Assessing the faculty mood
Surveys and polls of any kind and in any setting need to be read carefully and used appropriately; but they can be useful tools in informing strategy. So the recent Times Higher Education survey of UK university staff provides some interesting insights.
For those who believe that the academy is full of demoralised and cynical people who on the whole regret the career path they have taken, there is a maybe unexpectedly strong rebuttal in the survey: a total of 88 per cent agree or strongly agree that ‘my teaching is a source of satisfaction to me’, and only 1.8 per cent ‘strongly disagree’ with that proposition.
Also, while a significant majority believe that their institution values research more than teaching, about as many academics agree as disagree with the proposition that their teaching is ‘more rewarding’ than their research; and about one-third believe that their institution will promote staff on their teaching performance (a figure that is much higher than I would have expected).
Clearly the academic community is under pressure and worried about some developments and trends, but it also shows continuing signs of enthusiasm and creativity. But what academics do not like is the tendency to subject everything to formal assessment and ranking. On the whole they do not like the National Student Survey (NSS), and they are almost totally dismissive of the planned Teaching Excellence Framework: only 11 per cent think it will improve teaching quality.
But what the survey indicates is that this academic community, while sceptical about many of the changes it is experiencing in their working environment, is still keen to be active participants in the institutional journey; universities should welcome and encourage them in this journey.
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University Blog 
February 21, 2017 at 9:06 am
“while sceptical about many of the changes it is experiencing in their working environment, is still keen to be active participants in the institutional journey; universities should welcome and encourage them in this journey.”
À propos of being active participants, the majority of the academic community would have liked to see its skepticism about TEF reflected in the choice made by the academic leadership, once again an opportunity has been missed to address major changes in a truly collegial manner, this is particularly disappointing in Scotland where several universities have opted in TEF for “international marketing” reasons, given that, contrary to England, such an assessment here is not linked to fees. The quote above is by Alastair Sim, director of Universities Scotland, speaking to the House of Commons Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/naive-tef-metrics-could-undermine-widening-participation-v-c-warns