This study sought to clarify the role expectations and role performance of nursing faculty in research universities and related these data to institutional expectations for nursing faculty. The following questions were addressed: 1) Are there differences between institutional role expectations for nursing faculty in research universities and the role expectations that nursing faculty hold for themselves? 2) Are there differences between institutional role expectations for nursing faculty and their role performance? 3) Are there differences between role expectations held by the nursing faculty and their role performance? The population included administrators and nursing faculty in public higher education institutions designated by the Carnegie Council on Policy Studies in Higher Education as Research Universities I which offered undergraduate and graduate nursing degree programs accredited by the National League for Nursing. Nine of the 19 institutions meeting the criteria agreed to participate. The sample included all administrators who held a line relationship to the nursing program or to the nursing faculty. Also included were 50 percent of the non-administrative nursing faculty appointed at the rank of assistant professor or above who had at least one academic degree in nursing and who had held their appointment for a minimum of one year. In all, 17 4 nursing faculty and 53 administrators were selected. Responses were received from 115 faculty members and 38 administrators, yielding a response rate of 67 percent. Two instruments were developed that yielded data on institutional administrators' role expectations for nursing faculty, nursing faculty role expectations, and actual nursing faculty role performance. Data were described and analyzed using measures of central tendency, median tests, correlation analyses, repeated measures analyses of variance, and t tests. The findings suggest a high degree of congruence between perceptions of role expectations held by administrators and by nursing faculty. The role performance of nursing faculty met administrative expectations as well as their own. Nursing faculty in university settings appeared to be investing more time in scholarly work and less in teaching, but exceeding expectations for institutional service. The findings suggest that nursing faculty do contribute to the achievement of the three university goals and that more nursing faculty are acquiring doctoral preparation.