9 Faculty Credentials

Define the required faculty credentials for faculty teaching this program.

Master’s degree in Psychology or related field (e.g., Counseling).

Percent of full-time faculty with the required credentials

100% of full-time faculty in the Psychology Department hold the required credentials.

Percent of part-time faculty with required credentials

100% of part time faculty have required credentials.

Discuss the trends (e.g. changes in full-time to part-time ratio; special appointment versus tenure track positions)

Since fall 2020 approximately 60% of sections have been taught by full-time faculty in any given year. The number of full-time faculty has decreased from 4 in 2020-2021 to 2 in 2024-25.  Previous faculty retired and pursued other job opportunities, likely due to accreditation instability.  Now that enrollments at NIC have stabilized the hiring of an additional full-time faculty will help address increasing enrollments, support declared Psychology students, and allow for PSYC program faculty to participate in college initiatives such as First Year Experience.

Please describe whether you are able to readily hire faculty with appropriate qualifications and credentials when needs arise.

Hiring of qualified faculty has not been a problem.  We have a deep pool of excellent faculty including 4 part-time faculty teaching during the 2024-25 academic year supporting the tenured faculty.  We anticipate a robust pool for our full-time faculty announcement.

Please describe any exceptions made to hiring requirements.

Generally, no exceptions are made to the minimum required credentials.  However, high schools wanting to offer dual credit courses are requesting alternative paths of qualifications to allow their teachers to offer college sections within their buildings.  Currently, the department has maintained the qualifications and have established mentoring programs to ensure the course content meets college-level outcomes.