The purpose of this descriptive study was to compare the self-efficacy in autonomous learning levels of full professors with normative statistics associated with the U.S. nontraditional adult population. As self-efficacy in autonomous learning--subsumed under the general field of self-directed learning--has been studied and posited as being an important goal of doctoral education in supporting the development of scholars, the premise of this study was to determine whether or not such scholars (i.e., the assumption was that graduate teaching faculty who have earned the rank of "Professor" represent this population) reflect higher than normative levels of this psychological construct. The Appraisal of Learner Autonomy was e-mailed to all full professors at a single, private university (N = 37) with a response rate of 81% (n = 30). The research hypothesis that such faculty will exhibit higher levels is supported by the findings (p = 0.037) thus encouraging the use of instructional strategies that promote self-efficacy in autonomous learning for emerging scholars.