1. General information

The purpose of granting the title of docent at the Faculty of Languages is to confirm a person’s special scholarly expertise and their ability to deliver advanced instruction. Attaining the title of docent should be seen as a step in an academic career. Attaining the title of docent therefore requires qualifications over and above a doctoral degree. To be able to ensure and assess progression, it is recommended that an application for promotion to docent should normally be submitted no earlier than five years after defending a doctoral thesis. Docent status is granted in main and minor fields of study at Bachelor’s and Master’s levels, and in doctoral studies subject areas (see list in appendix 1).

2. Eligibility

To be granted the title of docent in a language studies subject at Uppsala University, an applicant must have some form of connection with the University. Such a connection is deemed to exist if the applicant is employed at a department in the Faculty of Languages. An applicant who is not employed at the faculty can also be granted docent status if this is of benefit to research and education at the faculty. In this case, the department concerned must make a special statement explaining the way in which granting the applicant docent status would benefit research and education at the Faculty of Languages.

3. Scholarly and pedagogical assessment criteria

The Faculty Board determines the breadth required for docent status in multilingual subjects. Normally qualifications are only required in one language. The following subjects have a strong comparative tradition and therefore require qualifications in at least two languages: Iranian Languages, Semitic Languages and Turkic Languages.

3.1 Scholarly qualifications

To obtain the title of docent, an applicant must have taken a doctoral degree or have equivalent qualifications. Compared with the doctoral thesis, applicants must have clearly broadened their scholarly range and display a clear progression. Overall, both a deepening and a broadening of the applicant’s research is required.

The assessment of overall scholarly expertise is a two-stage process. First, the additional qualifications themselves are assessed, i.e. the publications produced after the doctoral degree. Then an assessment is made of the applicant’s scholarly development.

In the first stage, the quantity and quality of the additional qualifications are assessed. Quality is the most important criterion. In quantitative terms, the additional qualifications must be equivalent in scope to the requirements for a doctoral thesis. Here, the applicant’s total production is taken into account, not just the works specifically cited by the applicant. The following criteria are used in assessing the applicant’s scholarly expertise: methodological sureness, theoretical awareness, critical judgement, originality and independence, analytical ability and meticulousness, and the significance of the results.

In the next stage, the additional qualifications are placed in relation to and compared with previous productions, primarily the thesis. This makes it possible to assess thematic broadening and qualitative development.

The works cited must be published or accepted for publication in a form that is usual in the discipline and must not have been preliminary studies for the doctoral thesis. Manuscripts accepted for publication must be accompanied by written confirmation of the final version from the publisher.

Other supplementary qualifications that may be cited are leadership of research activities, administrative experience of a scholarly nature and contributions to the scholarly community, such as elected positions, refereeing assignments and membership of examining committees. Collaboration with the wider community can also be cited. However, the granting of the title of docent depends primarily on research qualifications.

3.2. Pedagogical qualifications

To be granted the title of docent, applicants must have documented experience of relevant teaching at Bachelor’s and/or Master’s level in the field amounting to at least the equivalent of 160 teaching hours. The teaching must have been well received. Applicants must also have completed doctoral student supervisor training or have documented experience of doctoral student supervision.

Moreover, it is incumbent upon applicants to substantiate their expertise in delivering instruction in a doctoral programme by giving a 45-minute lecture on one of a number of proposed subjects obtained from the relevant department, which the faculty office will communicate to the applicant one week in advance.

Other supplementary qualifications that may be cited are administrative contributions in the form of planning, development and leadership of courses or programmes, educational projects, production of study resources and experience of academic leadership. Collaboration with the wider community can also be cited.

4. Processing of the matter

4.1 Application

Contact the faculty office well in advance of submitting an application. Applications for the title of docent are to be submitted to the Faculty Board. The subject area of the docentship must be specified in the application. Applicants should attach scholarly publications and other documents intended to substantiate their scholarly and pedagogical expertise to the application. Applicants may cite a maximum of 10 publications over and above their doctoral thesis. The doctoral thesis must always be attached and be included in the basis for assessment. Applications must always contain a CV including relevant certificates, a description of pedagogical and scholarly activities (5–10 pages in total) and a complete list of publications. The list of publications must contain information about which publications have been produced after the doctoral degree, the length of publications in number of pages, which publications the applicant has produced as sole author and which have been written in collaboration with others. Where co-authored publications are concerned, applicants must clarify their own contribution to the work in their application. The pedagogical qualifications must be substantiated with information about the scope, type and quality of the teaching, for example, in the form of testimonials.

The Faculty of Languages Recruitment Committee decides whether to approve the application for further assessment following an initial examination of the matter. If the Recruitment Committee decides to reject the application, it must give reasons for this decision.

4.2 Referees and docentship committee

Normally, the dean obtains proposals for two referees from the department. The proposed referees must hold the rank of professor or have equivalent status and be drawn from a department outside the faculty. The Faculty Board appoints referees and a docentship committee, consisting of the dean (ex officio, chair) and two further members.

4.3 Basis for decision

The referees must deliver individual opinions on the applicant’s scholarly and pedagogical expertise. A referee’s review does not have to result in approval. The opinion must be based on the criteria stated above in section 3 and conclude by taking a clear position that follows logically from the reasoning. The opinion must be at least four pages in length and be based on the criteria specified in the guidelines.

The docentship committee must deliver an opinion, including an evaluation of the trial lecture for appointment as a docent.

4.4 Decision

Decisions in cases concerning the granting of the title of docent are taken by the Faculty Board based on the referees’ statements and the opinion of the docentship committee.

Appendix 1.

List of subjects in which docent status can be sought

Main and minor fields of study at Bachelor’s and Master’s levels

American Studies

Arabic

Aramaic/Syriac

Assyriology

Bulgarian

Celtic Languages

Chinese

Comparative Indo-European Language Studies

English

Estonian

Finnish

Finno–Ugric Languages

French

German

Greek

Greek and Byzantine Studies

Hebrew

Hungarian

Indology

Iranian Languages

Italian

Kurdish

Latin

General Linguistics

Middle Eastern Studies

Persian

Polish

Romance Languages

Russian

Saami

Semitic Languages

Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian

Slavic Languages

Spanish Language Technology Swahili Swedish

Swedish as a Second Language

Ancient Languages and Cultures

Turkic Languages

Doctoral studies

Computational Linguistics

English

Finno–Ugric Languages

Greek

Indology Iranian Languages Latin

General Linguistics

German

Romance Languages

Scandinavian Languages

Semitic Languages

Sinology

Slavic Languages

Turkic Languages

German