KTH's career paths are being analyzed

‘Staff are our most important asset and the goal is a system that is based on meritocracy, is attractive, long-term and transparent in order to create a better working environment for our researchers and teachers and provide good conditions for conducting competitive research and high-quality teaching,’ says Nina Wormbs, Vice Dean of Faculty.

Possible new paths

Together with the investigator Ann Fust, who has held a number of different positions in the higher education sector, she will take a closer look at the current system and propose various possible development paths and analyze how these can work in the short and long term.

"The current system has a lot of shortcomings and for a lot of people there is simply no way to progress in their career at KTH," says Nina Wormbs.

KTH already has a tenure track system consisting of assistant professor, associate professor and professor. But the researchers who are instead employed directly in various research projects do not have the same career opportunities. There are also a number of lecturers at KTH, for whom it is not entirely easy to progress in their careers either.

In summary, there are three areas within the current career system that will be looked at further and for which the report will propose improvements:

- regulation and practice of promotion from associate professor to professor
- lack of a career path for the category of researcher
- lack of a career path for the category of lecturer

Predictable and inclusive

Another idea is that the career system should function in the same way throughout KTH and that it should also be predictable, equal and inclusive.

"One ideal is to have complete academic environments where you both teach and do research. Today, some environments tend to be very research-heavy and others teaching-heavy, which affects how we should think about the career system," says Nina Wormbs.

The report will be presented in October. It will then be discussed in management groups, faculty councils, faculty committees and in other contexts to determine which proposals work best. The earliest that the changes to career paths that have been identified can be implemented is next autumn.

The directive Beslut om utredning av karrärvägar (pdf 116 kB)  (In Swedish) to the inquiry states that the investigators will look into a number of different issues, including how things work at other Swedish and Nordic universities.

Text: Jill Klackenberg