Upon the decision of the Board of Trustees taken at its meeting on May 11th, 2018 and effective September 1st, 2018, the new Koç University ‘tenure’ system is instituted for all Professoriate in the Colleges of Administrative Sciences & Economics (CASE), Social Sciences & Humanities (CSSH), Engineering (CE), Sciences (CS) and the Law School (LAW) as well as Basic Sciences faculty at the School of Medicine (SOM).

Accordingly, the renewal of the 5-year contracts of Full Professors in these academic units are not subject to an academic review and their contracts will be automatically renewed. The contracts of Full Professors may not be renewed only in rare cases of administrative disciplinary action and significant dereliction of duties on the part of faculty.

The research and academic performance of Full Professors remains subject to an annual evaluation, which forms the basis for salary raises for such faculty. Nevertheless, continued employment of the faculty in the context of their automatically renewed 5-year contracts is assured, with the conditions stated above. As is the case in current practice, renewals of 5-year appointments are not made beyond 67 years of age. Possible continued employment of faculty over 67 years of age is to be based on the criteria stated in the Faculty Handbook.

The tenure system will allow our faculty to concentrate on longer term and more impactful research while also strengthening the ownership of and allegiance to our University. The opportunity to gain tenure will motivate our existing younger faculty as well as encouraging a better cadre of potential applicants to our faculty searches in the coming year.