Growth of Systems‐Centric Systems Engineering graduate programs in the United States and the role of their non‐tenure‐track faculty

Abstract

AbstractThis study examines the growth of Systems‐Centric Systems Engineering (SCSE) graduate programs in the United States and the status of full‐time non‐tenure‐track faculty (NTTF) members within these programs. Growth is measured by the number of master's and PhD students who graduated from those programs. The annual production of master's degree graduates has grown by a factor of 5 during the period, increasing from 312 in 2001 to 1535 in 2010. Furthermore, the six largest SE programs accounted for more than half of those graduates. The annual production of PhD degrees has risen as well, though not as dramatically. In spite of such growth, less than 50% of SCSE programs hire NTTF, and, among them, the majority of the programs (65%) have four or fewer NTTF. Only 24% of the total faculty employed by SCSE programs in 2010 are NTTF, and most of them (67%) spend the majority of their time teaching; 65% of the respondents identified industrial experience as the most attractive reason for hiring them. Among SCSE programs that produced a high number of master's degree graduates, the ones that started between 2001 and 2005 employed a higher number of NTTF compared to those that started before 2001. The roles of NTTF are compared to those of tenured and tenure‐track faculty (TTTF). This paper concludes with recommendations on how to best use NTTF. ©2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Eng 16