Higher education leaders have already been navigating much uncertainty this year. Looking ahead to fall 2025, it could be more severe as higher education institutions expect to face the full impact of the long-awaited “enrollment cliff,” an anticipated decrease in overall student enrollment caused by a smaller group of 18-year-olds in the general population. For smaller institutions, the effects of this cliff will be especially acute.
Smaller institutions play an essential role in the country’s higher education landscape, but financial and societal pressures compound already stressful situations for their faculty members, leading to burnout and turnover. In light of these challenges, it’s even more important that smaller colleges and universities continue to support talented faculty—and there are ways to do it without straining increasingly limited resources.
Why We Need Smaller Institutions
Smaller institutions fill a fundamental role in their local economies and offer significant benefits to both students and faculty. Their smaller class sizes allow for more lesson plan personalization and one-on-one learning opportunities, and their faculty members may have more flexibility to try new approaches to teaching and research. When faculty are empowered to take chances, both students and the university stand to benefit from these learning opportunities, which may include new courses, projects, or research.
Another benefit of this personalized approach is that faculty are able to make individual connections with students—and perhaps introduce more students to their particular field or discipline. Building these collaborative networks of students and faculty can lead to improved educational and research outcomes for both parties, as well as improve the standing of the institution overall.
Current Challenges
Given their size, smaller universities and colleges are less insulated from economic and societal challenges, especially when it comes to declining student enrollment and increasing faculty burnout.
Enrollment Decline and Closures
Colleges and universities of all sizes experienced a 15% decrease in enrollment between 2010 and 2021. In the first half of 2024, more than one college per week announced its closure, many of which were smaller institutions.
Contributing to this decline are changing attitudes toward the value of a college education. The number of Americans who think it’s important to get a degree is declining, driven by concerns about the cost and an increase in professions that no longer require secondary degrees.
Faculty Burnout
Most faculty (67%) say they are experiencing increasing workloads, and nearly two-thirds (64%) of them report feeling burned out. Faculty at smaller institutions who may have to take on multiple roles potentially face even higher levels of stress.
A large part of this burnout is related to time management. A whopping 83% of faculty say that they wish they had more time to spend on important matters—not administrative tasks. Not only are these faculty members overworked, they aren’t able to spend time on tasks they’re passionate about: their research, curriculum development, and student mentorship.
Faculty Satisfaction
Faculty satisfaction has decreased in three key areas between 2021 and 2023: promotions and tenure processes, anticipated career paths, and compensation. Faculty feel connected to their institution and supported by administrators, but they report a lack of appreciation and recognition for their efforts. And at least one in four faculty members believe their teaching and research efforts are undervalued.
Importance of Faculty at Smaller Institutions
Faculty members are an essential component of higher education institutions at all sizes. In addition to coursework, faculty influence nearly every organizational and administrative aspect of the institution, from governance and student success to revenue and rankings. Given the essential roles that faculty play, the costs of high faculty turnover are high. And at a smaller institution? The departure of a key faculty member can have an even greater impact.
To prevent burnout and turnover, institutions must consider how to best support their faculty and provide resources to alleviate some of their main stressors. In particular, smaller institutions must support faculty career growth and identify tools to showcase their varied activities.
Software to Support Faculty
Universities stand to retain faculty for upward of 30 years if they’re tenured—but not if faculty don’t feel valued for their work. College administrators, at smaller institutions especially, have an important role to play when it comes to inspiring faculty confidence and encouraging retention.
Administrative tasks are a necessary part of most roles, but when faculty members spend an outsized amount of time on admin, it substantially reduces their energy for meaningful work—namely, teaching, research, and service. And when institutions don’t make an effort to free up faculty time, faculty members can begin to feel like the institution doesn’t care.
Smaller institutions feeling the strain of enrollment and faculty burnout can take three key steps to make sure their faculty members feel supported and valued:
1. Reduce administrative tasks.
Using Interfolio’s Faculty Information System (FIS), institutions can give faculty their time back (even just 10 hours over the course of a semester) to maximize their interactions with students. The FIS enables faculty to automatically pull in their publication data, populate web profiles, and use the same data for administrative requests, annual reviews, and promotions, freeing up time to focus on their highest-value activities. Additionally, it can support the data and reporting needs of hiring and review committees, streamlining these processes for all stakeholders. It also gives administrators better visibility into faculty accomplishments and workloads.
2. Improve visibility into how faculty support the institution’s goals.
As public perception of the value of a college education decreases, it’s more important than ever to show the impact of faculty work. With Interfolio’s FIS, institutions can centralize faculty data, allowing them to see research, courses, awards, service, and more all in one place—and more easily and effectively advocate on behalf of faculty. Plus, this same body of data can fuel public web profiles, showcasing faculty work more broadly and enabling cross-institutional and cross-disciplinary collaboration.
3. Enable faculty to curate their story.
Faculty want a way to showcase their work and accomplishments in a way that will help advance their careers. The Interfolio FIS is a widely adopted system that makes it easy for faculty to centrally document their activities across research, teaching, and learning. With this easy-to-use software, faculty can then focus on the substance of their annual review, tenure case, award application, and more.
Higher education is often under pressure, but your faculty members don’t have to take the brunt of it. Learn how your institution can support your faculty members using the Interfolio Faculty Information System. Contact us to schedule a demo today.