Harvard last year ranked last of 16 comparable schools by the percentage of tenured women faculty, and 10th out of 16 in percentage of tenured minority professors, according to a University survey released this week.

The results of the survey, collected from 16 selective universities nationwide, reveal a need to improve affirmative action strategies, said Assistant to the President and Associate Vice President for Affirmative Action James S. Hoyte '65.

Hoyte said the rankings are not satisfactory. "It clearly shows that we continue to have a lot of work to do," he said. "It's my view that we need to be at the top of these kinds of studies."

Among non-tenured, or "ladder" faculty, the University had the 11th largest percentage of female professors and the 14th largest percentage of minority faculty members.

Hoyte, who arrived at Harvard last year, said he has no real explanation for the University's low placement, but said that aspects of Harvard's approach to faculty hiring might "make it more difficult to diversity the faculty than I would like."

"The approach makes it doubly challenging," Hoyte said.

Another reason Hoyte gave for Harvard's low rank was the inclusion of professional schools in the University tallies. Not all institutions have these schools, and their percentages look better for that reason, he said.

The schools included in the survey were the University of California at Berkeley, Duke, Northwestern, Stanford, University of California at Los Angeles, University of Chicago, University of Michigan, University of Texas at Austin and the eight institutions schools of the Ivy League. The survey was compiled by the Office of the Assistant to the President for Affirmative Action.

Harvard recently came to the end of its six-year affirmative action plan without achieving many of the facul- ty diversity goals with which it set out, and Hoyte has said University officials will this spring initiate new efforts in diversity hiring intended to boost Harvard's percentages and rankings.

Originally scheduled for release in early to mid-April, the new affirmative action plans have not yet been announced.

"This initiative in the faculty development area will be a first step and an important one," Hoyte said. "It's going to be a long process...there are no quick fixes."

Last year the University's affirmative action report ranked Harvard 17th out of 18 participating universities by the percentage of female tenured faculty and 8th out of 18 in percentage of minority tenured professors.

For non-tenured faculty, the 1992 report said, the University ranked 10th out of 18 schools in percentage of women faculty and 15th in percentage of minority professors.

And Harvard Medical School, which was listed separately from the rest of the University, lags behind other medical schools in faculty diversity.

The Medical School ranked 12th of 13 by percentage of tenured women and had the same rank in percentage of tenured minorities in this year's survey. Among non-tenured faculty, the Medical School has the lowest percentage of female faculty and ranks ninth of 13 in the percentage of minorities.

Three of the 16 universities completing the survey did not list information for medical school faculties. Harvard Medical School officials could not be reached for comment yesterday