Questions to Ask a Dean
Questions to ask a dean, for anyone with a few minutes in front of one: a faculty or staff candidate on a campus interview, an admitted or current student or a parent at a meet-the-dean session, or a student interviewing the dean for a class or the campus paper. The 62 questions are grouped so you can go straight to your own: the school's priorities and its budget, tenure and support for candidates, students and where they end up, the dean's own job for an interview or a profile, and a few to close on. Each has a note on what a good or a worrying answer sounds like, or what to do with it.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Priorities
What are your top priorities for the school this year?
Why ask it
A dean who has thought it through names two or three things and what each one costs: a new program, a hiring push, a fix to advising. A list of eight is a list of none. Ask which one gets the next dollar, then listen for whether your department or program is in the answer.
What is the biggest challenge the school faces right now?
Why ask it
Enrollment, money, a building, turnover: most deans have one of these on their mind and will say so to someone who asks plainly. A named problem with a plan next to it is a good sign. 'We are in a strong position' with nothing after it means you should put the same question to a department chair or a senior student.
What does this school do that others like it do not?
Why ask it
Admitted students and candidates comparing offers both need this one, and the dean has usually answered it many times. Get past the brochure by asking what the school has chosen not to do, since a place that claims to be good at everything has not chosen. Something you could check on a visit, such as every student doing a placement, is worth more than 'our sense of community'.
Where do you want the school to be in five years?
Why ask it
This is the vision question and the polished answer comes easily, so listen for what would have to be built, hired or stopped to get there. A candidate is hearing what the job may turn into; a student is hearing what may arrive after they have graduated. Ask which part of it is already funded.
What have you changed since you became dean?
Why ask it
What a dean chose to change tells you how they read the place when they arrived, and whether they can move things in this institution. Good answers have a before and an after. A dean in the first year will talk about plans instead, which is fair, but it means the school you are judging may look different in two years.
How has enrollment in the school changed over the last few years, and what is driving it?
Why ask it
Enrollment sits behind most other answers you will hear today, because it often shapes how many sections run and which positions get filled. A dean who knows the numbers program by program is managing it. If the trend is down, ask what has already been tried, since a plan that starts next year has not been tested.
Where does this school stand among the university's priorities?
Why ask it
Some schools are the one the president talks about in speeches, and some are asked to hold steady while money goes elsewhere. Listen for evidence: approved hires, a new building, a place in the campus plan. A candidate should weigh this alongside salary, because it limits what the dean can deliver on anything said today.
Which programs are you investing in, and which are under review?
Why ask it
Every school has programs on the way up and programs being watched, and the dean knows which is which. If yours is under review, ask what the review measures and when it ends. Students should also ask what happens to people already enrolled if a program closes, and where that commitment is written.
What does this department do well, and what do you want from it that you are not getting yet?
Why ask it
For a candidate, this is the dean's view of the people who have been interviewing you all day, and it may not match theirs. The second half is the useful part, because it is often the reason the position was approved. If the dean's wish and the chair's description of the job differ, raise it with the chair before you accept.
Budget
How is the school's budget set, and how much of it is yours to move?
Why ask it
What you want to learn is the size of the dean's discretion, and no two institutions' budget models give the same answer. Ask too whether a department's share follows enrollment, last year's figure or the case its chair makes, since each rewards something different. A dean with little flexible money can support you in words only, and it is better to know that before you rely on a promise.
When someone retires or leaves, does the department keep the position?
Why ask it
At some schools a vacated position stays with the department, and at others it returns to the dean or the provost and has to be won again. It explains how the current search came about and whether colleagues who leave will be replaced. Students can ask it too: it predicts whether a favorite course outlasts its instructor.
Where does the school's income come from, and which source worries you most?
Why ask it
Tuition, public funding, research grants, gifts and fees mix differently at every institution, and the mix decides what the school is sensitive to. You do not need figures. A dean who says 'we lean heavily on one program's enrollment' has given you the risk in a sentence.
What is fundraising paying for right now, and what do you hope it pays for next?
Why ask it
Many deans spend a good part of their time with donors, so this is a subject they know well. Gifts are often tied to a purpose, which means the answer shows what may grow whatever happens to the regular budget: scholarships, a named professorship, a lab. Students should listen for anything they could apply for.
Tenure and support
What does it take to earn tenure here, and where is that written down?
Why ask it
Standards vary by institution, by field and sometimes by department, so do not carry over what you saw elsewhere. A clear answer points to a document and describes what recent successful cases looked like. If the answer is 'you will know', ask for the written criteria and read them before you sign anything.
What do the people who do well in this school have in common?
Why ask it
A dean usually sees review files from every department, so the answer draws on more cases than any one chair has read. Listen for whether it describes work, such as people who publish steadily or rebuild a course each year, or temperament, such as people who do not make trouble. If it is the second, ask about someone who disagreed with a decision and how things went for them afterwards.
What is your part in a tenure or promotion decision?
Why ask it
The dean may write a separate recommendation that carries real weight, or mostly pass a committee's vote upward, and you cannot tell which from the title. Find out who has the last word. That is the person whose expectations you need to understand in your first two years.
How have tenure cases from this school gone in recent years?
Why ask it
You are asking for a pattern, not names. Most people succeeding after candid early reviews describes one kind of place; surprises at the final stage describe another. Ask as well how many left before the decision, since those departures never appear in the count.
How do teaching, research and service weigh against each other in a review?
Why ask it
The official split and the lived one can differ, and the dean is one of the few people who sees every file. Ask which of the three has most recently sunk a case. Then put the same question to a recently tenured colleague and compare the two answers.
Is there a review partway to tenure, and what follows a discouraging one?
Why ask it
Many institutions hold a formal check a few years in, though its timing and name differ. The second half matters more. A school that responds with mentoring, a course release or a clear list of what to fix is trying to keep its hires; one that treats the review mainly as an exit point is using it as a filter.
What is the teaching load for this position, and what can reduce it?
Why ask it
Get the number of courses per term and the usual class size, then ask about releases for new hires, grants, large sections or administrative work. Whatever the dean describes should match the offer letter when it comes. If the two differ, ask for the dean's version to be put in writing.
What does a new faculty member usually start with: funds, space, equipment, time?
Why ask it
Start-up support is often the dean's to give, which makes this the right office for the question. During the interview, ask what is typical and keep your own figure for the offer stage. Do raise anything you cannot work without, such as lab space or a particular instrument, because a no on that changes whether to continue.
What is there for research once the start-up money is spent: grant help, travel funds, leave?
Why ask it
Ask for the mechanism behind each: a staff member who helps with budgets and submissions, a yearly travel allowance, a leave you apply for or one that comes round by rule. Staff candidates can ask the same about training money, which is easy for a school to overlook. An allowance that has not changed in many years is a small sign of how tight things are.
Who mentors new faculty, and is that arranged or left to chance?
Why ask it
An assigned mentor, a meeting schedule and someone outside the department to talk to are signs of a system. 'Everyone here is very supportive' is kindness, which helps, but it will not read your grant draft. Later, ask a junior colleague whether the arrangement on paper actually happens.
How much committee and service work falls on someone new, and who shields them from too much?
Why ask it
Small schools need every pair of hands, and new people get asked first because they find it hard to refuse. A dean who has a rule about it, or who tells chairs to say no on a junior person's behalf, has seen the problem. It matters most if you would be one of very few people with your background or specialty, since those requests multiply.
How are raises decided, and when was the last one?
Why ask it
You want to know whether raises follow merit, a fixed schedule or outside offers, and whether a union contract or a public pay scale settles it before the dean has any say. The date of the last one tells you how the recent budgets went. If the candid answer is that only a competing offer moves salary, your starting figure matters more than usual.
How well does the school keep the people it hires, and why do the ones who leave go?
Why ask it
Some leaving is healthy: people get better offers or follow a partner. What to listen for is a cluster, such as several departures from one department or a run of people going in their third year. If the dean has asked the leavers and can repeat what they said, the school is treating it as its own problem.
How are staff and people off the tenure track reviewed, renewed and promoted here?
Why ask it
Ask for the length of a first contract, who decides on renewal, how much notice comes with a no, and where all of that is written. A good answer includes a person who started in a job like yours and moved up. If nobody comes to mind, ask what the longest-serving person in a similar role is doing now.
How would this role work with your office, and how often would we meet?
Why ask it
For a staff or administrative candidate, the answer shows whether the dean is your boss, your boss's boss or a name on the door. Regular meetings mean your work is visible. If contact would be rare, ask who speaks for your area when budgets and space are handed out.
What help does the university give with relocation, a partner's job search or family leave, and who should I ask?
Why ask it
The dean may send you to human resources, and that is a fine answer, since all three are set by the institution and sometimes by local law. Many candidates hold this until an offer is made. If it would decide whether you can come at all, ask now, briefly and without apology.
What do you want from this hire that may not be in the job posting?
Why ask it
Deans approve positions for reasons of their own: a new degree, an accreditation visit, a link to another school. Hearing it now lets you say whether you want that work. It is also the expectation most likely to turn up in a review without anyone having mentioned it since the interview.
Students
Which students get the most out of this school, and who has a harder time here?
Why ask it
The honest version of the answer includes the second half. A dean might say the students who struggle are the ones working long hours off campus, or the ones who arrive without the math, and that tells you what the school assumes about the people it admits. If you recognize yourself in the harder group, ask what is in place for it.
What do graduates of this school go on to do, and how do you track it?
Why ask it
Ask by program, since a school-wide figure hides the differences. The tracking matters as much as the result: a survey that only part of the class answered tends to describe the part with good news. A dean who knows where the weak spots are, and says so, is more believable than one with a single headline number.
How many students who start in this school finish, and where do you lose the ones who leave?
Why ask it
The useful part is the where: a particular gateway course, the second year, the point when placements begin. A dean who can name it is working on it. Parents should follow with what the school does when a student starts to slip, since that is the support your own student would get.
Who advises students here, and how many students does each advisor have?
Why ask it
Some schools use full-time advisors, some use faculty, and some switch from one to the other after the first year. A large caseload means short appointments booked far ahead. Ask what a student should do when an advisor's guidance and the printed degree requirements seem to disagree, because that is where extra semesters come from.
Is entry to any major or program in this school limited, and what happens to students who do not get in?
Why ask it
Some programs take every student who meets the requirements, and some have fewer places than applicants, with a grade cutoff or a second application after the first year. An admitted student should know which kind they are joining before they commit. Ask how many applied and got in last year, and what the ones who did not ended up studying.
Which required courses are hardest to get a seat in, and what is being done about it?
Why ask it
A dean usually has a hand in how many sections run, so this is a complaint the office can do something about. A straight answer names the course. Current students should bring their own example, with the term and the waitlist position, which turns a general grumble into something the dean can pass to a chair that afternoon.
Who teaches the introductory courses, and how large are those classes?
Why ask it
Full-time faculty, part-time instructors and graduate students can all teach a first course well, so none of the three is a bad answer. What you are checking is whether the school pays attention to its first-year teaching: how those instructors are chosen, who supports them, and whether a lecture of several hundred breaks into smaller groups each week.
Does the school find internships and placements for its students, or do they find their own?
Why ask it
There is a wide gap between a school that places students and one that posts a list and wishes them luck. Ask whether a placement is required for the degree and what happens if a student cannot find one. For programs that lead to a license, ask how placements are arranged here in particular, since some of the rules come from outside the school.
What scholarships or emergency funds does the school itself control, and how do students apply?
Why ask it
Schools often hold money separate from the central financial aid office, and it can go unclaimed because nobody knew to ask. Note the deadline and the name of the person who handles it. A parent can ask this openly at a meet-the-dean session, and it may be the most practical answer you take home.
When something outside class goes wrong for a student, such as health, money or housing, where do they go first?
Why ask it
This is the home ground of a dean of students, and an academic dean should still know the name of the office. Listen for a single door: one person or one form that sets the rest in motion, in place of a list of five services to try. Ask how long a student usually waits to be seen, and whether instructors are told so that deadlines can move.
When a student has a serious problem with a course or an instructor, what is the path, and when does it reach your office?
Why ask it
The path usually starts with the instructor and moves up through the department, but the steps and deadlines are local, so ask for them and write them down. Notice the tone as well: a process described without making the student sound like a nuisance is one where complaints get a hearing.
What can a student appeal or petition to your office, and how long does a decision take?
Why ask it
Grade appeals, late withdrawals, exceptions to requirements and academic standing often end up with a dean or an associate dean, though which ones do depends on the school. Ask what makes a petition succeed. The answer is usually documentation and timing, which is worth knowing before you ever need it.
What happens when a student is placed on academic probation?
Why ask it
Ask for the grade threshold, how long a student has to recover and where the policy is published, because each school writes its own. A supportive school describes a meeting, a plan and someone who checks in. If all you hear is the rule about dismissal, ask who a student in trouble should see first.
What will the school tell a parent about a student, and what will it keep between itself and the student?
Why ask it
Parents at a meet-the-dean session often expect to hear about grades or a crisis, and in many places a college needs the student's consent before it shares either. The rules depend on the country and the school, so ask what applies here and whether there is a form a student can sign. It is easier to settle at home before term starts than in the middle of a hard semester.
How do you hear from students apart from course evaluations, and what have you changed because of it?
Why ask it
Look for a standing arrangement: a student advisory board, open office hours, lunches with each year group. If there is one, ask how to join it. A real example of change has a request, a decision and a date, such as longer library hours or a moved course time, and a student reporter should note it if none comes to mind.
What does the school offer that students tend to find out about too late?
Why ask it
Deans see the unused things from above: a tutoring center, a travel fund, a combined bachelor's and master's route, an exchange agreement. An admitted student should write the answer down and act on it in the first term. It also tends to relax the dean, who is asked for things all day and seldom asked for advice.
What should a first-year student do in the first six weeks that most do not?
Why ask it
Good for an orientation session, where the dean has an audience and wants to be useful. Expect something concrete, such as meeting an advisor before registration opens or going to one professor's office hours. If the advice stays general, ask what the students who struggled last year had in common.
The dean's job
What does a dean do in an ordinary week?
Why ask it
The natural opener for a student interviewing the dean for a class or the campus paper. Most people have only a vague idea, and the answer often surprises them: chairs, budgets, donors, personnel problems, not much teaching. Ask how much of the week involves students, then whether they would like it to be more.
Which decisions are yours, which belong to department chairs, and which go to the provost or president?
Why ask it
A dean of a college, a dean of students and a dean at a secondary school hold the same title and quite different powers. Asking saves you from carrying a request to the wrong office. For a candidate, it shows whether the person across the table can keep what is promised today.
Who do you report to, and what do they ask you about most?
Why ask it
Whatever the dean's boss asks about is what the dean has to care about, whether that is enrollment, rankings, research income or complaints. It explains decisions that look odd from below. Follow with what the dean wishes that person asked about instead.
How would you describe the way you lead, and would the department chairs put it the same way?
Why ask it
The first half gets a label such as collaborative or data-driven, and the second half is where the dean has to think. Ask for a recent decision that shows it: who was consulted, how long it took, who was unhappy. A candidate can put the same question to the chair later in the day.
How long have you been dean, and do you expect to stay in the role for the next few years?
Why ask it
Many deans serve for a set term, and a successor can bring different priorities. A candidate who is counting on this dean's support should know whether that term is ending soon. Ask it lightly, as curiosity about their plans, and accept a vague answer, because many cannot say.
Do you still teach or do research, and what did you give up to take this job?
Why ask it
Many deans came up as professors, and some miss the classroom or the lab. The answer shows whether they remember what the work is like for the people they manage. In a student interview it is often the point where the official voice drops and the person appears.
How did you come to be a dean, and was it something you planned?
Why ask it
The route says a lot: department chair, associate dean, an outside hire, a career in another sector. For a profile, ask what they thought the job was before they had it. Staff and faculty who are curious about administration can ask what they would do first to prepare for it.
Which part of the job do you like best, and which would you gladly hand to someone else?
Why ask it
A warm, easy one for a student interview, and the second half tends to get a laugh before it gets an answer. What a dean enjoys, whether that is hiring, graduation day or a budget puzzle, is where their attention goes when the week allows. For a profile, quote the part they would give away.
What is the hardest decision you have had to make in this role?
Why ask it
Expect something about people or money: closing a program, turning down a promotion, a student case they cannot describe in detail. How they tell it matters more than what it was, so do not press for names. Someone who still sounds troubled by it took it seriously, and that is no weakness.
How do faculty and students get a say before you decide something that affects them?
Why ask it
The answer might be a faculty council, a student representative on a committee or a comment period before a vote. Whatever the arrangement, ask for a case where that input changed the outcome. Consultation that has never altered a decision is an announcement with extra steps.
What do people most often think a dean can do that you cannot?
Why ask it
Deans get asked to overturn a grade, remove an instructor or find money on the spot, and at many institutions those are not theirs to do alone. The answer draws the real edges of the office. It is a friendly question to put, and it makes a good quote for a profile.
To close
A year from now, what would make you glad you approved this hire?
Why ask it
For candidates, near the end of the meeting. The dean's picture of success may be broader than the department's: a full course, a grant submitted, a partnership started. Mention the main point in your thank-you note, and check it against what the chair told you.
What should I ask the department or the faculty that I have not thought to ask?
Why ask it
The dean knows which subjects are sore and will sometimes point you toward one without naming it. Students and parents can swap in 'the advising office' or 'current students'. Whatever is suggested, go and ask it, because the hint was given for a reason.
What happens next, and what is your part in the decision?
Why ask it
In a search, the dean may make the offer, approve the department's choice or only advise, and the order of steps is local. Knowing it tells you who to expect a call from and roughly when. Keep to the process here; pay belongs to the conversation after an offer exists.
Who else should I talk to before I make up my mind?
Why ask it
It suits an admitted student choosing a school as well as a candidate weighing an offer. A confident dean names people who will be frank, including a current student or a recent hire. Ask for the introduction on the spot, since a message sent from the dean's office tends to get a reply.
How to use your time with a dean
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before the meeting
Find out which kind of dean this is
The title covers several jobs. The dean of a college or school inside a university usually runs its budget, its hiring and its academic programs. A dean of students usually looks after life outside the classroom: conduct, housing, student groups, students in difficulty. Some institutions also have a dean of faculty, a graduate dean, or associate and assistant deans who handle advising and petitions, and many secondary schools give the title to the person in charge of a year group or of discipline. Read the office's page before you go, and drop the groups on this list that this dean has no hand in. Budget and Tenure and support are for an academic dean. A dean of students can speak to the second half of Students, from money and housing to what parents are told, and to little of the rest.
Start from who you are
A faculty or staff candidate should build from Priorities, Budget and Tenure and support, and finish with To close. An admitted or current student, or a parent, will get most from Students, with one or two from the top of Priorities to hear how the dean thinks. A student writing a profile or completing an interview assignment should open with The dean's job, where the answers are stories, and borrow from the other groups for substance.
Count the minutes and rank your questions
A dean's slot on an interview day is often short, and the dean may talk for the first part of it. Plan on four or five questions and mark the two you must not leave without asking. At a group session you may get one, so choose it beforehand. A student interviewer who has booked half an hour can get through eight to ten if the follow-ups are kept brief.
Read what is already public
Look at the school's strategic plan if it has one, the dean's welcome message, recent news items, the course catalog and, for candidates, the faculty handbook. Then ask about what those pages leave out. 'The plan mentions a new health sciences program. How far along is it?' gets a better answer than a question the website has already answered, and it shows you did the reading.
In the room
Ask what only the dean can answer
Parking, the syllabus and the benefits form have other owners. The dean is the one person on your schedule who sees every department's budget, every promotion file and the view from the provost's office. Spend the time on that: where the money goes, what the school is trying to become, how decisions about people get made.
Ask how it works here
Tenure rules, pay scales, probation, appeals and leave differ from one institution to the next, and sometimes by country, state or contract. Do not assume the system you know. Phrase the question as 'how does that work here, and where is it written?' and you will get the local answer plus a document to check it against.
At a group session, ask for the room
A meet-the-dean event is not the place for one student's grade dispute or housing problem. Ask the general version in front of everyone, such as how a student raises a problem with a course, and take the particular case to the dean or an assistant afterward. You will get a fuller answer in private, and the other families will thank you.
If you are interviewing the dean for a class or a paper
Say where the piece will appear and ask before you record. Begin with the ordinary week and the route into the job, put your hardest question in the middle, and end on something lighter. Check the spelling of the name and the exact title before you leave, and ask who in the office can confirm a detail later.
Follow up once, with 'for example'
Deans are practiced speakers and the first answer is often the public one. 'Can you give me a recent example?' usually brings out the real one. If the second answer is still general, let it go and move on: you have learned what you can, and the clock is short.
What to do with the answers
Compare the dean with the department
Put one of the same questions, about priorities or the teaching load or how reviews go, to the chair and to a junior colleague. Where the three accounts agree, you can rely on them. Where they differ, nobody is necessarily being dishonest; the dean and the department may simply want different things from the position, and you would be the one standing between them.
Ask for the important things in writing
Anything a candidate is counting on, such as a course release, start-up funds, lab space or a review timeline, should appear in the offer letter or an attached note. Ask politely and specifically. A student who is granted an exception or told of a deadline should send a short email afterward that repeats what was agreed, so there is a record both sides can see.
Check figures against what the institution publishes
Many institutions publish graduation, retention and graduate outcome figures, though what is reported and where depends on the country and the school. Look them up after the meeting. A dean whose account matches the published numbers has earned some trust on the answers you cannot check.
Write it down the same day
Note the priorities the dean named, any promise made, and the name of anyone you were told to contact. A candidate can use one of those points in a thank-you note. A student or parent comparing schools will find that, a month on, the notes are the only way to tell one dean's session from another's.
Mistakes to avoid
Negotiating before there is an offer
Asking what is typical for start-up support or load is fine during an interview. Naming your salary or listing conditions is not, and at many institutions the dean is the person you would negotiate with later, or the one who signs off on what the chair agrees. Save the figures for then.
Bringing a complaint about a named person
A candidate who repeats something critical heard from a faculty member, or a student who opens with a grievance against one instructor in a public session, puts the dean in a position where the only safe reply is a guarded one. Use the process question instead and follow the path it describes.
Asking what the dean cannot say
Personnel cases, student conduct cases, other candidates and unannounced budget decisions are usually confidential. If the dean declines, accept it and go on to the next question. Pressing costs you goodwill and gets you nothing printable or usable.
Treating the meeting as a formality
Candidates sometimes arrive at the dean's office tired and ask nothing. The dean often has a say in the hire and in the support that comes with it, and a blank where your questions should be is noticed. Two good ones are enough.