Guidelines for the Admittance of Distinguished University Teachers – Disciplinary Domain of Medicine and Pharmacy

The Disciplinary Domain Board of Medicine and Pharmacy specifies below supplementary guidelines in accordance with the Vice-Chancellor’s decision to adopt Guidelines for the Admittance of Distinguished University Teachers (decision of 2011-12-06 and revised Guidelines for the Admittance of Distinguished University Teachers, decision of 2012-05-15 Reg. No. UFV 2010/1842). These supplementary guidelines are a revised version of and replace the Guidelines previously adopted by the Disciplinary Domain (decision of 2012-10-25, revised 2014-06-13, 2017-08-30 and 2019-12-18).

Application procedures for admittance as a distinguished university teacher

Definition of distinguished university teacher

The term distinguished university teacher is used to denote a teacher who has attained a higher level of pedagogical skill. This level is clearly distinguished from the base level, just as docent is distinguished from the degree of doctor.

Assessment Panel for Admittance of Distinguished University Teachers

The Assessment Panel for Admittance of Distinguished University Teachers includes the following members: a chairperson, three teachers, one educational developer and two students.

Of the three teachers, one is to represent the Faculty of Pharmacy, one clinical activities at the Faculty of Medicine, and one preclinical activities at the Faculty of Medicine. The Faculty of Pharmacy and Faculty of Medicine shall each have one student representative.

All members except for student representatives must be distinguished university teachers or have other, well-documented teaching expertise and experience of educational leadership, for example, as a course coordinator, director of studies, programme coordinator or chairperson of a programme committee or first- and second-cycle education committee.

The chairperson, teachers and educational developer are to be appointed by the Disciplinary Domain Board for a term of three years. Student representatives are appointed by the relevant student union for a term of one year.

Process for admittance as a distinguished university teacher

The opportunity to apply for admittance as a distinguished university teacher shall be provided at least once each year. Applications are considered by the Assessment Panel for Admittance of Distinguished University Teachers. Only complete applications will be considered.

For each applicant, the Assessment Panel obtains the opinion of two subject specialists, at least one of whom is an external subject specialist, who have previous experience of assessing teaching expertise. At least one of these subject specialists must have their scholarly expertise in the area of medicine or pharmacy. The Assessment Panel can obtain suggestions for subject specialists from the Undergraduate and Master’s Education Committee at the Faculty of Pharmacy (GRUFF) and the Undergraduate and Master’s Education Committee at the Faculty of Medicine (GRUNK).

The appointed subject specialists are to deliver an opinion stating whether or not the applicant fulfils the criteria for admittance as a distinguished university teacher. They are thus not to deliver a recommendation as to whether or not the applicant should be appointed.

The Assessment Panel is to deliver its recommendation on whether to appoint an applicant as a distinguished university teacher to the Disciplinary Domain Board for a decision.

Financial incentive

Any teacher employed by Uppsala University who successfully applies for admittance as a distinguished university teacher will have their monthly salary increased by an amount equivalent to the increment that applies for admittance as a docent. When a teacher employed by another accountable authority is appointed as a distinguished university teacher, the Disciplinary Domain will recommend that the said teacher’s pay be equal to that of teachers employed by the University.

Qualified applicants for admittance as distinguished university teachers

Teachers carrying out research who are employed for an indefinite period (as a lecturer, senior lecturer or professor) at Uppsala University may apply for admittance as a distinguished university teacher. The Disciplinary Domain of Medicine and Pharmacy may also appoint an applicant who is employed by Region Uppsala or another accountable authority but who is highly active in teaching and research within the disciplinary domain. One prerequisite for meeting the requirement for teaching expertise is the completion of relevant training of at least 10 weeks in teaching and learning in higher education.

Application for admittance as a distinguished university teacher

To apply for admittance as a distinguished university teacher, the applicant must submit the following documents:

• A statement (of 25,000 characters including spaces) setting out how the applicant fulfils the criteria for admittance as a distinguished university teacher.
• A complete curriculum vitae compiled in accordance with the document Career portfolios – assessment guidelines and compilation instructions (MEDFARM 2018/277).
• A teaching qualifications portfolio compiled according to the same document.
• References from leaders in teaching such as directors of studies, programme coordinators, chairs of programme committees or equivalent, attesting to the applicant’s teaching
• Reference from a head of department and/or operations manager, expressing support for the application.
• Other information of significance for the application.

The application is to be submitted online. Originals of publications or other documents referred to in the application, but not attached to the application, must be presented on request.

Criteria for assessing applications for admittance as distinguished university teachers

To determine whether the applicant has attained a higher level of teaching expertise that is clearly distinct from the basic level, the subject specialists, Assessment Panel and Disciplinary Domain Board shall together, and on the basis of the supporting documentation submitted, assess whether the applicant fulfils the criteria outlined under the following headings:

• Teaching skills
• Teaching development work
• Scholarly attitude
• Leadership in teaching
• Quality work
• Wider community perspective

Teaching skills

The ability to:

• teach in a high-quality, engaging and esteemed way at different levels of the teaching system and within a broad field of knowledge;
• pay attention to gender and diversity perspectives and take into account and accommodate students’ differences and varying experiences;
• provide support for students to attain their educational goals through a well-founded choice of teaching methods and forms of examination; and
• work progressively in teaching and with constructive links between learning objectives, teaching and examination.

Educational development work

The ability to:

• revitalise or develop teaching materials and methods, and select apt course literature;
• investigate, evaluate and reflect on one’s own teaching and its effects and to apply the results to one’s own teaching practice; and
• acquire and spread good examples and results of developments in teaching and examination, in both internal and external contexts.

Scholarly approach

The ability to:

• maintain up-to-date and comprehensive competence in the subject area based on their own and/or others’ findings;
• continuously put current knowledge in the subject area into practice in teaching through conscious strategies for relating research to teaching; and
• relate to and apply current research in the fields of pedagogics and didactics to the development of one’s own teaching practice, particularly in relation to students’ learning.

Educational leadership

The ability to:

• exercise leadership in teaching in roles such as programme manager or director of studies that have an impact on courses and study programmes beyond one’s own teaching;
• participate in and contribute to expert positions or positions of trust in educational matters in national and/or international forums; and
• develop educational leadership through personal reflection, collegial dialogue and relevant courses and literature on academic leadership.

Quality work

The ability to:

• lead systematic and continuous efforts in quality development and quality assurance within the programme concerned;
• reflect on and relate to an outside interests perspective in quality and development work; and
• implement the conclusions from quality work in the affected activities

Wider community perspective

The ability to:

• Connect teaching to current research, current social issues and the students’ future professional roles
• Develop and continuously revisit the content as well as course and programme learning objectives in relation to changes in society and the labour market

Checklist for assessing the criteria for admittance of distinguished university teachers at the Disciplinary Domain of Medicine and Pharmacy

Based on the supporting documentation, the subject specialist is to mark for each line if the applicant fulfils the criteria or not. Any further comments may be written in the box at the end of each criteria category, and in the comments box at the end of the document.

1 Teaching skills

2 Teaching development work

3 Scholarly attitude

4 Leadership in teaching

5 Quality work

6 Wider community perspective

7 General comments