New recruitment norms at Aarhus BSS

The faculty management team has just decided on the implementation of AU’s seven new recruitment norms for the appointment of academic staff at Aarhus BSS. The new recruitment norms are to ensure more applicants for academic positions and thus strengthen the quality and diversity of the applicant pool, says Vice-dean for Research and Talent Development Per Baltzer Overgaard.

Photo: Colourbox

More applicants for academic positions, greater quality and diversity in the pool of applicants - these are the overall purposes of the new recruitment norms for the appointment of academic staff to permanent positions at Aarhus University. The new norms have been developed on the basis of discussions in the academic councils and several consultations in the departments across AU.

The faculty management team at Aarhus BSS has just decided on the implementation of the new norms, which will from now on form the basis of the school’s policy on the recruitment of academic staff. Among other things, this means that academic positions will now be re-advertised if there is an insufficient number of qualified applications. Search committees are also required in order to ensure a sufficiently large and diverse pool of applicants.

Vice-dean for Research and Talent Development Per Baltzer Overgaard is certain that the new norms will contribute to strengthening the recruitment policy at Aarhus BSS.

“As a school, one of our most important assets is our team of highly qualified academic employees,” he says. “Among other things, their research and teaching allow us to make a mark on the world around us. That’s why it’s imperative that we ensure a large and diverse pool of applicants for our academic positions - and here the new norms are a great tool.

The seven new recruitment norms:

Norm # 1: All advertisements for permanent academic positions must be formulated in broad terms and published both nationally and internationally.

Norm # 2: Search committees are a requirement, in order to ensure a sufficiently large, diverse pool of high-quality applicants.

Norm # 3: A position must be re-advertised if an insufficient number of qualified applications have been received by the application deadline.

Norm # 4: The majority of the members of the assessment committee must be external.

Norm # 5: Appointment committees are a requirement. In case of professorships, with the participation of the dean’s office/executive team.

Norm # 6: In connection with the assessment of applicant qualifications, great emphasis must be placed on long-term stays at one or more internationally recognised research institutions outside of Denmark.

Norm # 7: Appointing internal candidates to permanent positions without prior advertisement is not possible.

The seven norms have now been implemented into Aarhus BSS’s existing academic staff recruitment policy. Read the updated recruitment policy.