Procedures for the admission of excellent teachers

The Faculty Office checks that the applicant has a permanent teaching position at Uppsala University and that the application is complete. If the application is not complete, supplementary documentation is requested.

When the application is complete, it is entered in the board’s group space. The application is put on the agenda for the next meeting. The relevant section representative prepares and presents the matter.

The board examines the application and assesses whether the portfolio provides a sufficiently good basis for referees to be able to make an assessment of teaching expertise. If the board accepts the application for further processing, the board proposes two external referees (if possible one man and one woman) and reserves for them. The board delegates to its chair the power to take further decisions on referees if necessary or to delegate the issue to the deputy chair. Members of the board cannot be referees. The applicants are informed that they have gone forward to referee review and are given the dates when interviews may take place.

When the referees have accepted the assignment, the application is sent to them with an accompanying letter stating the date by which the board would like to receive their opinion. The fee for referees is the same as for applications for docent status. If the same referee assesses several applicants, they receive a fee for each applicant.

When referees’ opinions have been received, they are entered in the board’s group space on Sharepoint but are treated as working material and are not registered until the board has taken a decision on approval or rejection (it is therefore only at this point that the applicants receive access to them). The matter is put on the agenda for the next meeting.

The board examines the referees’ opinions. An invitation is sent to the applicant for an interview including a teaching test. Dates for the next semester’s meetings are also decided at this meeting, along with deadlines for applications and for opinions from referees.

Interviews including teaching tests are conducted by the whole board or part of the board. This can be done either in conjunction with an ordinary board meeting (III) or at a separate meeting. Referees do not take part in the meeting. The teaching test involves one or more educational challenges that the board describes and the applicant has to reflect on and exemplify during the interview.

At meeting III, the board assesses whether to grant the applicant distinguished university teacher status.

The Faculty Office sends the decision, arranges a diploma and informs the human resources administrator at the applicant’s department (web page etc.).