Preparing Future Engineering Faculty: A Professional Development Series

The Preparing Future Engineering Faculty Professional Development Series was initiated in 1999 as a means for engineering graduate students considering academic careers to learn more about the profession they may soon join. The series consisted of several faculty panel discussions that covered the topics of hiring, tenure, funding, teaching and service. Seed questions provided a foundation for lively, interactive discussions consisting of student-posed questions and diverse faculty perspectives. While most panelists were Northwestern University engineering faculty (to facilitate scheduling and minimize costs), a final capstone event included engineering faculty representing several different types of institutions. The capstone event highlighted similarities and differences in engineering faculty life and responsibilities between institutions. The information and perspectives students obtained through this series will assist them in determining a career path: academia, industry or government. Those choosing academic careers are better prepared to identify and select an institution that is aligned with their skills and values, and to face the challenges of the hiring and tenure processes. To enable other institutions to initiate similar programs, a discussion of the keys to success and sample seed questions are also included. I. Preparing Future Faculty Program The Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) program is a national initiative whose purpose is to “improve the way future faculty are prepared for the teaching, research and service responsibilities of faculty work” . Realizing that most graduate experiences are research-focused, PFF seeks to broaden the perspectives of potential future faculty by providing opportunities for graduate students to examine and experience the teaching and service aspects of the academic profession, including integrating and balancing these responsibilities with research. Because many new faculty members will ultimately work at institutions that are very different than their doctoral granting institution, PFF exposes students to a variety of institutions via a cluster arrangement formed between the anchor (the doctoral granting) institution and