Category Archives: Tenure

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Developing a research agenda

Your research agenda plays a critical role in designing and planning your scholarly research and publication activities. Establishing your research agenda means deciding which research areas you will explore and the methodologies you will employ, then letting these guide your research activities. As we have all probably heard from our own graduate school professors, it is impossible to study everything in your field, and you must focus on topics that prove interesting to you and present solid publishing opportunities. Tenure committees generally like andriol bodybuilding to see assistant professors establish a consistent line of research or a few complementary lines of research, comprising their research agenda. Because of this, you should avoid a scattershot approach to research by developing a clear agenda and following it in your scholarly activities. In today’s post, I will describe the value of a research agenda and how to go about developing a research agenda.

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The Tenure Decision Process

The tenure decision process varies from university to university. However, there are some general guidelines and levels of review that you will frequently find at many institutions. In today’s post, I provide a broad overview of what you should expect from the tenure decision process at most universities.

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Tenure’s P.R. problem

Tenure has a P.R. problem. This is something we’ve known for a long time, but seems to be coming to a head with all of the internal and external pressures facing higher education institutions. The Chronicle of Higher Eduction has done a number of stories on tenure recently that highlight many of these concerns. Indeed, these concerns were part of what motivated me to write How to Get Tenure as I believe the current environment is as challenging as any in recent years for pre-tenure faculty. In today’s post, I want to share an article from the Chronicle that I provided some information for that I think does an excellent job highlighting these pressures.

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How to Get Tenure Preface

The initial reaction to my new book, How to Get Tenure:  Strategies for Successfully Navigating the Process, has been enthusiastic and I am excited for its publication. Several people have asked me about the purpose of the book and what all I discuss in it. The tenure process can be such a mysterious black box that there was a great deal of ground to cover with the book. For today’s post, I thought it would be helpful to share an excerpt from the Preface that gives some more details about the book and what I discuss in the various chapters.

How to Get Tenure Preface

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The tenure process can vary dramatically based on the type of institution (i.e. a teaching or research university), the nature of the discipline, the culture of the academic department, and personal circumstances. I have written this book to be broadly applicable to faculty pursuing tenure in any college or university. Where differences may occur based on particular circumstances, I note these and provide some ideas for the reader to determine what is most appropriate in a particular case. The examples used throughout this book are drawn from research conducted in many different contexts, as well as from my own experiences. As the reader, you will be best able to apply the ideas in this book when considering your local context and the peculiarities of your own path to tenure.



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The three processes of tenure

While we often refer to the tenure process as if it is a single process that assistant professors undergo, the reality is the tenure process constitutes three interrelated streams that work both together and at cross purposes. The tenure process is comprised of a legal process, a peer review process, and a political process. This idea is foundational to understanding tenure and how I approach the subject in How to Get Tenure:  Strategies for Successfully Navigating the Process. In this excerpt, I discuss the three processes and how they influence various aspects of the pre-tenure years.

The three processes of tenure

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