The information below is intended as an overview to assist candidates in the reappointment, promotion and tenure review process. It does not replace authoritative documents such as the Collective Agreement, the SAC Guide and the Faculty Procedures. Where these are referred to, every effort has been made to summarize them accurately and links are provided for reference.
Pre-tenure facultypretenurefaculty
As a pre-tenure faculty member, you meet annually with the Dean to discuss the criteria and expectations of any upcoming review, your record of accomplishments, and the documentation you’ll need to provide for the review. See the Collective Agreement, Part 4 (PDF), Article 5.02 for more information about these meetings. Note that you may bring a colleague to the meeting.
You can request an optional review for promotion (with automatic tenure) in any year of your pre-tenure appointment under the Collective Agreement, Part 4 (PDF), Article 9.01. This needs the consent of the Dean to proceed. If you are thinking of this option, you should start the conversation with the Dean early in the year prior to the year in which you would like to be reviewed.
Tenured facultytenure
The timing of reviews for promotion for tenured faculty is governed by the Collective Agreement, Part 4 (PDF), Article 9.02.
Before you submit your file for reviewbeforeyousubmit
There are steps you need to take prior to submitting your file for review on July 1 of the academic year of the review. Some of these steps require significant lead time, so it is best to start early in the academic year prior to your review year!
Submitting your file submitting
Your file is due July 1 to the Dean’s Office. It consists of:
- a completed cover sheet (Candidate Review Cover Sheet)
- an up-to-date CV (in the UBC CV format)
- a 2-page contextual summary regarding Indigenous Scholarly Activity (if relevant)
- teaching dossier (Educational Leadership candidates only)
- educational leadership dossier (Educational Leadership candidates only)
Except for reappointment reviews, you must also submit (July 1):
- a list of potential arm’s length external reviewers using the Candidate's List - External Reviewers (PDF) form.
- a list of contacts (names, titles, addresses, emails) for community letters of reference following the protocol for Indigenous Scholarly Activity
Please submit all documents as separate PDF files.
After you submit your fileafter
For promotion and/or tenure, you must submit 6-8 sample publications to the Dean's Office for the external review process within two weeks of submitting your file. Complete the List of Sample Publications Form (PDF) and submit your documents as separate PDFs.
In addition, for research-stream files the UBC's Senior Appointments Committee requires information on the nature of the venues in which a candidate has published, including detailed information on the journals. To assist your shepherds in providing this information in their report, you must provide a brief document listing the venues of publication since last promotion/appointment and provide a brief 2-3 sentence statement for each, addressing such considerations as:
- whether it is peer-reviewed and in what way (double-blind, etc)
- whether it is a specialist or generalist journal
- whether it is known to publish certain types of work
- what its overall reputation in the field is
- whether it is international or national
- what the audience or readership is (e.g., some can be scholarly but geared to practitioners)
- whether it is concerned with a particular jurisdiction
- in the US law review context, what its ranking is
You could as well include information on book publishers, which otherwise may not be legible in the multidisciplinary composition of higher levels of review within the university. You are free, indeed encouraged, to discuss with your shepherds.
You normally would not hear further about the review process until after the faculty standing committee meeting unless:
- additional proposed external reviewers need to be added to the your list
- a serious concerns process is triggered within the faculty standing committee review process under the Collective Agreement, Part 4 (PDF), Article 505(f).
Candidates can update their file at any point in the process. For instructions on how to do this, see the Guide to Reappointment, Promotion and Tenure Procedures at UBC, Sections 5.4.2 and 5.4.3.
Further resourcesfurther_resources
- The Guide to Reappointment, Promotion and Tenure at UBC (PDF)
- The Collective Agreement between the Faculty Association of The University of British Columbia and The University of British Columbia, 2022-2025
- Allard School of Law Policies and Procedures for Appointment, Reappointment, Tenure and Promotion (PDF)
- Considerations for guidance on Indigenous Scholarly Activity (ISA)
- Presentation on Reappointment, Promotion and Tenure at the Allard School of Law (PDF), from an information session held on April 8, 2024
- Information on Reappointment, Promotion and Tenure from UBC Human Resources
For Faculty Shepherdsfacultyshepherds
Faculty members serving as shepherds can use the following templates for their Shepherds' Report:
- Promotion to Associate Professor (with automatic tenure) (DOCX)
- Promotion to Associate Professor of Teaching (with automatic tenure) (DOCX)
- Promotion and Tenure - Associate Professor (DOCX) - for appointments prior to July 1, 2017
- Promotion to full Professor (DOCX)
- Promotion to full Professor of Teaching (DOCX)
- Tenure as Associate Professor (DOCX)
- Reappointment as Assistant Professor (DOCX)
- Reappointment as Assistant Professor of Teaching (DOCX)
- Reappointment as Associate Professor (DOCX)
For peer reviews of teaching, faculty shepherds can use the Allard School of Law Peer Review of Teaching Form (PDF). Please return to the Dean's Office after completing.