Departments

• As of fall 2023, approximately 65 departments were awarding degrees in musicology at colleges and universities in the United States. These departments included large, freestanding departments in the discipline as well as programs within departments awarding degrees in multiple disciplines. In the latter case, the department chairs were asked to report information for musicology only.
• Of the 65 departments awarding degrees in musicology, 52 (80%) were awarding graduate degrees in the discipline, with 33 (51%) awarding PhDs.

Faculty

• Musicology departments employed 590 full- and part-time faculty members in fall 2023, with an average of 9 faculty members per department.
• Approximately 70% of musicology faculty members 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 34 undergraduate students in fall 2023, while full-time faculty employed off the tenure track taught an average of 116 undergraduates. Faculty employed part-time taught an average of 23 undergraduate students during that fall term.
• While 30% of musicology departments had made at least one new hire for the 2023–24 academic year, amounting to 40 new permanent faculty, the departments collectively had lost an average of 30 faculty per annum over the previous two years. Among the faculty who left, 67% had retired.
• An estimated 22% of musicology department chairs thought the number of tenure-line faculty in their departments had increased from fall 2020 to fall 2023, while 13% estimated that their tenure-line faculty count had decreased during that period (the smallest share among all the disciplines in the survey by a wide margin, but musicology was also the discipline with the smallest number of departments and faculty in the survey). In addition, 26% of chairs in the discipline thought the number of nontenure-track faculty had increased over the same period, while 9% thought the number had decreased.
• Looking ahead, 40% of musicology department chairs expected the number of tenure-track faculty in their departments to increase over the next three academic years, while 20% thought the number would shrink. (The remainder thought the most likely outcome would be no change or were not sure what would happen.) In contrast, 29% thought their nontenure-track faculty count would increase, while 7% thought the number would decrease.
• About 37% of the departments had a faculty member come up for tenure during the previous two academic years. Averaging over those two years, 10 faculty were granted tenure per annum nationwide, none were denied tenure, and none 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 40% of the chairs in musicology departments in fall 2023, and 87% identified their race/ethnicity as white.

Undergraduate Students

• In fall 2023, departments that awarded degrees in musicology had undergraduate course enrollments of 21,470, with an average enrollment of 330 per department and a median enrollment of 369. (These are duplicated enrollment figures, with students taking multiple courses in the discipline counted in every course.)
• Approximately 75% of musicology department chairs thought undergraduate enrollments had held steady or increased from fall 2020 to fall 2023.
• On average, musicology departments awarded 2 bachelor’s degrees per department in the 2022–23 academic year. These departments had an average of 4 juniors or seniors with a declared major in the subject (with a median of 2).
• In the 2022–23 academic year, musicology departments awarded an average of 4 minors in the subject (with a median of 1 per department). Approximately 29% of departments reported awarding minors that year. A much smaller share of departments, 9%, awarded certificates or other microcredentials.

Graduate Students

• Approximately 830 students were working toward graduate degrees in musicology. The average number of students pursuing advanced degrees in musicology was 16 (with a median of 8) per department that granted such degrees.
• The 33 departments awarding a PhDs in musicology admitted an average of 1.8 new doctoral students into their programs in fall 2023, for a total of approximately 60 new doctoral students in the discipline.

Departmental Practices and Concerns

• Approximately 60% of department chairs were optimistic about the future of musicology at their institutions (one of the largest shares among the 14 disciplines in the survey), while just 7% were pessimistic. (The remainder were either unsure or neither optimistic nor pessimistic.)
• The survey found that 27% of the chairs in musicology 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 governments (cited by 64% of chairs). The second most common concern was about boards of trustees (cited by 64%).
• While 100% of musicology departments provided research support for their full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty members, and 82% offered such support for full-time nontenured faculty, only 50% offered such support for part-time faculty.
• Asked what their departments had done in recent years to attract additional majors, 38% of musicology department chairs reported the introduction of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs designed to attract new student populations to the major (musicology being the only discipline for which that was the most common strategy employed).
• An estimated 50% of departments supported the career development of their undergraduates by offering (and for a small share of departments, by requiring) occupationally oriented lectures, while 36% offered internships, and 57% offered occupationally oriented coursework or workshops.
• In departments awarding doctorates in the discipline, 72% offered occupationally oriented lectures for their doctoral students; 29% offered internships; and 71% offered occupationally oriented coursework or workshops.