ABSTRACT

The challenges of a rapidly changing society are acutely felt in many domains including higher education, and strongly persuade the universities to focus on the quality of their faculty and to offer them appropriate opportunities for professional development. But, the efficiency of any institutional faculty development program really increases if it addresses the specific needs, knowledge and priorities expressed by the teaching staff. Therefore, the present study shows the results of a survey on faculty development needs assessment, conducted in 4 Romanian universities. The findings show differences in the professional development needs perceived by different subgroups of faculty. Early career teaching members are more oriented towards teaching skills improvement and development plans, while tenured faculty are rather interested in their research skills development. Besides this, faculty members from social science departments tend to give a higher rate for teaching development strategies than their colleagues in science fields. The study highlights that the content of the faculty development programs must be adapted to the specific needs of the faculty subgroups, according to their professional goals, their career trajectory level, teaching experience, or their specialization department.

KEYWORDS: quality assurance in higher education, teaching staff needs, faculty professional development.

PAGES: 29-43