Points to remember when preparing proposal for referees

Before proposing referees for teaching appointments

Assistant professor, associate professor and professor are teaching positions at Uppsala University.

Referees should normally personally hold a teaching position and have sufficient expertise and experience to assess both research qualifications and teaching qualifications.

Referees should preferably have a higher position/level of expertise than the position being evaluated, and must at any rate be at the same level. If one of the referees holds the same position/level of expertise as the position being evaluated, the other should have a higher position.

Referees evaluating applications for appointment as or promotion to professor must themselves be professors.

Referees must be external, in other words, they must not have any kind of appointment at Uppsala University.

When a proposed referee is employed at an organisation that does not have academic teaching positions, an assessment must be made as to whether the referee has equivalent expertise. This assessment must be attached to the proposal.

Referees should normally be of both sexes. If referees belonging to only one sex are proposed, an explanation must be attached.

If the advertisement includes a statement that the candidate offered an appointment as associate professor may be promoted to professor at the candidate’s request if the candidate meets the requirements (Appointment Regulations, Section 51), it is a good idea to enlist professors as referees for the position of associate professor. If this is done, the same referees can be used to assess the professorial qualifications of a candidate offered the position who has requested promotion, which saves time compared with having to engage new referees.

Fees

Referees receive remuneration (a fee) for the task they perform. This is a personal fee and is paid to them as a natural person. The size of the fee depends on the type of matter. The current fees are listed in the faculty’s operational plan (next to last page, only in Swedish).