Towards Improving the Professional Competence and Success of New Faculty Members: Insights from Lyons’s Principles

Abstract

Faculty members constitute a significant part of the existence and operations of post-secondary institutions. They are an essential resource in the delivery of higher education. Typically, faculty members are appointed to fill a need in higher education institutions’ efforts to get the pool of human resources to help in the intellectual and social development of students. How should newly appointed faculty members be treated? What needs to be done to make newly appointed faculty members feel they are valued, welcomed, and supported to successfully perform their roles? This article reflects on Richard Lyons’ five principles and their germaneness to assisting new faculty members to finding their grounds and to be rooted in the academia. The author suggests that institutions of higher learning seriously mull over these areas to isolate issues that have implications for contributing to their context-specific faculty development agenda with particular eye on new faculty members.