Preparing Future Faculty

Working as part of a program sponsored by the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) and the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), APSA has awarded grants to support the "Preparing Future Faculty" programs of four Ph.D. departments working with political science departments in (a combination of) non-doctoral universities, colleges and community colleges to provide professional preparation for academic careers to advanced doctoral candidates.

The CGS and AAC&U received a private gift of $1,635,000 to support a new program. Shaping the Preparation of Future Social Science and Humanities Faculty addresses the doctoral preparation of future faculty in the social sciences and the humanities. CGS and AAC&U will direct the highly collaborative project, coordinating the work of six social science and humanities disciplinary associations involved with the initiative. The initiative builds on and extends the Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) program that CGS and AAC&U have led since 1993 with support from the Pew Charitable Trusts and the National Science Foundation. The new program brings research universities, the "producers" of Ph.Ds., and colleges and universities, the "consumers" who hire Ph.Ds., into partnership. The partners will offer faculty preparation that highlights the broad mission of undergraduate education and the diverse needs and characteristics of students entering the academy. Doctoral degree-granting departments will form partnerships with similar academic departments in institutions ranging from community colleges to comprehensive universities to create departmental clusters as learning laboratories to train graduate students in the broad range of faculty responsibilities. The six disciplines engaged in the initiative are represented by their professional societies. They are the: American Historical Association, American Political Science Association, American Psychological Association, American Sociological Association, National Communication Association and National Council of Teachers of English.

Each professional society, including the APSA, has selected four doctoral degree-granting departments to receive grants of $10,000 a year for two years. Over a two-year period, the departments will create innovative faculty preparation programs based on Preparing Future Faculty concepts. Throughout the implementation of the new programs, the societies and higher education organizations will disseminate their findings to their constituencies and promote new thinking about the professional development of future faculty.

Additional Information
For more information about Preparing Future Faculty, including further history about the project, see the program websites for:

• Council of Graduate Schools (CGS)
• Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U)