The Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) program is a national movement to transform the way aspiring faculty members are prepared for their careers. PFF programs provide doctoral students, as well as some master’s students, with opportunities to observe and experience faculty responsibilities at a variety of academic institutions with varying missions, diverse student bodies and different expectations for faculty.

The Association of American Colleges and Universities, and the Council of Graduate Schools established the Preparing Future Faculty Program in 1993 to address the mismatch between doctoral education and the needs of colleges and universities that employ new Ph.Ds. The traditional Ph.D. is a research degree, preparing, for example, historians, chemists, and sociologists. The degree does not typically prepare these highly skilled research professionals to be faculty members. 

Academic employers increasingly expect new faculty to be excellent teachers. More and more new faculty need collaboration skills and an awareness of how an educational program as a whole contributes to overall student growth. Faculty are also expected to render professional service and engage in shared governance. The changing expectations for faculty members tend not to be reflected in most graduate programs.

Preparing Future Faculty at UNA

Although some doctoral and masters graduate programs have institutionalized resources aimed at teacher training and pedagogy, many universities lack these resources. This stands in sharp contrast to graduate training in research, which tends to be formal and highly structured.

Modeled after the national PFF program, UNA offers resources to current graduate students and select undergraduate students who are interested in pursuing a career in academia. Three one-credit courses are offered during the academic year that will assist participants in: (a) developing pedagogical knowledge and skills for effective teaching in higher education, (b) gaining an understanding of and experience with the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), (c) recognizing the need for balancing research/creative activities, teaching, service, and personal life in an academic career and discuss how to create this balance, and (d) examining faculty life at a variety of higher education institutions where they may find careers, including Associate’s Colleges, Baccalaureate Colleges, Master’s Colleges and Universities, and Doctoral Universities.