey is confidential. The privacy of all participants is paramount. Each participant received a confidential, individualized link to take the survey.
Data has been de-identified prior to being provided to Penn State’s Office of Planning, Assessment, and Institutional Research for additional analysis to supplement the reports provided by COACHE. All results have been reported in aggregate to protect the identities of individuals and small groups. Neither COACHE nor Penn State will report on groups with fewer than five respondents.
How can I see the results?
The University-wide preview report can be found at this link.
How does the COACHE survey differ from others that are conducted at Penn State, like the Living Our Values Survey?
The COACHE survey is only for full-time faculty and focuses specifically on concerns related to faculty job satisfaction. As part of the COACHE process, Penn State will be able to compare results with other peer institutions who have participated in the COACHE survey process and learn how they implemented changes and made improvements.
The Living Our Values survey is internal to Penn State. It assesses all Penn State faculty and staff and is connected to Penn State’s core values.
Penn State conducted a separate staff survey in spring 2025, administered by a third-party firm, ModernThink.
Will Penn State repeat this survey?
The COACHE survey is designed to be repeated to establish a cycle of continuous review and improvement. The COACHE team recommends that institutions use the results of their surveys and associated action plans to make improvements and then determine when it is appropriate to administer the COACHE survey. It’s too early in the process to determine if Penn State will repeat the COACHE survey in the future.
How will the results be used to identify areas for improvement, and what process will Penn State develop for implementing changes that come from the survey?
Implementing changes will be a shared process across campuses, colleges, and University leadership. This year, which is year two of a three-year engagement with COACHE, will encompass unit and University-wide reviews of results, additional discussions with faculty and academic leaders, and prioritization of topics or areas to address. Next year, which is year three, will focus on implementing efforts to address these priorities.
Has Penn State received results for each campus? For each college?
Yes. Unit-level reports for individual colleges and campuses have been received by the steering committee and shared with the respective deans and chancellors. Unit COACHE committees, along with their leadership, have begun to analyze the reports, gather additional feedback from faculty and develop priorities for action.
Will college/campus results be broadly shared?
No. Colleges and campuses are developing their own plans for communicating their unit results. Unit leaders and COACHE committees will review data and gather additional feedback from faculty as part of the process of developing priorities for action.
Why isn’t a response rate listed for the College of Medicine in the preview report?
COACHE includes College of Medicine faculty when calculating the overall institutional response rate but excludes medical schools from all other analyses in the institution-wide report. This is because medical schools, due to their size and distinct response patterns, can skew overall results. The College of Medicine received its own separate report.
What are the next steps for each unit committee and the University-wide steering committee?
Members of the steering committee and unit committees will examine the data, both peer comparisons and overall mean scores, to identify nuances in the data among demographic groups. The steering committee will work with the unit committees to analyze the reports, communicate findings, gather additional feedback from faculty and develop priorities for action, at both the unit- and University-wide levels. Once priorities have been determined, strategies for addressing these priorities will be developed, with implementation of these strategies occurring in year three (the 2026-27 academic year).
Contact
Interested in getting involved or have a question about COACHE? Please email us at coache@psu.edu.