LERU Universities on Track with Tenure Track Jobs

Page 1 / 2

Press Release
2 September 2014

LERU universities on track with tenure track jobs

Tenure-track programmes are a good way for promising researchers to embark on an academic career. In offering attractive career prospects, they allow universities to compete for talent internationally and they help to build a more mobile research work force in Europe and beyond.

Today the League of European Research Universities (LERU) releases a paper sharing its universities’ experiences with setting up tenure track programmes over the past decade.

Providing a more structured and accelerated path for those aspiring to an academic career, tenure track is fairly new in Europe, in comparison with North America where it has been for decades the back bone of academic recruitment and career progression, even though it has come under pressure there. Tenure track in the European context is defined in the LERU paper as a fixed-term contract (usually for three to six or more years) leading to a permanent position at a higher level if the candidate receives a positive evaluation. The LERU paper uses its own and the European Commission’s four-stage classification of researchers’ career stages, with tenure tracks spanning the third and fourth stages.

A survey of the 21 LERU universities in ten countries shows that three countries do not have tenure track as such (France, Spain and UK), although the LERU universities there have other schemes for young faculty. In the other countries (Belgium, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland), tenure track programmes have been developed in various ways and along three basic models, which are described in detail in the paper. The survey was conducted by the University of Freiburg in Germany, which has had a 4+2 year model since 2009.

Although the number of faculty on tenure-track at LERU universities is substantial (43 per university on average in 2012 - albeit with large variations), it is too early to evaluate the wider effects, and universities are learning from the first cohorts going through, fine-tuning and modifying the process as needed, and using it alongside more traditional career paths.

All tenure-track positions at LERU universities are granted on an “up-or-out” premise, meaning that candidates who receive a negative evaluation at the end of the period in practice usually find themselves out of a job at that university. So far the success rates have been very high, and while the numbers are too small to make sweeping conclusions, it does possibly point to a very strong selection at the start.

The paper ends with recommendations for universities, governments and the European Commission, calling on all to do their part in thinking up innovative and alternative career paths, in offering attractive positions based on open and merit-based recruitment, and in eliminating barriers to an open labour market for researchers in Europe.

LAUNCH EVENT

LERU invites you to discuss the paper with policy makers and stakeholders during a breakfast launch event at the European Liaison Office of the German Research Organisations (KoWi) in Brussels on Friday 12 September.

Programme and registration

More information

For questions please contact Dr. Katrien Maes, Chief Policy Officer LERU:

+ 32 473 97 70 14 or

Media contact - Bart Valkenaers, Press and Communications Officer:

+32 498 08 43 49 or

About LERU

The League of European Research Universities (LERU) is an association of twenty-one leading research-intensive universities that share the values of high-quality teaching within an environment of internationally competitive research.

Founded in 2002, LERU advocates education through an awareness of the frontiers of human understanding; the creation of new knowledge through basic research, which is the ultimate source of innovation in society; and the promotion of research across a broad front in partnership with industry and society at large.

The purpose of the League is to advocate these values, to influence policy in Europe and to develop best practice through mutual exchange of experience. LERU regularly publishes a variety of papers and reports which make high-level policy statements, provide in-depth analyses and make concrete recommendations for policymakers, universities, researchers and other stakeholders.

The LERU universities are:

• University of Amsterdam
• Universitat de Barcelona
• University of Cambridge
• University of Edinburgh
• University of Freiburg
• Université de Genève
• Universität Heidelberg
• University of Helsinki
• Universiteit Leiden
• KU Leuven
• Imperial College London
• University College London
• Lund University
• University of Milan
• Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
• University of Oxford
• Pierre & Marie Curie University
• Université Paris-Sud
• University of Strasbourg
• Utrecht University
• University of Zurich