There is an unwritten law at our university that Assistant Professors must enter with a published book, that Associate Professors must wait 6 more years, and that Full Professors must have attained the age of forty.  All this seems totally arbitrary to me. Sometimes researchers are "born" mature and undergo very minimal intellectual "growth."  Other times, they never attain their full potential no matter the age. I believe that every researcher deserves to be judged on his individual merits regardless of time.

Dear Nelson Orringer,

We have same situation here in Sarajevo and I fully agree with you that every researcher deserves to be judged individually regardless of time. 

Thank you Prof. Mahfuz. You tackled an important problem in our institutions. In my university, to be promoted from assistant to associate professor, the least required interval is four years. Sometimes, one can publish the required number of papers within a short time, but have to wait until he/she passed the stated interval. I think our universities should change their policies to encourage competitive achievements.

Kind regards,

Rashad

I believe, academic promotion should be the result of one's merit (research contribution), role as a teacher, and contribution to the corporate life of the department and the university concerned. This should be regardless of time.

Post-tenure review resolves this problem at my institution.

In some universities, a secret "shadow" administration runs the state of affairs & divides the staff into 2 categories: those who are entitled to climbing the ladder by promotion & those who must be isolated and prevented from any progress. The regulations for promotion are announced every now & then but they get harder as time goes on to prevent as many scholars as possible from reaching the "elite" professorship title which has meant no time limit for promoting someone. In my opinion, promotion is sometimes & in such context  is a degradation which is not sought by a free man or woman.

Now the essential question, dear Mahfouz: is it time or the promotion as such?

In UT at Brownsville as an example, the time requirement for academic promotion as follows. "Normally a person appointed to the rank of Assistant Professor will serve a minimum period of 5 years prior to consideration for promotion to Associate Professor, and a person appointed to the rank of Associate Professor will normally serve a period of 7 years before consideration for promotion to the rank of Professor".

http://www.utb.edu/vpaa/faculty/pages/FacultyPromotion.aspx

Dear Barbara,

I am surprised that there are too high requirements for young scientists at your university. As you said, it discourages them to continue to work and young people get away quickly.

I believe that universities should encourage young people to work on scientific researches and should not block promotion opprtunities for thrm. He wh works hard must get what s/he deserves.

Dear Mahfuz,

We have a national  promotion criteria. There are also unwritten rules in promotion committees of different universities.

To be promoted from assistant to associate professor, the waiting time is four years. It can be done in three years if the professor has demonstrated exceptional teaching skills (very high ratings in student evaluations is one criterion). I have not heard of such a case in my university.

In my opinion, four years as the minimum time requirement sounds reasonable. 

ELIGIBILITY

To be eligible to apply for promotion to Professor, a member of Academic Staff must

https://intranet.ecu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/615721/Academic-Staff-Promotion-Guidelines-Level-E-AND-Role-of-Professor.pdf

I enjoyed reading the comments, which so much resonates to my overall understanding about the set of complexities the academic world is managed with/by. I completely echo the sentiment by Nelson and wish that is just not a rational argument but a systematic practice. When the tenure is fixed – Assistant to associate to full, it is comforting to a person, but don’t know how exciting (it depends from person to person). An independent evaluation of merit beyond tenures is something that can be introduced in some format to keep the stimulation alive

I think yes it should have. In Moi University where am Based, Promotions are after 3-4 yrs plus certain papers/books one has published. This is a good criteria to follow during promotions.

Yes, there should be a minimum time period for the academic promotions. But in India things like this hardly happen. Even if you are academically very vibrant, still you have to follow a very long procedure for promotions. Even in India, the time spent on research is not counted in your service period (no matter you have done it on part-time basis also). It is really strange here in this academic set-up. plus one is dependent on the vacant posts in the department, otherwise, he is supposed to follow a long yearly mechanism of automatic promotions (Career Advancement Scheme, CAS), really disheartening. 

If someone follows the official links http://www.mesrs.dz and http://www.dgrsdt.dz/dafr/, the official websites of the Algerian ministry of higher education and research, one could observe that no conditions to academic and research career promotion are defined. It seems that the academic and scientific career management is a secret and confidential code for some people initiated to it. In the research institutes the same case, the scientific committees are not listed as well as the conditions of career management following  regulation rules. It is a confidential question (political???) allowed to top management posts to choose their friends and relatives outside objective conditions. The codes of the general public functions (the new ones) are  vague organized on the conditions of access to a job not followed by official and true conditions for a hole career management. It seems that the question is left to the personal appreciation 'subjective without defined rules' of the bosses , a form of oligarchic...

The precedent code for research career was based on  time period of 3-4-5 years accompanied with scientific and professional activities reports, papers, students' supervising, editions, conferences...But was applied for some people not to others out of regulations and recourse ability 'a kind of dictatorial and subjective decisions also!!'

I agree with @Nelson that "every researcher deserves to be judged on his individual merits regardless of time". Same in a classmate of students where some of them are fast learners with excellent marks and could run for top classes or for accelerated programs, others are merely regular and others need help or may be need to fold up their classmate

Kamal, you are really lucky. But in our country no rules and one turns grey for turning to professor. actually the weak policies of a weak democracy.

UGC has given procedure.  Pl check

I think that the most important factors are merit, passion, commitment, and an equal contribution to the learner's cognitive and affective well-being, because according to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, as well as to our own common sense, a sense of emotional well being precedes academic engagement, which taken together contribute to the transformative value of education.

Although time is not essentially the most important factor here, these indicators above as well as their sustainability would require a minimum time-frame of 3 to 4 years. Some changes are not quantitatively measurable over specific periods but usually make themselves evident with the passage of time. 

In some universities, promotion of administrative staff has extended over 30 years & they were having annual pay rise. On the other hand, the academic scholars were placed under conditions (if you are not promoted from assistant prof.  to associated prof .within 6 years, then your annual pay rise is stopped). Recently, they changed this system into: promotion of administrative staff extends to 35 years unconditionally with annual pay rise while the assistant prof. has to publish a paper to buy 5 years of annual pay rise & if you are associated prof., then you have to publish 2 papers to buy 5 years of  annual pay rise!! In other words, the academic scholars will have nothing if they excel in teaching or if they have longer years of service. This is a true story but I cannot reveal where it occurred.

Dear Dr. Nizar,

If I understand the new promotion system of that university well, "the assistant prof. has to publish a paper to buy 5 years of annual pay rise & if you are associated prof., then you have to publish 2 papers to buy 5 years of annual pay rise".

I think they are too generous to academic staff who are active in research...which is fair enough.  As for those who excel in teaching, this is a good incentive for them to conduct researches. 

Academic promotion criteria differ across the Universities. In India, the Universality Grants Commission (UGC) has prescribed guidelines. However, I would endorse the views of Debi S. Saini and Monica Bhattacharjee that academic regardless of time, promotion should based on merit including research contribution, role as a teacher, academic accomplishments, and contribution to the corporate life of the department and the university concerned.

I think academic staff need to at least four to five years for the first promotion level and six year for another promotion level. the academic staff has teaching undergraduate and post graduate students and prepare to research for promotion. So this is not easy definitely

I think it should be based only on merit and outstanding contribution in the concerned field. Time should not be considered at all for academic promotions.

All the above responses are a collection of oft-quoted criteria. Thew fundamental questions still remain viz., qualifications, age, yrs of experience, publications etc.

According to me, my feelings are:

a) Maturity in terms of being able to u7nderstand a concept, illustrate it and make it understandable to the recipient, be it a student, colleague or research scholar

b) Ability to show its utility to society in terms of cost benefits/increased  profits/better lifestyles/healthy living

After all, what is the role of a teacher? It is to impart better education and not better himself/herself at the cost of educating students. The end-users (students) are the best judges of teachers. A word of caution here... teachers should not resort to giving higher grades in order to getter better feedback from their wards!

Dear Prof. Mahfuz Judeh, Thank you for your comment. In reality, they are generous to the administrative staff. There are cases which do not encourage research at all, e.g. one,who holds B.A in a subject which is unrelated to his administrative post , has a salary equivalent to an associated prof. now. They are generous to him because he spies on the staff & keeps writing reports on them...and this case is not an isolated one. This caused resentment in the academic staff who refrained from doing or publishing research because of the presence of such spies "who control research resources" although many  academics are capable of doing high class research. No free man or woman wants promotion at the cost of becoming enslaved. 

Add to it, those given the opportunity for research do not care about teaching because they are busy  in "faking" research & because they became loyal to the "big brothers" so they can waste the times of lectures as they like. Isn't the drop of quality of graduates an indication of something wrong going on? 

The teachers in a medical college or institution having a total of eight years’ teaching experience out of which at least five years teaching experience as Lecturer or Asst. Professor gained after obtaining postgraduate degree shall be recognised as postgraduate teachers in broad specialties. In the case of super-specialties only those teachers who possess eight years’ teaching experience out of which at least five years’ teaching experience as Lecturer / Asst. Prof. gained after obtaining the higher speciality degree shall be recognised as postgraduate teachers:

Provided that in the case of super-speciality courses which are being newly instituted, matter regarding relaxation of qualification and experience of postgraduate teachers may be taken up by the appointing authority with the Medical Council of India.

http://www.mciindia.org/RulesandRegulations/TeachersEligibilityQualifications1998.aspx

Nice explanation Debi S. Saini

Corruption, favor, and nepotism are the big problems in promoting best minds. These problems spread both in developing and developed world, however its extent is different.

Many universities recognize the special talent and allow earlier evaluation of the candidate's dossier. 

For instance, Penn state university recognize special excellence or a circumstance when they see it, and their policies allow for early decisions in those situations. Deans must make requests of the Provost’s Office before undertaking early reviews.

http://www.psu.edu/vpaa/pdfs/p_and_t_faq.pdf

Although academic promotions should be based on merit, as well as, specifically on the quality of research and of research paper published, every university prescribes certain time limit. In our university, assistant professors will have to put in seven years in teaching and are also required to acquire PhD degree during that period in order to be eligible for becoming associate professor. In order to become eligible to be professor, one is required to have PhD. degree and minimum thirteen years total experience in teaching / research / industry and must have published papers in national / international journals. Exceptions are rarely done.

There should be a grading system for academic promotions and it should be fully based on outstanding contributions rather than only time count. Also there is a very need of minimizing the human involvement in decision taking as it should limit the corruption, favor, and nepotism up to some extent.

Dear Ajay,

Your comments are highly apprecited.I agree with you that there is a very need of minimizing the human involvement in decision taking as it should limit the corruption, favor, and nepotism up to some extent. Minimizing the human involvement is a nessisity.

Dear Mahfuz,

Thank you very much for your appreciation on my comments.

Best regards,

Ajay

I see no harm in fixing time frame to enter into academic positions like Assistant to associate and to full Professorships. Most people (if entry level is well made) require some 5 year spans to attain a feeling of the profession. If they supplement experience with good indexes of progress they should be allowed to enter into higher steps. May be there are exceptions but for them we never have rules. I am in favor of fixing some years as a bar and I also accept that normally 40 is minimum age for full Professor entry. Of course age is not enough. In India you face a much tougher competition and you require to supervise some Ph.D. students before you are made a full professor. however this may vary from Institute to Institute.

Promotion is a human resources management tool to handle the experience and expertize capital of knowledge and savoir-faire of the institution. This tool allows the transfer of the expertize between  generations 'old and young' and in the same time the availability of posts and employment for the young. Promotion is a natural process of human resources management,  it should be based on the ability of the candidate to offer successful results to his/her institution;

However as people are not same with same competencies and abilities, promotion should not be based on time requirements in order to able the institution to gain from the more successful of its employers, unless the institution could loose them (time requirements could be sound as bureaucratic). Promotion should be based as well on excellence  by some bonus to the more successful candidates. There is no matter that a successful teacher or researcher could be professor at thirteen of age if he/she shows great passion and success in his job than a professor who should wait for his fourteen without any passion in the job;

Full time Teachers should be evaluated on the success of their students and the tutorship of the more gifted ones, the improvement of the pedagogical methods of teaching , the improvement of the programs, the accompaniment of their students to the professional life, the supervision of their degrees and diplomas quality and recognition ...etc.. and their ability to monitor research programs for education and pedagogy purposes.

Full time researchers should be from the gifted people who could be able to produce new knowledge, new science, new technologies, new findings, new ideas, new theories, etc... they should be evaluated on their  projects and programs efforts, their publications, editions, conferences, cooperation with their peers from worldwide, patents, theories, phd supervision, findings ,etc...

The two jobs are not same with same duties and tasks;

Dear Fairouz,

You rightly pointed that age should not be a bar for promotions of the candidates who have passion in the job.

Of course Ajay, if the institution is working for the success of its programs, it should captivate its more successful potentialities and shouldn't loose its human capital resources. For that no age or time limit could be considered only competencies and real results ie what each employee could offer. An institution who puts barriers or bureaucratic needs is not skilled and not intelligent, and works for its end. Any surviving and/or recognition purpose should be based on excellence. Any institution who do not works for its success into a worldwide concurrent scheme is a death one, even universities and research institutes. What is the need of a university who couldn't offer recognized diplomas or couldn't captivate recognized teachers or couldn't monitor its students to the professional life??? This kind of university will close its doors sooner or later !!

Yes Fairouz, the bureaucratic or time-related barriers only frustrate better and passionate employees and keep them from performing.

I agree Ajay, bureaucratic barriers shouldn't exist into academia. Universities and research institutes should be temples of savoir, development, intelligence, competencies, etc.. not of bureaucrats or bureaucratic managements. I think academic and research staff should be evaluated each year 'with scientific reviewing process of their tasks performance' and their promotion appraisal at least by 4 years which is the almost needed period for a research  project (but within worldwide standard rules and norms of working conditions). If one gives results and successful abilities  he/she should be automatically eligible to promotion without the time limit of 4 years. This limit should be for the ones who should not exceed it without results not the reverse;

An interesting question indeed. I will say that it depends on the countries and not just  on universities. In my university where I worked before moving to the UK, it is usually every three years (irrespective of research output). It is quite frustrating because academics are not judged based on their research per se. At the end of every three years, an academic is not even sure of being promoted because assessment is not conducted by an independent body. Senior staff in each faculty conduct the assessment and send the list to the VC. Every appointment is approved by the VC, and if you are in his ''black book'' for any reason, you will never be promoted.  Another dimension is that even if an academic is on study leave and has enough research output, he/she will not be assessed or promoted until he/she returns. When he/she returns, the promotion will not be backdated. I sincerely agree with others that academics should be assessed yearly. It will not only engender hard work, it will result in self-development in academics.  

I wish America would be more flexible on these various expectations as Emeka outlines the UK as seeming  to be.  In the USA, there are so many hoops and hurdles about publishing in certain journals (which people years ago have set up)--but may not be useful for society or academics in the country in 2014.

Different answers from different countries. Its a good discussion.

The answers on this interesting question depend not only on each university but on each country politics and economy. I would like to believe that academic promotion should be the result of one’s research and teaching contributions incorporated in the life of the university and the whole society. Consequently, every researcher should deserve to be judged on his individual merits regardless of time.

Absolutely not!

Period!

Basing the promotions on time may influence the otherwise potential output of an individual adversely because of the feeling that before a certain period one cannot expect any reward and beyond that the reward is certain.

Promotions must be performance-based.

During 1960-70, the concept of publication of a paper in a conference or a Journal was taken to be a great event.  Nowadays, we find large number of Journals and Conferences being organized all over the globe.  One can find National and International Governmental and private agencies, which support research activities (Institutes and Industry).  Due weight may be given for these activities also while considering a person for a promotion.  

Few Universities have a format for the purpose of selection or promotion.  This format includes exam results, helping students in extra and co-curricular activities, paper presentations and publications, research fund generated,etc.  

Dr.S.Ravindran

• i agree with @ Ravindran, that as knowledge commercialization has started, the count on paper submission in conferences and journals is loosing its importance.
• Three years in a particular position may be a good enough period to groom the candidate to be equipped for the higher position

I would suggest that due weight to be given to the researcher achievements in the performing duties as a non-academic position, such as section head or a dean. How does s/he serves the students and the university.

I agree with Krishnan Umachandra, three years or more are important period for academic promotion. But also, the academic staff needs for a certain period to acquire more expertise in the field of Education and Research.

In India, entry level (Assistant Professor) qualification for engineering is postgraduation. After 10 years of experience, assistant professor promotes to associate professor. To get get promotion further, PhD + 5 years experience + publications in refereed journals + PhD guidance + Book publications + Good scientific networking + Conference publications in reputed conferences are mandatory.

For candidates with PhD joining at entry level (Assistant Professor), assistant professor promotes to associate professor after 5 years of experience. To get get promotion further, another 5 years experience + publications in refereed journals + PhD guidance + Book publications + Good scientific networking + Conference publications in reputed conferences are required. 

Regardless of time, academic staffs should considered for promotion if he/she must demonstrate an increase in contributions to one or more of teaching and learning, research and research training, engagement and leadership and service; capacity development in these areas; greater independence in thinking and action; academic, institutional and public life; public recognition of achievement; the quality and impact of achievement in either the discipline, the University or the wider community.

Golden words from dear Dr. Yogesh . However, there are universities in this world in which consecutive administrations do not recognize any contribution of a "free" scholar since s/he is not linked to their affiliation or group(s). S/he will join the university as assistant professor & will retire with the same title. No depression at all for such hero or heroine because refusal to get "enslaved" outweighs any illusory promotion. 

If they are good enough, they are ready enough.