How hard is it to get tenure at Philly-area universities?

We surveyed a range of area colleges about their tenure process — the criteria, how long it takes, and how many professors who seek it ultimately get it.

Those who seek tenure — what essentially amounts to lifetime job security — and don’t get it typically have one more year at the university before they must exit.

Here’s what some of them had to say about tenure.

» READ MORE: Penn’s Nobel Prize winner wasn’t on the tenure track. How can the system better support talent?

Of the 2,247 full-time professors, 896 or about 40% are tenured or on the tenure track at the large research university. Criteria that’s assessed include achievements in research/scholarship, teaching/mentoring, and service to the department, school or college or university.

For faculty in the sciences, research and scholarship are evaluated based on peer-reviewed publications in top journals, impact of their research, external grants to fund their research, presentations at national and international conferences, and research talks that they are invited to give.

Over the last five years, 18 to 49 junior/tenure track faculty hires were made annually, and three to nine senior/tenured faculty were hired annually.

Professors on the tenure track are evaluated in their sixth year or earlier if they choose. Of those who seek tenure, 87% get it.

At Swarthmore, a highly selective small liberal arts college, the main criteria for tenure are teaching and scholarship. The school considers published scholarship and/or creative works, their curriculum vitae, professional contributions to their field(s), syllabi for courses taught in the most recent four semesters, their contributions to the college community, and letters of support and recommendation from colleagues and students.

Of its 257 faculty, 175, or more than two-thirds, are tenured or tenure-track. In 2023, seven faculty received tenure, and eight tenure-track positions were filled. Tenure-track faculty are hired as assistant professors and typically become eligible for tenure in their sixth year. The college did not say what percentage of faculty who seek tenure get it, but said denial is rare.

At the Pennsylvania state university, teaching carries the majority of the weight for tenure. It accounts for at least 50% of tenure review, while research is about 35% and service 15%. Grant funding is counted under research at West Chester, but no positions depend on it.

Of 948 faculty, 602, or nearly two-thirds, are tenured or on the tenure-track. Of professors who seek tenure, 97% get it.

The university has 2,166 tenured professors and 852 on the tenure track.

The percentage of faculty who seek tenure and receive it varies from year to year. Of the 166 faculty who entered the tenure track in 2015-16, 96 or 58% earned it by the end of the seven-year period. Twenty-four, or more than 14%, were granted extensions and remain on the tenure track. Not all of the rest of the professors were denied; some left for personal or professional reasons, the university said.

The school generally considers three main areas for tenure: teaching, scholarship (including artistic accomplishment, if applicable), and service.

There are about 2,500 faculty members that are tenured or on the tenure track. Faculty come up for tenure in their sixth year, though those in the biomedical and health sciences faculty (including medical faculty) have nine years.

The university bases its tenure decisions on evidence of effective teaching, scholarly productivity and service to the university community. Scholarly productivity includes conference presentations, peer-reviewed publications (articles and books), successful grant applications and “impactful applied reports,” among other things. The school said it emphasizes the quality of the scholarship more than the quantity.

Faculty go up for tenure in their sixth year. As of fall 2022, the university had 373 tenured and 113 tenure-track faculty.