New York, USA - Where does spirituality fit into a college experience? The latest findings from a continuing national study of spirituality in US higher education, released Tuesday, reveal that faculty views on the subject diverge some from student perspectives.
While 81 percent of faculty consider themselves spiritual persons (and 64 percent call themselves "religious"), only 30 percent agree that "colleges should be concerned with facilitating students' spiritual development." Nearly half of college freshmen in an earlier survey called it "essential" or "very important" for colleges to encourage their personal expression of spirituality.
Some 60 percent of faculty did say "developing moral character" and "enhancing student self-understanding" were essential or very important goals. Views vary by academic field, with the most faculty support for facilitating spiritual development coming from the health sciences and humanities, and the least from biological, physical, and social sciences.
The Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA is conducting the multiyear study, and surveyed more than 40,000 faculty at 421 colleges and universities.