Survey of Academic Department Chairs: Pandemic’s Impact on Budgets, Buyouts, Retirements & Tenure

This report examines how the pandemic has impacted and is likely to impact departmental budgets, hiring and personnel practices across various academic departments in the United States and Canada. One hundred six department chairs from 57 colleges and universities provide detailed data on their budgets and on personnel practices such as buyouts, early retirement and tenure promotion. This 70-page report helps its readers to answer questions such as: how are academic departments adjusting their budgets and spending? Have early retirement offers and buyouts increased? Will tenure be more difficult to get in the near future? What is the near term future for departmental technology budgets?