The American Council on Education published a report yesterday which found the typical American college president is a married, white, 61-year-old male with a doctorate degree in education who has held his position for seven years. This profile has remained relatively consistent for the past 25 years, according to an ACE press release.
The report collected data from college presidents nationwide and looked closely at age, race, gender, previous work experience and other factors which impact selection processes for top-level college administrators, ACE research analyst Young Kim said.
The number of racial minorities who are college presidents has decreased slightly from 14 percent in 2006 to 13 percent in 2011. Kim said researchers "did not expect racial diversity to decrease," describing the results as "lamentable, given college populations as a whole have diversified tremendously."
The survey also found a three percent increase in female college presidents, from 23 percent in 2006 to 26 percent in 2011.
Education Prof. Sarah Turner said in an email that while demographic diversity is important, competence and "capacity to build institutions" is crucial for university leaders.
The study showed an increase in the age of the average college president. Fifty-eight percent of those surveyed were 61 or older, compared to 49 percent in 2006 and 14 percent when the survey was first conducted in 1986.
ACE said in a press release that the high age of current college presidents could lead to a large number of turnovers in the next five years which would open the door to the possibility for more diversity in the hiring of college presidents.
The average amount of time a president holds the office has also decreased from eight and a half years in 2006 to seven years in 2011. Thirty-four percent of survey participants stated Chief Academic Officer or Provost as their previous position.
Kim said the Department of Education does not collect data on the average amount of time presidents are in office, so the ACE "strives to fill this void in knowledge."
Kim said in an email he hopes the study "triggers college leaders to understand the extent to which the leadership is diversifying in the face of overall growth in diversity of higher education."
Turner, however, said the finite number of college presidents means that the changes found by the survey may not be significant.
"There is a small numbers problem in looking at a population like university presidents," Turner said. "One can make too much of small changes."
The survey was sent online and in print to approximately 3,300 college presidents, along with a number of chief executives.
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