COACHE Marks Two Decades of Faculty-Focused Change with Release of 20th Anniversary Impact Report

As it marks two decades of impact, the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) at the Harvard Graduate School of Education has released Looking Back & Moving Forward, its 20th Anniversary Impact Report. The report chronicles 20 years of partnership with more than 300 colleges, universities and state systems, capturing millions of data points from hundreds of thousands of faculty members to help leaders better understand and enhance the faculty experience.

The impact report traces COACHE’s evolution from its early roots in faculty satisfaction research to its current role as a trusted national partner in institutional transformation, shared governance, and academic leadership.

“COACHE has helped shift how institutions think about faculty satisfaction and success — from something anecdotal or episodic to something measurable and actionable,” said R. Todd Benson, senior director and co-principal investigator at COACHE. “We’ve built a national conversation around faculty experience grounded in data, transparency, and collaboration. Faculty well-being isn’t a ‘nice-to-have’ — it’s central to institutional sustainability.” 

Transforming Faculty Data into Institutional Action 

COACHE was founded on an early insight shared by Mark McNamee, former provost at Virginia Tech and inaugural member of COACHE’s National Advisory Council: While higher education is rich with data, many institutions lack the support and strategy to turn that data into meaningful action.

That principle remains central to COACHE’s work. Through its Faculty Job Satisfaction Survey and Faculty Retention and Exit Survey, COACHE provides leaders with data-driven insights that lead to real change — strengthening mentoring programs, clarifying promotion and tenure processes, improving communication and advancing diversity and inclusion initiatives.  

COACHE surveys occur over a three-year cycle (surveying, analyzing, and activating), and each survey takes just 22 to 25 minutes to complete. The surveys are fully anonymous — ensuring that every faculty member’s perspective is represented. Participating institutions receive digital reports, interactive dashboards and opportunities for deeper analysis through de-identified data sets.  

“Democratizing the data — making it accessible and transparent to all faculty — has been instrumental in building trust,” said Benson. “Transparency builds trust, and trust is foundational to institutional health and resilience.” 

Key findings from the 20th Anniversary COACHE Impact Report

• Transparency drives trust. Institutions that share COACHE data widely — acknowledging both strengths and challenges — build stronger, more resilient campus cultures.
• Faculty inclusion matters. When faculty are engaged early in data collection, interpretation, and decision-making, institutions make more effective and lasting policy changes.
• Shared governance thrives on clarity. COACHE’s analyses reveal that governance works best when roles and processes are transparent and faculty perspectives are genuinely considered.
• Leadership development is essential. Few people go to graduate school to become a provost, yet academic leadership plays a pivotal role in faculty success. COACHE cultivates a collaborative space for leaders to share strategies and learn from peers.
• Equity remains a core priority. COACHE data continues to show that some faculty groups experience their institutions differently, shaping their research and the student learning environment. Highlighting and addressing these disparities remains central to COACHE’s mission.
• Context matters. COACHE emphasizes that interpreting faculty data within each institution’s environment is critical to making sustainable improvements. 

For more than two decades, COACHE has expanded beyond research to provide resources, training and frameworks that help institutional leaders frame issues and plan strategically with faculty. “We often say that faculty are problem-solvers, not problems to be solved,” said Benson. “When faculty are involved from the outset, institutions make better decisions that endure.” COACHE’s community of practice offers leaders a space to speak candidly, share solutions and strengthen leadership capacity. 

Looking Back & Moving Forward calls for reframing how faculty are represented in public discourse. Faculty are often mischaracterized in the media,” Benson said. “Our data tells a different story — faculty are deeply engaged problem-solvers committed to improving their institutions. The next phase of COACHE’s work is sharing those stories with a broader audience.”

As COACHE looks ahead, its mission remains grounded in transparency, inclusion and partnership. “Our goal is to help higher education become the best possible workplace for those who make it work — its faculty,” said Benson. “We have no other path forward, and we wouldn’t want it any other way.” 

About COACHE 

The Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) at the Harvard Graduate School of Education is a research-practice partnership that has, for more than 20 years, helped colleges and universities improve the faculty experience. Through its Faculty Job Satisfaction and Faculty Retention and Exit surveys, COACHE provides data-driven insights that strengthen mentoring, equity, governance, and faculty well-being. With millions of data points from hundreds of thousands of faculty across the country, COACHE is the leading authority on the faculty workplace in higher education.