Tenure & Promotion Committee

The responsibilities of the committee include, on the one hand, the implementation of interdepartmental evaluation of assistant professorships concerning the promotion to an associate professorship. This is initiated by the School. On the other hand, further responsibilities include the evaluation of the School's proposal, as well as decision-making regarding the proposal and the result of the evaluation procedure. Given a positive result, a proposal is made to the Senate, whereas, given a negative result, a formal notice for the candidate is issued by the committee president.

The committee evaluates and decides based on due consideration. It takes the evaluation and proposal of the School into account. The committee is thus tasked by the University Senate to conduct the interdepartmental evaluation of assistant professorships and their promotion to associate professorships. Administrative matters are handled by their office, which is formally associated with the Vice President's Board Research and Faculty. The technical leadership lies with the president of the committee.

The University of St.Gallen offers two types of assistant professorships:

Assistant professorships are always appointed competitively, meaning that an appointment committee is active, the position is posted internationally, a list of candidates invited to research talks and interviews is established, and the committee formulates a suggestion for the School (Decree on the appointment of assistant and associate professorships, 07.12.2020). They are active in research and teaching and are usually elected for a maximum of six years (three plus three years; a maximum of two additional years can be considered if proposed and given family duties). Each assistant professor is mentored by a professor of the ranks of associate or full professorships within the School.

The tenure track model defines the promotion procedure of assistant professors. This is guided by defined criteria, namely the tenure criteria:

• Tenure criteria at HSG are multidimensional and based on the RELEAD concept

• Schools define tenure criteria within the field and document them within the implementing provisions of Schools

The promotion procedure spans several steps. A mid-term evaluation is conducted within the School after three years. At this point, the degree of tenure criteria fulfillment is assesed and the remaining necessary achievements for promotion after the entire span of the assistant professorship are defined. Towards the end of the assistant professorship, a two-step final evaluation is conducted. First, a School-internal review committee considers the fulfillment of the tenure criteria. Afterwards, the School forwards its decision to the interdepartmental Tenure and Promotion Committee. This makes the final decision, in light of quality assurance, noting the qualification of the candidate based on their expertise in the according field (via HSG-external assessments) and fulfillment of the criteria.

The Senate elects the committee for two years. The committee consists of:

a) the university president or a vice president chosen by them; 

b) the committee president, from the ranks of full professors;

c) deputies from Schools, from the ranks of full and associate professorships: 

- SoM: four members (2 substitutes) 

- SEPS: two members (1 substitute) 

- Further departments: one member each (1 substitute each); 

d) two members of the non-tenured faculty (of which at least one is a representative of assistent professors); (1 substitute) 

e) two students, ideally at PhD level (1 substitute) 

The University of St Gallen has implemented a rating concept spanning six dimensions, along which academic achievement can be considered and evaluated. It is derived from a concept implemented at Copenhagen Business School.

RELEAD: 

• Research: Excellent research achievements

• Education: Excellent teaching achievements

• Leadership: Leading research groups 

• External Funding: Success in acquiring competitive funding, such as EU, SNF and Innosuisse grants, as well as further external funding 

• Academic Citizenship: Involvement in academic self-government

• Dissemination/Outreach: Involvement in further education, expertise, scientific communication, media appearances

As a resource for mentors, the TPK provides guidelines, which can be accessed in the intranet.

Get in touch

Faculty Affairs, Tellstrasse 2, 9000 St. Gallen 

berufungen@unisg.ch

Please find the decree concerning the committee here.