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Who Are Our Faculty - May 2025

May 6, 2025

The Office of Faculty Affairs (“OFA”) receives various questions with some frequency about the types and numbers of faculty members at the University. While many people believe that faculty members at the University are either tenured or tenure track (“TTK”) or professional track (“PTK”), the University has more than 5,000 faculty members distributed across the five categories identified below. The data provided are from October 2024, which is the most recent faculty data to which OFA has access. Note: The number of faculty can fluctuate, and as such, this article is not intended to be comprehensive, but rather provides an overview of the types and general numbers of faculty at the University. 

 

  • Tenured/Tenure Track. There are two title series that comprise TTK faculty at the University: 1) Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor; and 2) Agent, Senior Agent, and Principal Agent. The Agent title series is reserved for Extension. The policy governing TTK faculty appointments at the University is the University of Maryland, College Park Policy on Appointment, Promotion, and Tenure of Faculty (“APT Policy”) (II-1.00(A)).
    • In fall 2024, the University had around 1,600 TTK faculty members.
  • Professional Track. Within the PTK ranks, there are instructional (e.g., Lecturer, Clinical), Research (e.g., Research Professor, Research Scientist), and Field/Specialist (e.g., Agent Associate, Faculty Specialist) title series. There is a further distinction between promotable titles (e.g., PTK faculty titles with three ranks such as Assistant Research Scholar, Associate Research Scholar, Research Scholar; Assistant Artist-in-Residence, Associate Artist-in-Residence, Artist-in-Residence) and non-promotable titles (Post-Doctoral Associate, Faculty Assistant). The relevant University policies and guidelines related to PTK faculty include the APT Policy; the University of Maryland Policy on Professional Track Faculty (II-1.00(G)); and the Senate-approved University of Maryland Guidelines for Appointment, Evaluation, and Promotion of Professional Track Faculty.
    • In fall 2024, the University had around 1,950 paid PTK faculty in promotable titles (800 in instructional ranks, 500 in research ranks, and 650 in field and specialist ranks), and about 1,125 PTK faculty in non-promotable ranks, bringing the total number of PTK faculty in fall 2024 to about 3,075.
  • Librarian. Librarian (Librarian I-IV) faculty are neither TTK nor PTK faculty. Rather, they have something referred to as “permanent status,” which is similar to, but distinct from, the tenure track and/or tenure. The relevant policy governing Librarian appointments at the University is the University of Maryland, College Park Policy on Appointment, Promotion, and Permanent Status of Library Faculty (II-1.00(B)).
    • In fall 2024, the University had about 70 Librarians.
  • Adjunct (Instructional). Although University policy (see below) permits the use of the Lecturer and Senior Lecturer titles for adjunct faculty, University policy defines an adjunct as an instructional faculty member with an appointment of less than 50% FTE.  Adjuncts are not considered PTK faculty. The relevant policy governing adjunct appointments at the University is the University of Maryland Policy on the Employment of Adjunct Faculty (II-1.07(A)).
    • In fall 2024, the University had about 425 instructional adjunct faculty.
  • Other. The University’s APT Policy also includes faculty titles not represented in the above groupings, such as Professor of the Practice and College Park Professor. In addition, the University enables the use of Visiting faculty titles in all groups.
    • In fall 2024, the University had around 25 faculty members appointed as Professor of the Practice or College Park Professor.
    • In fall 2024, there were about 480 faculty in visiting titles. While a vast majority of these appointments are unpaid and used for individuals with full-time positions at federal agencies or other organizations, visiting titles may also be used for temporary appointments for the duration of a formal appointment review (e.g., for a new tenured faculty hire).  

 

Please do not hesitate to reach out to OFA (faculty@umd.edu) with any questions regarding the composition of our faculty. 

 

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