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. A docent may be appointed in any of the faculty’s subjects. Normally, a docent is appointed in a subject covered by a doctoral programme or in a subject that constitutes a main field of study at undergraduate or postgraduate level. If the application relates to a different subject, this must be specifically justified.

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 how 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. However, for a docentship in Iranian languages, Semitic languages and Turkish, candidates must have qualifications in at least two relevant languages.

3.1 Scholarly qualifications

To obtain the title of docent, an applicant must have attained a doctoral degree or have equivalent qualifications. Applicants must have clearly broadened their scholarly range since attaining their doctoral degree. Their research must also show 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, the applicant must also demonstrate their ability to teach at postgraduate level by delivering a 45-minute lecture on a relevant topic. The applicant will be given a list of topics to choose from 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

Applications for the title of docent are to be submitted to the Faculty Board. Contact the faculty office well in advance of submitting an application. The subject area of the docentship must be specified in the application (see above for further details). 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 including 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 and one subject representative from the department. The proposed referees must hold the rank of professor or have equivalent status and be employed at a department outside the faculty. The subject representative is normally a professor working within the relevant research environment at the faculty. The Dean appoints both the experts and the subject representative.

The composition of the Docent Committee is governed by the faculty’s rules of procedure and delegation.

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.