Criteria For Initial Appointments, Promotions, and Reappointments

Positions in the faculty may be filled through searches for external candidates, through reappointments of existing faculty members, and, in the case of tenure-track faculty members, through promotions. The general criterion for reviewing all voting faculty candidates is exceptional quality that places candidates among the best when compared to individuals at comparable stages of career development. To this end, the school seeks to attract and retain individuals who possess a quality of mind demonstrating high levels of intelligence, clarity of expression, analytical ability, critical judgment, imagination, creativity, initiative, and industry, and a quality of character that enables individuals to support free inquiry and expression by others and to interact and work in constructive collaboration with faculty and students. In the school's evaluation of candidates, desirable individual qualities and high potential are not substitutes for a record of creative and productive achievement. Creative contributions to the field through scholarship and/or design are essential to effective teaching over time. Continued study and investigation with public exposition of research and professional accomplishments are normal obligations of faculty at Harvard.

The general criterion for reviewing all non-voting faculty candidates is that they are highly respected in their fields.

The specific criteria for reviewing candidates for appointments and reappointments to and promotions within the voting faculty at different ranks include the following:

For tenured senior faculty: Candidates must demonstrate that they are highly effective teachers whose creative work in scholarship, design research/work, or professional practice, or a combination thereof, is recognized by peers as a preeminent and enduring intellectual contribution to their field.

For non-tenured senior faculty: Candidates must demonstrate that they are highly effective teachers whose creative work in scholarship, design research/work, or professional practice, or a combination thereof, is recognized by peers as a significant intellectual contribution to their field.

For tenure-track junior faculty: Candidates must demonstrate that they are or hold promise of being highly effective teachers whose creative work in scholarship, design research/work, or professional practice, or a combination thereof, holds promise, consistent with their stage of career development, of making them viable candidates for tenure in the future.

For non-tenure-track junior faculty: Candidates must demonstrate that they are or hold promise of being highly effective teachers whose creative work in scholarship, design research/work, or professional practice, or a combination thereof, shows, consistent with their stage of career development, that they are making an important intellectual contribution to their field.

With regard to teaching, candidates must demonstrate achievement or promise of achievement in highly effective teaching through their command of subject, logic of organization, clear communication of material, and capacity to develop relationships between the topic and the broader field in which they engage. Candidates must provide evidence of their ability to arouse curiosity in and stimulate creative work by students. Preparation of textbooks or teaching aids and the development of curriculum can be aspects of achievement in teaching but are not substitutes for demonstrated or promise of in-class performance.

With regard to creative work, candidates must demonstrate evidence of a creative and productive mind through scholarship, design work/research, or professional work, or a combination thereof. All work will be evaluated for originality, significance, influence, and intellectual contribution to the candidate’s field that will benefit the learning of others. The school will assess scholarship through books and articles in peer reviewed and other well-regarded academic publications, as well as contributions to peer-reviewed conferences. The school will assess design work/research through drawings, models, exhibitions, built work, and books and articles in well-regarded publications as well as professional conference contributions authored by the candidate or by others about the candidate’s work. The school will assess professional work in terms of its significance within the relevant profession with the understanding that professional work demonstrating professional competence and quantity will not distinguish the candidate.

Extraordinary academic service to a department and school and extraordinary public service related to the candidate’s field may be considered during reviews for promotion or reappointment to the extent such service has contributed significantly to the candidate’s value as a member of the school’s faculty. In addition, demonstrations of the candidate’s willingness and capacity for meaningful collaboration across departments within the School and with other faculties within the University may be considered. Such service and demonstrations will not substitute for demonstrations of highly effective teaching and creative work.

The school appraises candidates according to individual career development. It is not expected that individuals in the initial phases of their careers will have the same records of achievement as more senior individuals in the field. The guiding principle is that the school should have a faculty of exceptional quality and that its individual members should be among the most creative and productive in the field when compared to individuals at comparable stages of career development.