If you are planning to apply for Tenure and Promotion to Associate Professor or for Promotion to Professor, keep the following points in mind.
Preparation
- Agree upon a list of six prospective external assessors with your Chair and obtain their contact information.
- Get a copy of the approved Tenure and Promotion Guidelines documents for your Department from your Department Chair. Note that each Department has its own set of guidelines, and they differ from Department to Department across the University.
- Assemble your materials for the Assessment File, such as your Curriculum Vitae, published works, evidence of Scholarship, DOE or DOE history, and any other information. You can include materials not explicitly listed in the approved Tenure and Promotion Guidelines document.
- Student Feedback Questionnaire (SFQ) results or In-class Peer Observation (IPO) forms, discussion of courses taught and any reflections on them, and any other information related to your Teaching need not constitute a separate or formal unified document, despite collectively being described as a Teaching Dossier. The absence of a (scattered or collected) Teaching Dossier of any particular item, other than SFQs or an IPO as substitute, can play no role in a negative assessment of Teaching.
Deadlines
- May 15: Deadline to apply in writing via the Department Chair, including the names of and contact information for the prospective external assessors.
- June 8: Deadline to submit your application materials (Assessment File) to the Dean.
- August 15: Deadline to submit your updated materials, if any, to the Dean.
- August 31: Deadline to submit your updated materials if you cannot reasonably provide them by August 15
Assessment
Your application will be assessed based on the approved Tenure and Promotion Guidelines documents for your Department. It will be reviewed by two Committees in turn.
- The Department Committee, made up of the Chair of the Department, four tenured faculty members from your Department, one tenured faculty member from the College, and the College Member (non-voting).
- The College Committee, made up of the Dean, a faculty member from each Department in the College who does not serve on the Department Committee, and the College Member.
The Administration has recently announced workshops run by its Office of Teaching and Learning (OTL) on how to prepare the Teaching component of submissions for Tenure and Promotion. The UGFA would like to remind you that the entire process for the granting of Tenure and Promotion, and the performance review of faculty members, is governed by the Collective Agreement.
The consideration of applications for Tenure and Promotion is essentially driven by peer review: all but one member of the two Committees is your UGFA peer. And you have a strong hand in naming the external assessors. We advise you to stay focused on preparing an application package that these peers and assessors will appreciate and praise.
For more information, see LOU 23 – Assessment of Teaching and Article 21 – Tenure, Promotion, and Review of Faculty Members in the Collective Agreement.
Articles and Letters of Understanding in the Collective Agreement
- 21.5 – Criteria, approved Tenure and Promotion Guideline documents
- 21.19 – Documentation templates
- 21.23 – External Assessors
- 21.24 – Role of the Department Tenure and Promotion Committee
- 21.25 – Composition of the Department Tenure and Promotion Committee
- 21.27 – Submission of materials
- 21.31 – Role of the College Tenure and Promotion Committee
- 21.32 – Composition of the College Tenure and Promotion Committee
- 21.45 – Application for the granting of Tenure and conferring of Promotion to Associate Professor
- 21.46 – Application for Promotion to the rank of Professor
- LOU 23 – Assessment of Teaching
If you have any questions or concerns, please email facassoc@uoguelph.ca.