Teaching, research, and community service are the classic criteria for academic promotion. In recent days, is it enough for faculty members to estimate their abilities regarding to these criteria?
I posed exactly the same question, saying that I had once designed for my department a merit questionnaire with a threefold division into categories and subcategories, each grouped under the general categories of scholarship, teaching, and service. Hence I tried to quantify the subcategories under each of the three big categories. For instance, under scholarship, a book would be worth more than a book chapter in someone else´s book, and an article worth more than a book review. I asked if there were a better system for judging faculty merit. I received no response, so I can only assume that no one had any objections to the old "road to faculty success" as you put it.
Ian Kennedy mentioned "bringing money in," but this can be subcategorized as a grant under "scholarship." He also mentioned conversion to e-education, but this can be subcategorized as an innovation under "teaching."
Quite often, a few faculty seek guidance from their department chairs, from departments other than their own, and from colleagues in their own field of specialization (in search of possible advice). If they wait, they’ll be ruined. For this matter, everyone wants to write a perfect research work, but the sad reality is that research soon goes out of date. If we rush, we may get rejections and re-submit feedbacks, because, at the end of the day, it is quality and impact that matter! And this fact is, in and of itself, another story altogether. And one can always expect to do one or more revisions, in case he/she gets the lucky stars. Albeit, universities often prefer to promote faculty who contribute to the well-being of the institution. The faculty who is considered a “bad” fit won’t. Is this going to be the end of life and the end of a prosperous academic career? The answer is NO. Bad researchers can always be good “teachers.” This is yet another road to success!
Academic promotion is one of the steps for success in the academic fields but it is not the only one. It is a way of getting recognition by peers that your accomplishments are of a high standard. To be successful in the academic field you must be successful as a teacher and contributed to your society in a positive way. Most of the academic promotion systems require these three things but few require one only. I think being excellent in all three is very difficult.
I have a mix of experiences among Arab and /or Middle-Eastern Universities system of promotion to academic faculty staff. Through these experiences I could say that we have some excellent reviewers /research experts who could meticulously evaluate articles submitted for job promotion, when it comes to assessing research work. However; these experts are obliged to look at other issues related to school /department evaluation of the faculty member, while they are aware that this evaluation could be totally affected by human relation factors and subsequently will impact their own assessment leading to a biased view.
Others go to the far extreme of the continuum, and focus their assessment on students’ feedback about the faculty staff member, in terms of his/her relationship to students and the adopted approach to gain their satisfaction. Although if anyone looked objectively to assess the faculty staff (teaching skills, achieved learning outcomes, and how much s/he integrated his research expertise in the scientific materials of teaching) the final evaluation of this staff would go down below that level.
I agree with colleagues who mentioned that the items required for job promotion in academic careers (teaching and /or research ) should be more comprehensive and strictly defined and not to stick to traditional methods of evaluation. I remember that job promotion in some specialties has been very rigid for many years, that would not allow researchers from a specific specialty to work at certain settings due to the worries to be negatively judged by external assessors {Saying this researcher has done his research in a different setting; then his/her article could not be evaluated in this sub-specialty !!! ) Thanks God that many of those traditional assessors are not still in the scientific committees any more !!
We need to see the teaching contents, weight compared to curricula, evaluation methods, and research activities within his/her institution, regionally and with international peers too. It sounds that many faculty staff have found it difficult to spend much effort in carrying out research activities regionally and internationally, therefore committees tend to avoid considering these types of activities at their assessment checklists. I believe we need to create/develop a new culture that value regional and international research activities with various institutions and disciplines. This will establish a new generation who will be keen to advance research & teaching.
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Hatem Maraqah
Hebron University
In fact It is not the only way for academics I think promotion should be given fo a faculty member every five years or a little bit more because in some cases the problem of doing a research is the absence of facilitis and chemicals in addition to instruments
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