Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/161013
Faculty in Demand A quick look at which disciplines are attracting the most faculty and whether that trend is changing. W hile business school deans worry that global competition for faculty will increase the doctoral shortage, for the moment the situation seems relatively stable. Five-year data trends show that, despite minor fluctuations, demand remains nearly constant for PhDs in specific disciplines, at least in North America. Conclusions are based on data drawn from a controlled set of 430 schools in the annual Salary Survey conducted by AACSB International. For this particular set of respondents, the majority are from North American schools. According to the Salary Survey, accounting is the discipline that needs and draws the most candidates every year. It's the field that has the highest numbers in terms of positions filled, positions filled by doctorates, positions that are currently open, and additional 28 September/October 2013 BizEd positions planned for growth in the next year. The other top contenders annually are finance, marketing, management, and economics. While the explosion of business education worldwide might lead observers to expect that schools are posting an increasing number of Accounting is the discipline that needs and draws the most candidates every year. positions that are going unfilled, that does not appear to be the case, at least in the U.S. In the 2008–2009 academic year, for instance, schools reported a total of 21,026 full-time positions that were currently filled, and 1,058 unfilled. In the 2012– 2013 year, those numbers were actually better—22,330 and 872, respectively. And the gap should only get a little wider in the next 12 months: Five years ago, schools expected to add 785 new doctoral positions in the next academic year; today, that number is 812. Again, these numbers are drawn from the Salary Survey and primarily reflect the situation in North America; worldwide, demand for doctoral faculty can vary by location, local competition, and the needs of specific disciplines. As Juliane Iannarelli, vice president of AACSB's Knowledge Development, explains, "Any attempt to quantify a doctoral shortage globally requires a vast oversimplification of the relationship between supply and demand figures. Even if these figures were more comprehensively available,