FSE sets up tenure track for teaching professors

Emphasis on education and knowledge transfer

FSE sets up tenure track for teaching professors

The Faculty of Science and Engineering (FSE) is setting up a tenure track for teaching professors. The pilot is planned for the end of this year.

29 October om 15:25 uur.
Laatst gewijzigd op 22 November 2020
om 16:22 uur.

October 29 at 15:25 PM.
Last modified on November 22, 2020
at 16:22 PM.

Door Christien Boomsma

29 October om 15:25 uur.
Laatst gewijzigd op 22 November 2020
om 16:22 uur.

By Christien Boomsma

October 29 at 15:25 PM.
Last modified on November 22, 2020
at 16:22 PM.

Christien Boomsma

Christien is sinds 2016 achtergrondcoördinator bij UKrant. Ze plant de achtergrondverhalen en begeleidt de auteurs. Bij haar eigen verhalen ligt de focus op wetenschap en academisch leven. Daarnaast schrijft ze veel over onderwerpen als sociale veiligheid en maakt ze graag persoonlijke interviews. In haar vrije tijd schrijft ze jeugdboeken en geeft schrijftrainingen. Meer »

Christien has been background coordinator at UKrant since 2016. She plans background stories and supervises authors. Her own stories focus on science and academic life. She also writes widely on topics such as social safety and enjoys making personal interviews. In her spare time, she writes children’s books and gives writing training courses. More »

The faculties efforts are aimed at fixing the continuing lack of teaching capacity. It’s also aimed at improving the quality of education. The plan is part of developments at the UG to emphasise individual research achievements less and emphasise education and knowledge transfer more.

In a regular tenure track situation, researchers are hired temporarily in the function of assistant professor. If they perform well in their research duties, they are eligible for a permanent position as associate professor and can ultimately become a full professor. It gives people a clear view of their potential career.

But UG staff whose main job is teaching have no such perspective. The faculty wants to change this. Employees on a teaching tenure track are required to spend 60 percent of their time on teaching, 30 percent on research, and 10 percent on administrative tasks.

Funding

Unlike regular tenure track employees, they will not receive funding to pay for a PhD. Employees on a teaching tenure track have no need for their own research group, and they aren’t required to bring in any subsidies. They will not automatically get the right to grant PhD degrees when they’re promoted to associate professor. However, they will get the opportunity to set up innovative education projects.

The FSE faculty council likes the plan. However, they wonder if current research groups will be happy to have colleagues who don’t bring in any subsidies.

Dean Jasper Knoester acknowledges the risk. ‘We’re starting out with groups for whom this won’t be much of a problem’, he says. He emphasised that ‘each educational director will need the expertise’. He also hopes that the new tenure tracks will make people appreciate the development of new teaching methods more.

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