Premiere of the Faculty Board School Meeting
On November 21, the Faculty Board ITM invites you to a very first school meeting to discuss collegiality in hiring and promotion. Fredrik Asplund and Anne-Kathrin Peters are the teacher representatives in charge.
Ever since the KTH president decided on the faculty boards, collegiality has been in focus. The idea was that decision-making would be moved closer to the departments and that those with deep subject knowledge would be able to influence. Among other things, the boards would be responsible for collegial influence and for establishing forms of exchange across the school's areas of activity, subjects and research disciplines.
For the ITM School's Faculty Board, this involved the formation of a collegiality committee and visits to all departments. There, members asked their colleagues what they wanted to discuss with the board. Now that the committee has processed the questions from the meetings, it is time for the first theme.
The career system on topic
“Several people raised concerns about the development of KTH's career system for teachers and researchers and collegiality in relation to this,” says Fredrik Asplund , a member of the committee and a member of the Department of Engineering Design. “People want to know at what stages they can influence the promotions that are planned, what the process for designing new posts should look like, and how, for example, lecturers or researchers can advance in their careers.”
In October, a report will be published on KTH's career system, where an external investigator together with Vice Dean Nina Worbms has reviewed the current career system. KTH's tenure track system will then have been analyzed and there will be proposals for various possible development paths and analyses of how these can work in the short and long term. The focus is on researchers, lecturers and practices for promotion to professor. This report will be one of the focus areas of the School meeting.
In addition, collegiality in general will also be on the agenda of the School meeting. As inspiration, you can listen to Kerstin Sahlin, Professor of Business Administration at Uppsala University, who will talk about her experiences of collegiality. Finally, there will be a panel and audience discussion with a number of researchers from different universities. They will discuss aspects of collegiality related to the promotion scheme and answer questions from the audience.
Fredrik Asplund is designing the program for 21 November together with Anne-Kathrin Peters at the department of Learning. They hope for a large turnout:
“This is an important meeting for all faculty members at the ITM School who wants to understand the work of the Board, be updated on important changes and discuss collegiality in relation to KTH's career system,” he says.
“Should the college, and if so, when and how, have influence over the content of posts that are advertised and the lecturers who are promoted to professor? If you think these are interesting questions, you should sign up. Even if you are not really interested in the question, this is an opportunity to contribute to and develop collegiality at ITM, to give your opinion on the forms of the school meeting, to express wishes for future meetings, and to comment on the work of the faculty board. And, if nothing else, there is the opportunity to get a free lunch, Fredrik concludes with a smile.
Text and photo: Ulrika Georgsson
