The applicant’s teaching qualifications cannot be assessed based on just one criterion. The final assessment of an applicant’s teaching qualifications should therefore take several criteria into account, not unlike in the assessment of an applicant’s qualifications as a researcher.
The following criteria should be included in the assessment committee’s overall assessment:
If the applicant does not have sufficient teaching experience at the time of assessment, he or she may be employed on a probationary period within which the minimum requirements must be fulfilled.
Applicants for professorships are not subject to any formal requirements regarding their teaching abilities, but applicants for professorships are expected to be able to document a higher degree of development in terms of their teaching qualifications than applicants for academic positions on a lower level.
Background
The management at Aarhus University have decided that all applications for academic positions advertised after 1 April 2015 must be accompanied by a teaching portfolio. The purpose is to place the necessary emphasis on the applicants’ teaching competences when assessing candidates for academic positions.
Purpose
The university’s primary purposes are to conduct research and offer research-based degree programmes. For appointments of academic staff, the qualification assessment places emphasis on the applicant’s documented qualifications as a researcher and lecturer, and the overall purpose of a teaching portfolio is to give the assessment committee a foundation for assessing the applicant’s teaching qualifications.
Using the teaching portfolio in the appointment process serves a double purpose: it gives applicants a chance to consider and document their teaching experience and qualifications, and it provides the assessment committee with a more solid basis for assessing the applicant’s level of experience and qualification.