The UiO's rules for appointment to professor positions and guidelines for competence promotion to professor describe the minimum requirements for professorial competence and provides a framework for assessing such competence. The faculty may specify on further criteria as a basis for assessing the competence in connection with appointment or promotion to professor. This guide describes the criteria related to three areas of qualifications for assessing professorial competence:
- Academic qualifications
- Teaching qualifications
- Other qualifications, including qualifications for knowledge in use and academic management and administration
The basis for assessing competence as a professor are the rules and guidelines in force at any given time:
- Regulations concerning appointment and promotion to teaching and research positions
- Rules for employment and promotion for Professor and Associate Professor positions at UiO and UiO's guidelines for competence promotion
Applications for professorial competence must be within the area in which the applicant is employed or applies for employment. Both academic qualifications and teaching qualifications must be met in order to obtain professorial competence. Other qualifications cannot compensate for these.
Academic qualifications
Academic qualifications include own research as well as the establishment and leadership of research projects and research groups or participation in such work. Academic competence shall be indisputable in order to qualify for appointment or promotion to professor.
Substantial academic production beyond a doctoral degree is required. The research shall be of high quality and show both breadth and depth. The academic production shall reflect an independent research profile and demonstrate the ability to address new issues. Sustained research activity is a prerequisite. Quality, originality and innovation in academic production are given weight, and newer works are given greater weight than older ones. Emphasis is placed on academic production over the past five years.
The following requirements shall be met:
Scope:
Academic production shall correspond to approximately three doctoral theses in scope and should constitute about 12 high-quality academic articles or three high-quality monographs or combinations of these. The doctoral thesis is included. The applicant must have contributed significantly to all the works and had the main responsibility for the research and presentation in about two-thirds of the works. For more extensive collaborative and coauthored scholarship, the requirement for the number of works shall be set higher. If some of the publications are in one of the most prestigious channels in the field and are of particularly high quality, the number of publications may be reduced following an assessment. Up to 15 academic works can be submitted for assessment.
Quality:
The academic works shall be of high quality. The quality shall be assessed on the extent to which the works have contributed or have the potential to contribute to the development of the research field. Emphasis shall be placed on the originality of the research questions or the approaches to research. The works shall be published or accepted for publication in academic channels with high quality control.
Breadth:
The broad requirement shall help ensure that the applicant is qualified to teach and supervise at a high level in more than one specialized area. The academic production shall cover at least three different areas of scholarship, topics and research methods. The applicant shall have demonstrated the ability to place his/her academic work into a larger context.
Independence and collaboration:
The applicant must have documented ability to independently carry out all key parts of high-quality research work. This is documented with work where the applicant is the sole, first or last author when this signals the main responsibility for the work, by collaboration statements from co-authors and through experience from research leadership. Emphasis shall be placed on establishment and leadership of research collaborations or of all or parts of research projects with several collaborating parties. This includes applications for external research funding.
Visibility and accessibility:
The academic works shall be published or accepted for publication in well-recognised academic channels. This typically means publishing in international channels. When the topic dictates, publication in national channels with high quality control can also be accepted. A majority of the academic works shall be available through open access.
The applicant shall have contributed to the international research community. Such visibility is documented through international co-authorship, citations, work as referee or editorial member of international journals and editorial boards or invited lectures and seminars at international universities and conferences. Relevance:
The academic works shall be related to the research front at the time of publication. Several of the works shall have been published within the last five years.
When assessing the scope and breadth of the academic works, emphasis can be placed on the entire publication list.
Where appropriate, consideration can be given to work in other disciplines, if these demonstrate the applicant’s competence to conduct research and teaching within the research field.
Teaching qualifications
The faculty follows Rules for practicing the requirement for basic university pedagogical competence at UiO. In addition, special teaching requirements are set when assessing qualifications as professor. The applicant must document the additional requirements that appear in the Section 13 of the Rules for employment and promotion for Professor and Associate Professor positions at UiO. This includes:
- A wide range of skills in planning, implementation and evaluation of teaching
- Broad experience from supervision, preferably at the master’s/PhD levels
- A wide range of skills in systematic development work related to teaching and supervision
- Effort, leadership and collaboration in own academic environment related to work on education quality
See section 13 of the regulations for further clarification of documentation requirements.
Other qualifications
In addition to academic qualifications and teaching qualifications, the following can be given weight:
- Qualifications for knowledge in use, including knowledge and research dissemination, innovation and interaction with society
- Qualifications for academic management and administration, including research and education management, education for academic management and administration, commissions of trust, including work as an expert in academic assessment, participation in councils, boards and committees, etc.
Approved by the Dean 28 April 2022