Chair’s Column November 2025: 2025 Faculty Survey Results
Dear Colleagues,
Since 2012, the Department of Medicine (DoM) has conducted periodic faculty surveys to monitor member satisfaction and gather perspectives on key academic issues. The topics explored have varied over time, but the goals remain the same: to identify strengths and weaknesses and to guide initiatives that best support our faculty. The 2025 survey, launched in June 2025, achieved a 30.1% response rate, with representative sampling across hospitals, career stages, and academic position descriptions.
Below is a summary of the key findings.
1. Career satisfaction and connection to the university Department of Medicine
Overall, 85% of respondents reported being somewhat or strongly satisfied with their academic careers, and 91% were happy to be academic physicians, with little variation by position description (Figure 1).
Overall career satisfaction was similar to 2015, and higher than in 2019 and 2022 (Figure 2).
However, only 61% were satisfied with the university DoM commitment to their success, and just 54% felt a connection to the department. Narrative comments reflected on the size of the department and organizational complexity as factors that made it challenging to feel a connection to the institution, as well as a lack of clarity around university activities and functions: “The department is large, connection is difficult. I rely a lot on my local hospital DoM to feel some connection”; “Would be good if the university would outline what unique aspects are provided by the DoM vs what the hospital provides.”
2. Perspectives on the value of an academic appointment
Many faculty expressed concern about threats to the academic mission, including increasing clinical responsibilities, a sense that teaching was undervalued, inadequate financial supports for research and administration, and income disparities (Figure 3). Narrative comments included: “Our lack of funds is a major limitation to our success and impact”; “Financial support is minimal compared with similar opportunities in the USA”; “My clinical workload is too high for me to enjoy my academic work”; “Our department has limited infrastructure to support talent”; “There is no real protection of time to do non-clinical work.”
However, faculty valued opportunities for a range of academic activities, especially teaching and mentorship, and the ability to work in an enriching environment with variation in daily activities (Figure 4). Narrative comments aligned with this: “I feel incredibly lucky to work in my current environment in Toronto”; “I love being able to do different kinds of work, to interact with trainees, and to work with faculty who are world-renowned in their fields.”
3. Promotions
Sixty-three percent of respondents reported that promotion was important to them, but only 28% felt the associated work was manageable and only 36% found the standards for promotion to be reasonable. There were variations in perspective by academic position description (Figure 5) and career stage (Figure 6). Concerns centred on the administrative burden, lack of tangible rewards, and the sense that clinician teachers were disadvantaged. Illustrative narrative comments: “When I compare the experiences and benefits to that of my colleagues at other top schools (Yale, Harvard, UCLA, Chicago, Singapore, Paris, Monash), their processes were easier / less time-consuming and the benefits they gained with senior promotion were far greater than what U of T / DoM provides”; “The workload in preparing a dossier … is not trivial”; “Time frame for clinician teachers is extremely lengthy and does not recognize the value of what makes up a large proportion of our faculty.”
4. Mentorship
Overall, 54% reported having a formal mentor and 81% an informal mentor, with early career faculty particularly likely to have both formal and informal mentors (Figure 7). Sixty percent were very or extremely satisfied with their mentorship. There was strong interest in activities such as group mentorship sessions tailored to people at different career stages. Narrative comments reflected on the value of mentorship: “Love the mentorship team, formal and informal. It makes me want to stay in academia and give the mentorship forward”; “Mentors are excellent, everyone needs and should have one, and we all need guidance on how to navigate what hopefully is a long career with colleagues with long memories.” Some, however, were uncertain about the department’s role in facilitating mentorship and the value of formal mentors relative to informal mentors, and others expressed a desire for more training for mentors and mentees.
5. Retirement
Sixty percent of respondents viewed retirement positively, 37% were satisfied with their planning, and 42% felt confident about available resources. Only 3% felt pressure to retire, while 16% did not ever plan to fully retire (Figures 8-9). Narrative comments reflected on the need for supports for retirement: “More defined pathways for transitions, including part-time clinical/academic work”; “We do need to improve the resources and networks for our aging academic clinicians”; “I think more mentorship activities would be helpful.” Some also expressed concerns about ageism: “I feel there is little respect for senior faculty clinical experience or the workload that senior faculty are carrying.”
6. Burnout*
Twenty-nine percent of respondents met criteria for burnout (score >1.33 on the Stanford Professional Fulfillment Index). This was similar to 2019, but a marked improvement from 55% in 2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic (Figure 10). There were also gains across subscales of professional fulfillment, work exhaustion, and interpersonal disengagement (Figures 11-13). There were MANY valuable narrative comments in response to this question, highlighting a range of challenges to wellbeing including the burdens of clinical and administrative tasks, lack of information around issues such as medical leave and practice management, and insufficient financial and other supports for all position descriptions.
*Burnout was defined using the Professional Fulfillment Index as the average of the Work Exhaustion and Interpersonal Disengagement items. Individuals with an average score > 1.33 were classified as meeting burnout criteria.
Survey limitations include the modest response rate of 30%, variable availability of comparator data from previous years, and lack of information on part-time and adjunct faculty, which will be solicited in future iterations. Trainee perspectives were also not included; these are captured in separate surveys.
Summary and next steps:
The findings offer a measure of reassurance. Most faculty remain highly satisfied with their careers and derive fulfillment from teaching and interactions with trainees, mentorship, scholarly activities, and the ability to work in an enriching environment. There have been decreases over time in the proportion of faculty reporting work exhaustion or interpersonal disengagement, and burnout has returned to pre-pandemic levels. The current burnout rate (29%) is lower than the 46% reported in the 2025 Canadian Medical Association Physician Health Survey.
At the same time, the survey has identified areas for improvement across a range of areas including professional wellbeing, departmental connectedness and collaboration, promotion processes, recognition of academic and clinical contributions, financial and administrative supports, and preparation for retirement. Burnout remains concerning despite overall improvements over time.
What is next? As a department, we will work with our partner hospitals and the Temerty Faculty of Medicine to identify solutions that support the wellbeing and success of all our members. We will integrate the survey findings with data from our recent strategic planning outreach (including MASS LBP focus groups and surveys) to inform the department’s upcoming strategic priorities and actions. And I look forward to ongoing input and engagement from all of you. Should you wish to provide additional feedback, please email me directly, schedule a meeting , or use our anonymous feedback link.
I am grateful to all who participated and shared their experiences and perspectives. Your insights will help us to continue building a more connected, supported, and sustainable academic community.
Sincerely,
Moira
Dr. Moira Kapral
Sir John and Lady Eaton Professor and Chair, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto