Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Professor: Promotion for higher grade.What are the criteria and how to assess by the panels? Do we have a good assessors? Or the panels just memorised common questions such as what have you done/achieved during your career? or what you do you think of international reputation? or what do you see the future of this university? Those are the common kindergarthen questions BUT how to assessed the answer and reality or capability of the candidates?

1. Services: candidates for promotion will have been involved in the life of their department, in the life of the University, and in their national associations.  The University and the College have also made engagement with the broader public one of our institutional goals, and encourage public scholarship.  It is desirable to show evidence of contributions to or engagement with the broader community and in some cases may be part of the job expectations.
2. Teaching.  A good teaching record is a necessary part of a successful promotion case.  Promotion will not be granted  without evidence of good teaching.  Evidence of success in these areas will be judged using the following materials.
  • Student evaluations.  
  • Peer reviews.  
  • Mentoring record.  
  • Personal statement.  
3, Scholarship.  As a premier research university, our expectations regarding the independent scholarly record of our faculty are high.  In general, quality is more important than quantity, although there must be sufficient quantity to provide evidence of a significant level of scholarly productivity and impact.  For promotion  the faculty member should have established him/herself as a major researcher, scholar, or creative artist at the national and often international level.  At this stage of career, the scholarly record will normally be larger and also reflect a more mature formulation of questions and a richer exploration of them.  Several factors influence the assessment of the quality of a scholarly record.
  • Quality can be demonstrated by indicators of the impact of scholarship such as citations and prestige of the journals or presses in which the individual publishes or of the exhibit or performance venue.
  • Outside funding of research from prestigious foundations and institutes (in those disciplines in which it is available) can be viewed as a significant part of the scholarly record, depending on the relative size of the grant and the significance of the questions posed.
  • The impact/significance of the scholarship can be assessed in part through the evaluations from outside reviewers.
  • The personal statement provided by the candidate is an important guide to the significance of each scholarly piece and their connections to each other.  The statement should articulate the intellectual agenda(s) that motivates the individual’s work.
  • In the creative and performing arts, promotion portfolios will reflect the faculty member's creative work, including works of art, exhibitions, performances, and reviews thereof.  As with all faculty members, the significance of the work and career trajectory are paramount.
  • Invited presentations to talk at other universities and prestigious events add to the scholarly record but generally play a relatively minor role independent of other measures of the scholarly record.
  • Collaborative work; thus coauthored books, articles, and creative works are given important weight by the Council.  In general, largely technical achievements do not count as much as contributions of a more fundamental and substantial nature.  A significant portion of the overall scholarly record should include works to which the candidate (and as appropriate, his/her students) has made the primary contributions.
  • Sustained scholarly activity as seen in conference participation, publications, grants, or performances and exhibitions demonstrates scholarly engagement and attainment.
4. Expectations for promotion of Professor to higher grade.   For promotion to Professor, the precise expectations vary widely over the units within the College and across the University, but the common denominator is documented evidence of outstanding quality, productivity, and scholarly impact.  

5. Timing.  The promotion to higher grade Professor has no mandated time period.  Statistically, it is varies by division, but there is also a significant range of time in rank within the divisions.  Every  has the right to request a promotion review.  

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