Career Advancement
Framework policy for Career Advancement and Assessment at SDU
The University has adopted a framework policy for the promotion of academic staff to create transparent and meaningful criteria for career advancement at SDU's departments. The new policy is based on the CoARA principles and is part of the University's CoARA action plan.
On 4 September, SDU's Executive Board adopted a framework policy for the promotion of academic staff at the University of Southern Denmark.
The new framework policy will promote the University of Southern Denmark's goal of recruiting and investing in talented and inspired academic staff and focuses on how to strengthen SDU's academic staff so that they and the University can compete on an international level.
This is done by clarifying SDU's approach to the assessment of academic staff and creating transparent and meaningful criteria for advancement in SDU's departments.
The new framework policy bridges the gap between SDU's strategy and the departments' policies for career advancement for academic staff and is designed to guide and strengthen local initiatives in this area.
Principles of the framework policy
The new framework policy for career advancement and assessment has the following principles:
Approach
- All departments at SDU must prepare and use written criteria for the advancement and assessment of academic staff. The criteria must apply to all academic staff employed in main positions (assistant professors, associate professors and professors).
- The criteria must support the interests and traditions of the individual research environments.
- The criteria must be consistent and durable so that they can be used for career planning.
- Simplicity and transparency are important: the criteria should neither be unduly narrow in scope nor overly elaborate and intricate. The criteria must be easy to access and understand for SDU and non-SDU academics.
- The criteria must be based on extensive input from academic staff.
- The criteria must enable a holistic approach to career advancement.
Content
- Research-based knowledge is fundamental to academic merit and forms the basis for SDU's academic assessment.
- Research-based knowledge is essentially about the ability to master a research field so completely that it commands the respect of international colleagues, the ability to credibly challenge important questions and expand the research field, and the ability to contribute to solutions to societal challenges. Career advancement across employment levels and career maintenance within tenured levels of employment must reflect a progression in such knowledge.
- Career progress must include an increasingly advanced ability to conduct research-based teaching at the highest international level as well as the ability to critically review and innovate teaching and learning activities
- Career progress should include an increasingly advanced ability to disseminate knowledge to society, impact societal change, further academic collaboration and community-building, entrepreneurship and innovation. A diversity of such contributions should be described, recognised and enabled.
- Career progress for senior researchers, especially full professors, must involve an ability to build and lead research collectives.
- Career progress must involve membership as well as leadership of academic and societal services, such as study board service or collegial bodies and councils.
- Assessment criteria should focus primarily on the originality and contribution of academic activities, with evaluations being organised primarily around qualitative judgements and peer review. Quantitative indicators should be used only where appropriate.
- Assessment criteria should encourage academic staff to make bold decisions and act on them. The criteria should thus also support transformative and long-term research contributions, just as they should support and sustain a culture of risk-taking and innovation.
The further process
The work of implementing the new framework policy is now underway at SDU's departments, and career advancement and assessment will be a regular item on the agenda at the ongoing meetings between the Rectorate, faculty managements and heads of department.
The new framework policy for career advancement and assessment is part of SDU's work with the CoARA action plan, which the Executive Board adopted on 21 August after consideration by the University Council.
At SDU, CoARA is implemented through five parallel projects: HR Excellence, Career and Recruitment, Gender Equality, Open Science and Societal Impact. You can read more about the CoARA action plan in the following news:
SDU has been awarded the EU’s HR Excellence in Research Award
CoARA at SDU in brief
- In November 2022, SDU signed the agreement ‘The Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment’ and thus joined "The Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment" (CoARA).
- CoARA aims to reform researcher and research assessment, particularly in terms of moving away from a one-sided focus on simple quantitative publication parameters.
- The goal is to renew research assessment towards incorporating a broader background of research outputs to ensure diversity and quality, etc.
- CoARA recognises peer review as a central and important part of research evaluation.
- Read more about CoARA