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Use of Shared Faculty in U.S. and Canadian Dental Schools
Author(s) -
Hamamoto Darryl T.,
Farrar Suzanne K.,
Caplan Daniel J.,
Lanphier Terrence F.,
Panza Jeanne C.,
Ritter André V.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of dental education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.53
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1930-7837
pISSN - 0022-0337
DOI - 10.1002/j.0022-0337.2013.77.3.tb05468.x
Subject(s) - economic shortage , medical education , institution , faculty development , academic institution , dental education , psychology , higher education , public relations , political science , medicine , professional development , management , linguistics , philosophy , government (linguistics) , law , economics
Dental schools are facing substantial financial challenges and a shortage of faculty members. One solution to address these issues has been to hire “shared” faculty members, i.e., faculty members whose primary appointment is at one institution who are hired by another institution to teach a course or part of a course. This is a controversial concept. A survey of academic deans at U.S. and Canadian dental schools was conducted for this study; thirty‐nine (54 percent) of the seventy‐two academic deans completed the online survey. This survey found that the use of shared faculty members is not rare amongst U.S. and Canadian dental schools and that the opinions of the academic deans about the use of shared faculty members ranged widely—from strong support to strong disapproval. Using shared faculty members has advantages and disadvantages for students, the shared faculty members, and both institutions. Many of the disadvantages could be potentially minimized by stakeholders’ working together to develop collaborative arrangements. Networks could be developed in which institutions coordinate hiring of shared faculty members based on what expertise is needed. Financial challenges and shortages of faculty members are unlikely to be resolved in the near future, but use of shared faculty members is one promising approach to begin to meet these challenges.