Keys to the Retention of College Professors

Abstract

Retaining teachers in their early professional stages or afterwards is a major issue that raises concerns. The resilience of college professors in respect to what motivates their retention in their various educational faculties is an emerging field that has sparked interest among scholars. Invitation emails were sent to 15 professors who were recommended to the researcher to ask for the interview. Based on interest and availability, the researcher scheduled approximately 1-hour meetings with four of those who responded based on the order that they responded to the invitation. The questions for the interviews were developed based upon the findings of previous research about teacher retention at K-12 and university levels. During coding of the interview data, statements emerged to support the theme of academic freedom. Professors referred to the importance of “academic freedom” as a factor in helping them stay in their job when asked about administrative support for decision-making. Some of the factors that influenced college professor retention were similar to K-12 teacher retention, however, there are other factors that influenced college professors. Participants indicated included enjoying their jobs, creativity, learning how to change their way of thinking, and problem solving. Participants reported that salary is a less-effective factor as compared to the importance of the other factors indicated.