Faculty Career Development

The Office of Faculty Affairs at ETH supports the appointment process for all new

• Assistant professors
• Associate professors
  
• Full professors

from professorship budget planning to the organization of selection committees. For a detailed review, please refer to our websites for ETH appointment procedures and criteria.

Newly appointed professor may refer to the "onboarding timeline" as an aid to guide new faculty as they transition into their new role at ETH. This guide provides information from private matters (e.g. support with visas) to tips about finances and team management.

There are a number of ways at ETH in which professors can obtain insights and tips from peers and support staff. The "Faculty Development Activities" site collects information about upcoming events that may be useful for professors. From informal peer-led networking events to lunch meetings that provide updates concerning curriculum development, this page will highlight different activities for professors at all stages of their careers.

For an overview of all other activities concerning leadership and ETH faculty, such as keynote leadership talks, 1:1 internal/external coaching, support with team issues (conflict management), pleaser refer to our leadership development website. Some faculty focussed programmes include:

Leadership4newFaculty- A programme witth peer exchange, coaching, workshops -  over 3.5 days, spread throughout 1 semester - for faculty with a new professorial role at ETH.

Leadership4Faculty - Keynote talks specifically for faculty, with topics focused on leadership research. Department heads, full professors, associate professors and assistant professor from all 16 departments are welcomed to join in one a discussion, following the keynote, to exchange ideas and to talk about leadership issues relevant to ones work here at ETH.

In terms of mentoring, Article 6 from ETH's DownloadGuidelines for Assistant Professorsvertical_align_bottom provides basic information regarding mentoring at ETH. Further guidelines and additional mentoring support systems are currently being developed.

1 Each department ensures actively that new assistant professors are swiftly integrated into the department. This includes particularly a) the appropriate introduction of the assistant professors at departmental and professorial conferences; b) encouraging the assistant professors to actively initiate meetings with (all) colleagues; c) a good involvement in teaching.

2 Each assistant professor is designated a mentor. Especially in the beginning, the mentor has to hold frequent meetings with the assistant professor and act as the contact person for questions and issues. There are various possible models: the mentor is the Head of the Institute, a colleague from within or outside the related field, there are two mentors (from within and outside the related field), etc. This choice is the department’s responsibility. The Office for Faculty Affairs has to be informed of the mentor’s name when the assistant professor takes office.

3 Each department issues transparent guidelines as regards the teaching load of assistant professors. Notably, this teaching load must not be excessive. The recommended level of an average teaching load is approximately 50% of the one of an associate or full professor.

4 Each department is obliged to write down and disclose the practiced implementation.

Professors may be considered for a full professorship two years after having been appointed for an associate professorship.

In order to be promoted, the professor's department has to enclose the following documents with the application, submitted to the attention of the President:

• Evaluation of the department (incl. statements on leadership and supervision skills as well as potentialfor development)
• Teaching and research report of approx. one to two pages each (see below)
• CV, including list of publications, patents, etc.
• The three most important achievements
• At least three external letters of recommendation with adequate explanatory power

For more information concerning the criteria and procedures for further promotions, please consult our page for full professorships.