Faculty

In academic usage, faculty has two principal senses. It can refer to the body of teachers and researchers at a university, collectively described as the faculty. It can also denote an organizational unit within a university, called a faculty, division, or college, comprising related departments and disciplines.

The term derives from Latin facultas meaning capability or power and historically designated the major divisions of medieval universities, such as Arts, Theology, Law, and Medicine. In contemporary institutions, a faculty often serves as the main academic unit responsible for teaching and research in a broad field, sometimes equivalent to a college or school.

The faculty as staff includes professors, associate professors, assistant professors, and lecturers who teach, supervise research, and provide service. They are typically organized under a dean and a faculty governance structure, with departments, centers, and programs operating within the faculty.

Usage varies by country. In the United States, "the faculty" usually means the academic staff rather than students, and departments are sometimes described as being within a faculty. In the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth countries, a faculty is an organizational division that may contain several departments and is distinct from a separate college or school; some institutions use "faculty" interchangeably with "school" or "college."

A third sense is psychological: "faculties" refer to innate mental powers such as memory, perception, and reason.