Departments

• As of fall 2023, approximately 744 departments were awarding degrees in philosophy 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, department chairs were asked to report information for philosophy only.
• Of the 744 departments awarding degrees in philosophy, 200 (27%) were awarding graduate degrees in the discipline, with 120 (16%) awarding PhDs.

Faculty

• Philosophy departments employed 8,620 full- and part-time faculty members in fall 2023, with an average of 12 faculty members per department (and a median of 8).
• Approximately 63% of philosophy 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 55 undergraduate students in fall 2023, while full-time faculty employed off the tenure track taught an average of 101 undergraduates. Faculty employed part-time taught an average of 73 undergraduate students during that fall term. The average undergraduate enrollments for full-time tenure track and part-time faculty were the highest among the 14 disciplines in the survey.
• While 31% of philosophy departments had made at least one new hire for the 2023–24 academic year, amounting to 410 new permanent faculty, the departments collectively had lost an average of 620 faculty per annum over the previous two years. Among the faculty who left, 58% had retired.
• An estimated 17% of philosophy chairs thought the number of tenure-line faculty in their departments had increased from fall 2020 to fall 2023, which was a relatively small share among the 14 disciplines in the survey, but modestly larger than the shares in English, history, communication, and LOTE. In comparison, 39% estimated that their tenure-line faculty count had decreased during that period, which was similar to the share for all disciplines combined. In addition, 31% of chairs in the discipline thought the number of nontenure-track faculty had increased over the same period, while 15% thought the number had decreased.
• Looking ahead, 13% of philosophy department chairs expected the number of tenure-track faculty in their departments to increase (a relatively small share among the disciplines surveyed), while 25% 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, 11% thought their nontenure-track faculty would increase, while 23% thought the number would shrink.
• About 34% of the departments had a faculty member come up for tenure during the previous two years. Averaging over these two years, 130 faculty were granted tenure per annum nationwide, none were denied tenure, and 50 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 23% of the chairs in philosophy departments in fall 2023 (the smallest share among the 14 disciplines), and 85% identified their race/ethnicity as white (one of the largest shares).

Undergraduate Students

• In fall 2023, departments awarding degrees in philosophy had undergraduate course enrollments of 557,090, with an average enrollment of 749 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 enrollment of only 347.
• Approximately 66% of philosophy department chairs thought undergraduate enrollments had held steady or increased from fall 2020 to fall 2023.
• On average, philosophy departments awarded 11 bachelor’s degrees per department in the 2022–23 academic year (with a median of 8 per department).These departments had an average of 26 juniors or seniors with a declared major in the discipline (and a median of 14).
• In the 2022–23 academic year, philosophy departments awarded an average of 12 minors in the discipline (with a median of 8 per department) and 5 certificates or other microcredentials per department (with a median of 3). However, while 64% of philosophy departments reported awarding minors, only 15% awarded a certificate or other microcredential.

Graduate Students

• Degree-granting departments in philosophy had 9,450 enrollments in graduate courses in fall 2023, with an average of 47 (and a median of 60) enrollments per department with a graduate program.
• Approximately 4,910 students were working toward graduate degrees in philosophy. The average number of students pursuing advanced degrees in philosophy was 25 (with a median of 26) per department that granted such degrees.
• The 120 departments awarding PhDs admitted an average of 4.8 new doctoral students into their programs in fall 2023, for a total of 570 new doctoral students in the discipline.

Departmental Practices and Concerns

• Approximately 43% of department chairs were optimistic about the future of philosophy at their institutions (a relatively small share among the 14 disciplines, but substantially larger than those for American studies, English, history, and languages and literatures other than English, disciplines in which only about a third of chairs expressed optimism). In comparison, 26% were pessimistic. (The remainder were either unsure or neither optimistic nor pessimistic.)
• The survey found that 19% of the chairs in philosophy were concerned about the academic freedom of faculty members in their department (a relatively small share among the 14 disciplines in the survey). Among those departments, the most common concern was threats to such freedom from boards of trustees (cited by 52% of chairs). The second most common concern was about academic administrations and students (each cited by 48%).
• While 93% of philosophy departments provided research support for their full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty members and 72% offered such support for full-time nontenured faculty, only 33% offered such support for part-time faculty.
• Asked what their departments had done in recent years to attract additional majors, 69% of philosophy department chairs reported outreach to students who were in other majors or undeclared. The second most common recruitment strategy, reported by 61% of chairs, was to add high-interest introductory courses intended to attract students.
• An estimated 36% of departments supported the career development of their undergraduates by offering (and for a small share of departments, by requiring) occupationally oriented lectures, while 42% offered internships, and 21% offered occupationally oriented coursework or workshops.
• In philosophy departments awarding PhDs, 54% offered occupationally oriented lectures for their doctoral students; 39% offered internships; and 38% offered occupationally oriented coursework or workshops.