Promotion and Mobility in the Academic Accounting Career

Abstract

We examine a number of characteristics of the academic accounting career. On average, an assistant professor is promoted to associate rank after 6.46 years as an assistant, and 5.62 years at her current school. An assistant professor moves just under 1 times before promotion to associate. An associate professor is promoted to full in 7.14 years, after being at her current school for 9.27 years (including years spent as an assistant). Faculty that move from a tenure-track rank to non-tenure-track do so after 6.73 years in a tenure-track rank. Faculty starting at assistant rank stay at their current school for an average of 7.79 years; faculty starting at associate rank stay for 9.61 years, faculty starting at full professor rank stay for 8.28 years. Faculty starting at a non-tenure-track rank stay for 6.11 years. For career length, faculty retiring as assistants have a career length of 19.36 years; faculty retiring as associates have a career length of 21.72 years, and faulty retiring as full have a career length of 23.00 years. We also examine faculty mobility, by year, from 1976 to 2016, and the proportion of faculty promoted from assistant to associate and from associate to full.