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US universities are not succeeding in diversifying faculty

Nature Human Behaviour volume 6, pages 1606–1608 (2022)Cite this article

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An Author Correction to this article was published on 15 January 2024

This article has been updated

US universities have made public commitments to recruit and retain faculty of colour. Analysis of three federal datasets shows that at current rates diversity in US faculty will never reach racial parity. Yet, colleges and universities could achieve parity by 2050 by diversifying their faculty at 3.5 times the current pace.

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Fig. 1: Demographic parity will never be achieved at current rates of change.
Fig. 2: Increase in unhired PhDs from underrepresented groups.

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    J. Nathan Matias & Neil A. Lewis

  2. Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Palo Alto, CA, USA

    J. Nathan Matias

  3. Policy Research Associates, Delmar, NY, USA

    Elan C. Hope

Authors
  1. J. Nathan Matias
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  2. Neil A. Lewis
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  3. Elan C. Hope
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to J. Nathan Matias.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Human Behaviour thanks Tracey Adams and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

A detailed description of the of the data, operational definitions, and mathematical equations behind the analyses, as well as links to the raw data and code. Sections: Defining Demographic Parity, Institution and Institution-Group Projections, Estimating Un-hired PhDs

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Matias, J.N., Lewis, N.A. & Hope, E.C. US universities are not succeeding in diversifying faculty. Nat Hum Behav 6, 1606–1608 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-022-01495-4

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