Hiring process

Academic positions

Evaluation of applications for academic positions

Normal procedure

1. Registration of application
2. An expert committee is appointed. The committee carries out the professional/academic evaluation of the applications, and delivers an evaluation report to the university.
3. Based on the evaluation report the faculty assesses applicants further through interviews, trail lectures and reference checks.
4. Based on the evaluation report, and the assessments, the faculty will produce its proposed shortlist with ranking of applicants by number.
5. The appointing authority (Appointments Committee for Teaching and Research Positions) processes and approves the recommendation from the faculty.
6. A letter of appointment is sent to the highest ranked applicant. Should the applicant decline the job offer, it will go to the next applicant on the list.
7. All applicants are informed about who is appointed and that the hiring process has ended.

Expert committee

A committee in charge of evaluating the applications is appointed by the faculty. The committee usually consists of three people, and there should be gender balance. As soon as the committee has been appointed the applicants will be informed of its members. The committee will produce an evaluation report.

Interviews, reference-checks and trial lectures

Short-listed applicants will be invited for interviews and a demonstration of their teaching competency, usually in the form of a trial lecture. With permission from the applicant the university also will conduct a reference check before appointment.

Information during the recruitment process

• Applicants will receive a confirmation that the application has been received. Upon request, applicants receive an extended list of applicants to the position.
• Applicants will receive information about who is appointed as members in the expert committee (do not apply for PhD positions).
• Applicants will receive the evaluation report from the expert committee and may comment on this (do not apply for PhD positions.
• Once the position has been taken, all applicants will receive information about who is appointed and that the recruitment process is finished.

Evaluation of educational competence

Criteria for educational competence at UiA relating to employment in Professor and Associate Professor positions. 

Time frame

The committee usually spends three months before reaching a conclusion. Applicants are to be informed of any delay in the recruitment process. Since a thorough and extensive evaluation is required, the recruitment process is usually longer for academic positions than for non-academic positions.  It may take from 5 to 12 months. University of Agder is striving to make these recruitment processes less time-consuming.