Departments

• As of fall 2023, approximately 1,357 departments were awarding degrees in English at colleges and universities in the United States. These departments included large, freestanding departments in the discipline, programs in a department awarding degrees in multiple disciplines (in which case, the department chair was asked to report information only for English), and departments focused on a subspecialty in the discipline (e.g., departments of medieval literature).
• Of 1,357 departments awarding degrees in English, 560 (41%) were awarding graduate degrees in the discipline, with 216 (16%) awarding PhDs.

Faculty

• English departments employed 36,290 full- and part-time faculty members in fall 2023, with an average of 27 faculty members per department (and a median of 18). On average, departments at research universities had 40 faculty members, compared to 19 at master’s colleges and 12 at primarily undergraduate institutions. English departments at historically Black colleges and universities had an average of 22 faculty members.
• Approximately 50% of English faculty either had tenure or were on the tenure track.
• Faculty members employed full-time with tenure or on the tenure track taught an average of 30 undergraduate students in fall 2023, while full-time faculty employed off the tenure track taught an average of 70 undergraduates. Faculty employed part-time taught an average of 46 undergraduate students in that fall term.
• While 43% of English departments had made at least one new hire for the 2023–24 academic year, amounting to 1,500 new permanent faculty, the departments collectively had lost an average of 1,610 faculty per annum over the previous two years. Among the faculty who left, 56% had retired.
• An estimated 10% of English department chairs thought the number of tenure-line faculty in their departments had increased from fall 2020 to fall 2023, while 59% estimated that their tenure-line faculty count had decreased during that period. In addition, 37% of chairs in the discipline thought the number of nontenure-track faculty had increased over the same period, while 27% thought the number had decreased.
• Looking ahead, 10% of English department chairs expected the number of tenure track faculty in their departments to increase over the next three academic years, while 45% thought the number would decrease. (The remainder thought the most likely outcome would be no change or were not sure.) In contrast, 35% thought their nontenure-track faculty count would increase, while 20% thought the number would decrease.
• About 56% of the departments had a faculty member come up for tenure during the previous two years. Averaging over these two years, 620 faculty were granted tenure per annum nationwide, 10 were denied tenure, and 170 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 48% of the chairs in English departments in fall 2023, and 83% identified their race/ethnicity as white.

Undergraduate Students

• In fall 2023, departments that awarded degrees in English had undergraduate enrollments of 1,592,790, with an average enrollment of 1,174 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 the median enrollment being only 371.
• Approximately 55% of English department chairs thought undergraduate enrollments had held steady or increased from fall 2020 to fall 2023.
• On average, English departments awarded 32 bachelor’s degrees per department in the 2022–23 academic year (with a median of 13 per department). These departments had an average of 67 juniors or seniors with a declared major in the subject (and a median of 27).
• In the 2022–23 academic year, English departments awarded an average of 18 minors in the subject (with a median of 8 per department) and 19 certificates or other microcredentials per department (with a median of 5). While 61% of the departments awarded a minor, only 23% reported awarding microcredentials.

Graduate Students

• Degree-granting departments in English had 60,380 enrollments in graduate courses in fall 2023, with an average of 108 (and a median of 57) enrollments per department with a graduate program.
• Approximately 21,750 students were working toward graduate degrees in English. The average number of students pursuing an advanced degree in English was 39 (with a median of 38) per department that granted such degrees.
• The 216 departments awarding PhDs admitted an average of 10.6 new doctoral students into their programs in fall 2023, for a total of 2,280 new doctoral students in the discipline.

Departmental Practices and Concerns

• Approximately, 33% of department chairs were optimistic about the future of English at their institutions, while 28% were pessimistic. (The remainder were either unsure or neither optimistic nor pessimistic.)
• The survey found that 31% of chairs in English 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 federal or state government (cited by 56% of chairs), and the second most common concern was about boards of trustees (cited by 54%).
• While 89% of English departments provided research support for their full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty members, and 74% offered such support for full-time nontenured faculty, only 25% offered such support for part-time faculty.
• Asked what their departments had done in recent years to attract additional majors, 73% of English department chairs reported offering events, classes, or other activities designed to aid students in thinking about future jobs or careers. The second most common strategy (reported by 71% of chairs) was outreach to students who were in other majors or undeclared.
• An estimated 75% of departments supported the career development of their undergraduates by offering (and for a small share of departments, by requiring) occupationally oriented lectures; 88% offered internships; and 76% offered occupationally oriented coursework or workshops.
• In departments awarding doctorates in the discipline, 66% offered attendance at occupationally oriented lectures for their doctoral students; 65% offered internships; and 74% offered occupationally oriented coursework or workshops.