Do you want to know more about how the university's norms for the appointment of academic staff are implemented at Health? Then you should participate in one of the faculty’s consultation meetings, where the dean and others will answer questions and discuss the consultation material.

2018.03.22 | Sabina Bjerre Hansen

Vice-dean Ole Steen Nielsen is responsible for the faculty's new principals for

Health's new guidelines will be in consultation between 22 March and 3 May 2018. In connection with this, the dean's office invites all interested employees to consultation meetings at the beginning of April on the subject of the faculty's new principles for the appointment of academic staff. The two meetings will take place on 4 April in Skejby and on 10 April in the University Park.

Any consultation responses should be sent by email to health.hr@au.dk no later than 3 May 2018. After the dean's office has discussed whether and how the consultation responses give rise to adjustments, the principles for the appointment of academic staff at Health will be incorporated into Health's guidelines for the appointment of staff.    

Why do we need new principals for appointments?

The senior management team has introduced seven norms which will help strengthen recruitment practices at Aarhus University. These must now be incorporated into the faculty's guidelines for appointments together with the results of the evaluation report and audit report that Health had done in spring 2017.

The dean's office at Health has worked on a plan for how norms etc. can be implemented locally at Health and have thus far prepared the following material:

• Principals for the appointment of academic staff at Health
• Criteria for appointment of professors
• Template - Application for professorship
• Template - Assessment of applicants to professorships

What will be different?

The dean's office will reassess the assessment criteria for members of academic staff, clarify the purpose of the assessments and rethink the assessment templates so that they better support the work of the assessment committee. The aim is to make appointing the most talented candidates more flexible and quicker.

After consultation, the principles for the appointment of academic staff at Health will be incorporated in the faculty's existing guidelines for the appointment of staff.

Want to find out more? 

Read more about the work of evaluating Health's recruitment procedures in the articles Recruitment procedures need to be flexible and Appointment procedure to be evaluated. 

Contact
Vice-dean for Research Ole Steen Nielsen
Aarhus University, Health
Mobile: (+45) 2476 5093
Email: osn@au.dk

What are the norms for permanent tenure of academic staff?
Aarhus University has introduced seven norms for the recruitment of tenured members of academic staff. The seven norms were laid down by the senior management team after discussion in the academic councils and several consultations with the research and teaching programmes.

The norms will contribute to strengthening recruitment practices at Aarhus University – for example by helping to ensure the quality and diversity of the fields of applicants to positions at all four faculties. The norms provide a shared framework for recruitment and address the use of search committees, re-advertisement of positions, assessment committees, research abroad and appointment committees, and will be implemented at the departments/schools and centres, whose management will be responsible for integrating the norms with existing local guidelines.

Aarhus University's seven norms for recruitment of academic staff

1. All advertisements for academic positions must be formulated in broad terms and published both nationally and internationally.
2. Search committees are a requirement, in order to ensure a sufficiently large, diverse pool of high-quality applicants (external applicants, international applicants and applicants of both sexes).
3. Positions must be re-advertised if an insufficient number of qualified applications have been received by the application deadline.
4. The majority of the members of the assessment committee must be external.
5. Appointment committees are a requirement. In the case of professorships, with the participation of the dean’s office.
6. In connection with the assessment of applicant qualifications, great emphasis must be placed on long-term stays at one or more internationally recognised research institutions outside of Denmark.
7. Appointing internal candidates to permanent positions without prior advertisement is not possible.

Read more in the article Common norms for the recruitment of permanent members of academic staff at AU