Teaching Professor Job Title Series Guidelines

Consistent with KBOR policy, the University has used a non-tenure track (NTT) faculty appointment system to provide needed flexibility in support of the University’s instructional mission, while remaining committed to strengthening academic and research activities and resources for the tenured and tenure-track faculty body. Under this KBOR policy, NTT faculty may hold a range of responsibilities, including clinical work, research, outreach and service, and other creative endeavors in academic departments. The Teaching Professor Job Title Series allows for eligible NTT instructional faculty to take on greater responsibilities than typically required of lecturers to improve the student experience at KU, including contributing to curricular innovation within schools and departments to apply the latest evidenced-based teaching techniques to transform courses, scholarly engagement (often with a focus on teaching and learning), and providing enhanced advising and departmental service. Research on university teaching and learning, at both KU and institutions nationwide, shows that these contributions can support greater student engagement and lead to higher retention rates and improved time-to-degree, which are major University goals. It is understood that teaching professor positions may be appropriate to adopt in some schools/departments more than others.

 

 

Limited term appointment. Consistent with KBOR policy, teaching professor appointments will be for a 3-year limited term period, with the provision that the Teaching Professor position does not lead to a tenure or a tenure-track position. There is no automatic renewal of the position at the end of the limited term period. Teaching Professor positions are expected to be 9-month Academic Year assignments, but 12-month assignments may be approved in special circumstances with approval from the Provost’s Office.

 

 

A terminal degree, or equivalent tested experience, relevant to the area of teaching, is required. The review of the candidate’s credentials and experience should be commensurate with unit expectations for the position and Higher Learning Commission guidelines.

 

 

Individuals in the job series must be full-time employees. The full allocation of duties must equal 100%, and they must be configured within the following percentage ranges:  teaching at 60-80%, scholarly engagement at 10-20%, and service at 10-20%. Deans have flexibility in establishing the specific teaching, scholarly engagement, and service expectations for these positions, to meet the goals outlined in the policy statement above. These expectations must be outlined clearly in unit letters at the time of appointment. Teaching typically, but not exclusively, involves being an instructor of record for a particular number of course sections, but may include team teaching, carrying out course transformation, assessment of learning outcomes, or other activities to implement innovations in teaching and learning. Scholarly engagement is broadly defined. For many individuals in this role, scholarly engagement involves documenting and disseminating the results of inquiry into improving teaching and learning. The products of scholarly engagement may include, but are not limited to, workshops, presentations, and publication (including newsletters, websites, to peer-reviewed journal articles) of best practices in teaching and learning within and outside the unit. Based on the specific expectations of scholarly engagement set by a particular school/department, some positions may require publication of peer-reviewed disciplinary or pedagogical research and/or products of professional and industry engagement that involve the production and/or dissemination of knowledge. Service typically, but not exclusively, involves being a member of departmental/school or University-level committees which may or may not directly involve teaching.

 

 

All positions will be evaluated annually, with comprehensive evaluations conducted every three years of the appointment prior to the offer of another limited term appointment.

 

 

Progression in rank and title will follow the processes and procedures developed at the school/department level which must be approved and on file with the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs. For uniformity, the procedures must be based on the following minimum requirements:

 

 

Once promoted, associate and full teaching professors will continue to be reviewed annually and will be subject to a comprehensive review on a three-year review cycle prior to any offer of a new limited term appointment.

 

 

Each school/department must ensure that its faculty evaluation plan and its promotion guidelines incorporate processes and procedures for provision of the Teaching Professor positions, with clear criteria for annual performance reviews, 3-yr comprehensive reviews, and promotion within the Teaching Professor ranking structure.  

 

Each school/department must amend its bylaws to afford voting rights to individuals in Teaching Professor positions on all matters, except for personnel issues involving tenure-track faculty (e.g. hiring, promotion and tenure, progress toward tenure review, post tenure review).

 

Schools/College are required to outline expectations of how non-tenure track faculty (e.g., Lecturers, Multi-term Lecturers) may progress towards or qualify for Teaching Professor positions, and they must have that completed prior to the time of appointment.

 

Teaching Professor positions must be compensated at a higher rate of pay than the lecturer level due to higher expectation of primary duties and responsibilities. Each unit therefore must establish minimum pay for each rank of Teaching Professor consistent with the primary duties of Teaching Professor positions having greater responsibilities than lecturer positions. These compensation levels must be established, reviewed every 3 years, and submitted by the School/College to the Office of the Provost and Human Resources.