Career system in a nutshell

Career Paths in Science and Engineering is organized as follows:

Academics are recruited for the position of Assistant Professor with either a focus on education or research, or for the position of Associate Professor with a focus on education, research or impact.
Assistant Professors are appointed for six years and apply for tenure between one to three years after the start of their appointment. In case of a part-time appointment, the duration of the contract and the timeframe for tenure are adjusted accordingly.
Assistant Professors and Associate Professors can apply for promotion to respectively Associate Professor and Full Professor at a time of their choosing, by default after having been appointed for at least five years.
Decisions about tenure and promotion are made on the basis of the staff member’s progress in four domains of results (education, research, impact, and organization) and two supporting domains (professionalization and competences). How much progress is expected in each of the domains depends on one’s focus domain.

The figure below gives an overview of the steps in the career system, including the default times. The other web pages in this area provide more details about these career steps and about the critical concept of focus domain. An important note to make is that the descriptions on these webpages presuppose typical career paths, whereas in practice it is possible that customized arrangements are made to account for individual differences.