Departments

• As of fall 2023, approximately 1,206 departments were awarding degrees in LOTE at colleges and universities in the United States. These departments included large, freestanding departments in a specific language or cluster of languages, as well as programs in departments awarding degrees in multiple disciplines (in which case the department chair was asked to report information for LOTE only).
• Of the 1,206 departments awarding degrees in LOTE, 466 (39%) were awarding graduate degrees in the discipline, with 305 (25%) awarding PhDs.

Faculty

• LOTE departments employed 24,170 full- and part-time faculty members in fall 2023, with an average of 20 faculty members per department (and a median of 14).
• Approximately 45% of the LOTE faculty members had tenure or were on the tenure track—the second smallest share among the 14 disciplines in the survey.
• Faculty members employed full-time with tenure or on the tenure track taught an average of 17 undergraduate students in fall 2023, while full-time faculty employed off the tenure track taught an average of 75 undergraduates. Faculty employed part-time taught an average of 30 undergraduate students during that fall term.
• While 40% of LOTE departments had made at least one new hire for the 2023–24 academic year, amounting to 970 new permanent faculty members, the departments collectively had lost an average of 1,200 faculty per annum over the previous two years. Among the faculty who left, 63% had retired.
• An estimated 16% of LOTE department chairs thought the number of tenure-line faculty in their departments had increased from fall 2020 to fall 2023, while 42% estimated that their tenure-line faculty count had decreased. In addition, 30% of chairs in the discipline thought the number of nontenure-track faculty had increased over the same period, while 21% thought the number had decreased.
• Looking ahead, 19% of LOTE department chairs expected the number of tenure track faculty in their departments to increase over the next three academic years, while 29% thought the number would decrease. (The remainder thought the most likely outcome would be no change or were not sure what would happen.) In contrast, 17% thought their nontenure-track faculty count would increase, while 27% thought the number would decrease.
• About 42% of the departments had a faculty member come up for tenure during the previous two years. Averaging over these two years, 420 faculty were granted tenure per annum nationwide, 10 were denied tenure, and 80 left prior to a tenure decision.
• Because it is not appropriate for a person to assign a demographic identity to another person, the survey did not ask department chairs to report their faculty members’ races or genders. However, the survey did ask chairs to describe themselves. Women constituted 52% of the chairs in LOTE departments in fall 2023, and 78% identified their race/ethnicity as white.

Undergraduate Students

• In fall 2023, departments that awarded degrees in LOTE had undergraduate course enrollments of 954,110, with an average enrollment of 791 per department. (These are duplicated enrollment figures, with students taking multiple courses in the discipline counted in every course.) The average is skewed upward by large programs, typically at research universities, which had significantly larger-than-average enrollments, as indicated by a median of only 200.
• Approximately 46% of LOTE department chairs thought undergraduate enrollments had held steady or increased from fall 2020 to fall 2023. This was a relatively small share in comparison to the other disciplines in the survey, as 54% of the departments—the largest share among the disciplines—reported a decrease in enrollments.
• On average, LOTE departments awarded 22 bachelor’s degrees per department in the 2022–23 academic year (with a median of 10 per department). These departments had an average of 42 juniors or seniors with a declared major in the discipline (and a median of 16).
• In the 2022–23 academic year, LOTE departments awarded an average of 46 minors in the discipline and a median of 15 per department, which were the largest numbers among the disciplines in the survey. LOTE departments also awarded an average of 17 certificates or other microcredentials per department (with a median of 6), though only 27% of the departments offered such credentials. A much larger percentage, 66%, offered minors.

Graduate Students

• Degree-granting departments in LOTE had 19,980 enrollments in graduate courses in fall 2023, with an average of 43 enrollments (and a median of 30) per department with a graduate program.
• Approximately 11,010 students were working toward graduate degrees in LOTE. The average number of students pursuing advanced degrees in LOTE was 24 (with a median of 15) per department that granted such degrees.
• The 305 departments awarding PhDs admitted an average of approximately 3 new doctoral students into their programs in fall 2023, for a total of approximately 1,000 new doctoral students in the discipline.

Departmental Practices and Concerns

• Approximately, 35% of department chairs were optimistic about the future of LOTE at their institution (one of the smallest shares among the disciplines in the survey), while 33% were pessimistic. (The remainder were either unsure or neither optimistic nor pessimistic.)
• The survey found that 18% of chairs in LOTE were concerned about the academic freedom of faculty members in their department. Among those chairs, the most common concern was threats to such freedom from academic administrations (cited by 62% of chairs). The second most common concern was about threats from boards of trustees (cited by 50%).
• While 97% of LOTE departments provided research support for their full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty members, and 86% offered such support for full-time nontenured or nontenure-track faculty, only 33% offered such support for part-time faculty.
• Asked what their departments had done in recent years to attract additional majors, 75% of LOTE department chairs reported offering events, classes, or other activities designed to aid students in thinking about future jobs or careers. The same percentage reported outreach to or recruited students currently in other majors or undeclared.
• An estimated 66% of departments supported the career development of their undergraduates by offering (and for a small share of departments, by requiring) occupationally oriented lectures, while 66% offered internships, and 51% offered occupationally oriented coursework or workshops.
• In departments awarding doctorates in the discipline, 72% offered occupationally oriented lectures for their doctoral students; 34% offered internships; and 62% offered occupationally oriented coursework or workshops.