TUM Faculty Tenure Track

Join the Tenure Track at TUM

TUM Faculty Tenure Track is the performance-driven career path for promising early-career scientists with international experience.

It is the first true tenure-track system based on international standards at a German university: the TUM Faculty Tenure Track, which leads to a permanent W3 professorship upon successful evaluation.

For the TUM tenure track program, we seek early career scientists with first scientific successes and a convincing research program. The W2 professorship is limited to 6 years with a tenure option - that means the chance of promotion to a permanent W3 professorship.

During the tenure track phase

From appointment to tenure evaluation

Assistant professors are expected to develop their academic profile during the tenure track phase. To give them guidance, they are accompanied by a mentoring team comprised of experienced professors.

The university follows the progress of its assistant professors through performance interviews and status assessments, and can thus provide targeted and individual support for their career development. The quality-based tenure evaluation following international best practice takes place at the end of the tenure track phase. A positive result is required for promotion to a tenured W3 professorship.

The tenure track phase usually lasts for six years. During this time, TUM evaluates its assistant professors on a regular basis using transparent criteria as part of a mentoring program. Evaluation & promotion.

• Beginning of 1st year: Appointment of the mentoring team

• End of 1st year: Annual performance interview

• End of 2nd year: Status assessment (incl. annual performance interview)

• End of 3rd year: Annual performance interview

• End of 4th year: Second status assessment (incl. annual performance interview)

• End of 5th year: Annual performance interview

• 6th year (usually): Tenure evaluation

The tenure track phase can be completed in a shorter timeframe in exceptional cases justified by outstanding achievements (fast tenure track). Early tenure evaluation (fast tenure track) can be initiated at the earliest in the fourth year and only in exeptional cases (e.g. ERC grant, Heisenberg Professorship, Sofia Kovalevskaja Prize).

A mentoring team is assigned to each assistant professor during the tenure track phase. The team comprises a professor from the assistant professor’s school and a second professor from a different school or ideally from another university (national or international).

• The role of the mentoring team is to build trust and look after the assistant professors.
• They advise and support the assistant professors to help them build their own research work group, prepare research proposals, build and extend their network within the scientific community, develop their teaching program and assess their own performance.
• They take part in the annual performance interviews together with the dean of the department.
• It is recommended that, in addition to their annual meetings, assistant professors contact their mentors regularly and proactively and request their support

Annual performance interviews with the assistant professors are conducted by the deans of their respective schools and their mentoring team. The objective is to prevent off-track developments at an early stage and make a realistic assessment of the assistant professors’ performance and progress based on an analysis of strengths and weaknesses.

• Summary and assessment of performance in the categories Research and Development, Academic Teaching and Academic Engagement (see also Evaluation and Promotion and Evaluation Policies for the TUM Faculty Recruitment and Career System).
• Assessment of assistant professors’ academic development potential, recommendations and identification of the career prospects.

Status assessments consist of a presentation open to the entire university in which the assistant professors outline the progress of their work to date, as well as an annual performance interview.

The objective of the status assessments is to provide orientation and a success forecast for the tenure process. If necessary, the assistant professor’s personal development plan will be revised on the basis of the findings from these assessments.

The outcome of the tenure evaluation is central for the decision whether the assistant professor will be appointed to a tenured position as associate professor (W3) or whether their career at TUM should come to an end.

The tenure evaluation usually takes place in the sixth year following the initial appointment to assistant professor. An early tenure evaluation (fast tenure track) can be initiated at the beginning of the fourth year in the fourth year at the earliest, and only in exeptional cases (e.g. ERC grant, Heisenberg Professorship, Sofia Kovalevskaja Prize).

Performance evaluation criteria

Performance is evaluated in the following categories:

• Research & development

• Academic teaching

• Academic engagement

See also: Evaluation and Promotion and Evaluation Policies for the TUM Faculty Recruitment and Career System

Which development opportunities do assistant professors have?

Assistant professors are on pay scale W2 and their appointment is temporary, usually for six years but always on a track to be tenured. This option means that they will be promoted to a tenured W3 associate professorship after a positive tenure evaluation, and will be offered a salary and resources package. Later in their career, they could be appointed to a full professorship (also W3, with supplemental package) if they meet TUM’s demanding performance criteria.

Questions about the application?

Details on the process from application to appointment, the necessary documents, the exact entry requirements and more.

Attractive resources

To ensure their independence in research and teaching, TUM Tenure Track Assistant Professors (W2) receive a competitive entry package and are free to apply for external funding for their own research. They are not answerable to any chair, and have the same rights and obligations as all other professors within their department and at the university as a whole. The entry package features:

• A position for a research associate

• An annual budget

• Required room infrastructure (e.g. lab and office space)

• Access to the scientific infrastructure

• Active support in developing the professorship (e.g. through the schools’ onboarding offices, their mentoring team, dean, or the TUM Faculty Tenure Treack Recruitment Team)

Additional resources can be negotiated individually and will depend on the requirements of the specific field of research.

Academic freedom

• Equal institutional rights: Assistant professors (W2) have the same institutional rights and obligations within their school and at the university as a whole as all other TUM professors. They are fully integrated into university decision-making processes.
• Doctorates and examinations: Assistant professors can supervise doctoral students independently and exercise all examination rights and obligations.
• Eligibility for third-party funding: Assistant professors are entitled to apply for external funding and use this for their own research and teaching activities.

Research funding support Doctorates: TUM Graduate School Teaching and examination ressources

Reduced teaching workload

Assistant professors are required to teach for only five hours per week during the semester instead of the usual nine so that they can dedicate more time to their research activities. Depending on their school, this teaching can take the form of lectures, tutorials, seminars or general undergraduate teaching. Following a positive tenure evaluation, they will be required to teach for nine hours per week, which is the usual workload at German universities.

Balancing career and family life

TUM offers a wide range of support for academics to reconcile their professional obligations with their family life.

The TUM Faculty Tenure Track career system also takes family commitments into account – offering, for instance, more flexible working hours and factoring a researcher’s family situation into their performance evaluations.

An excellent environment

Tenure Track Professors are joining a community of excellent scientists with entering this university. This environment gives them a world-class benchmark against which they can measure their own work. Assistant professors can therefore test their own scientific creativity while working on complex interdisciplinary research projects.

Do you have any questions? Contact us

Technical University of Munich
Faculty Recruitment, Career Advancement and Dual Career
Arcisstr. 21
D-80333 Munich
facultyrecruiting@tum.de

Data protection notice

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