The Founding Vision & Goals of our institution is to strive to be a center of excellence in order to provide a world-class education to its students, to create new knowledge & apply that knowledge for the benefit of society and to equip our students with the highest sense of ethics, social awareness & responsibility.
Hiring the best faculty and incentivizing them for excellence in cutting-edge scientific research is the only means of ensuring the future of our institution as an outstanding research university and a global center of excellence in science & education. Recruitment of the best undergraduate & graduate students and promotion of interdisciplinary thinking are also important dimensions of our Founding Vision & Mission.
The purpose of this document is to outline the guidelines for recruitment of the best possible research faculty across the board in all of our Colleges & Departments. In this connection, it is important to note that our university can only be as good as its faculty, and that the collective wisdom of all of our faculty members must be brought to bear in the development of all of our diverse Colleges & Departments. We must strive to encourage interdisciplinary understanding, awareness & cooperation across our university, because we are the only university in the region that has been able to capture global excellence across the board in all disciplines, ranging from Administrative Sciences, Engineering, Sciences, Humanities & Social Sciences, Law and Medicine.
Recruitment of Academic & Research Faculty (i.e., Professoriate) embodies a long term commitment to develop, promote and maintain that faculty member on its ranks for the long-term, often until the retirement age. Accordingly, recruitment of such faculty at Koç University is initially facilitated by budgetary allocation for faculty growth by the Board of Trustees. When there is budgetary allocation, the recruitment process starts with the allocation of a faculty position billet by the President, upon discussions with/among Deans and the President.
Once a faculty billet is allocated for a particular position at a department(s) & College(s), a Faculty Search Committee is appointed by the President. The Committee is chaired by the Dean(s) of the relevant College(s) and typically consists of two members from the relevant program(s) and two additional members from other Colleges & Schools of the University.
The presence of the faculty members from the relevant department is expected to ensure full participation in the process of faculty from the particular discipline. The presence of Committee members from outside the College is expected to enhance interdisciplinary awareness among faculty, to promote transparency of the entire process and to ensure that university-wide global criteria and standards are upheld. Such involvement also allows all faculty members to be exposed to the most important process of the university, i.e., the recruitment and hiring of faculty who will conduct cutting edge research.
The Search Committee has the ultimate responsibility for the conduct of the search, for the selection of candidates invited for interview and for the formulation of the recommendation for the President. Since the circumstances of each Department & College are different and possibly unique, the particular details of the search process are expected to vary from case to case with adaptations made at the discretion of the Committee, as long as the ‘Guidelines’ articulated herein are kept in mind and adhered to.
The Search Committee starts its work by preparing a position description to be advertised for a worldwide search to attract high quality applications. Upon approval of the position description by the President, the Faculty Search commences with the posting of the position description at various outlets.
Normally, a large number of applications are received for Faculty Searches at Koç University. The Committee members from the relevant program or department(s) conduct discussions with all of their departmental faculty colleagues to prepare a short-list of candidates based on the minimum academic success score/criteria. It should be noted that the departmental evaluation of applications in terms of assessment of the technical quality of the scholarly work of the applicant in a manner and level suitable to the particular discipline and identification of candidates to be short-listed is of paramount importance. Accordingly, the Dean and the two Committee members from the relevant department must ensure the active participation of all faculty members in the process of evaluations and the identification of the short-listed candidates. As the Chair of the Search Committee, the Dean may be part of these departmental discussions as an observer when he/she feels the need to do so. The short-list of candidates is then sent to the Committee Chair (Dean), together with a list of other candidates who were worthy of discussion but for one reason or other remained just below the short list.
The Search Committee subsequently deliberates extensively to identify a number of candidates (typically 3 to 4 or more as needed) to be invited for interview. The invitees are typically chosen from among the short-list submitted by the department, but other candidates who were just below the short-list and who were listed as candidates worthy of discussion may also be invited. Candidates invited for an interview also apply to the open position announced in the Official Gazette.
In some cases, applications may be received over a period of many months or even throughout the entire academic year, in which case the candidate folders may be periodically evaluated as they arrive, with decisions as to whether or not candidates should be short-listed spread over a period of time. In such cases, the departmental evaluation and suggestions for candidates to be short-listed are still of primary importance, but the ultimate decision as to whether to invite a candidate for interview still resides with the Search Committee.
Once a candidate is invited, it is important that faculty members from the relevant department actively participate in the interview process and especially attend the seminar presented by the candidate. Such participation by faculty members of the relevant department should be strongly encouraged by both the Dean and the two departmental members of the Search Committee. In the end, the departmental assessment of the technical quality of the scholarly work of the applicant, in a manner suitable to the particular discipline is of paramount importance. It also goes without saying that all Search Committee Members must do all they can to participate in the interview visits of the candidates and be present during their presentations.
Upon the completion of the interview visits, all faculty members from the relevant department are invited to provide their individual assessments of the interviewed candidates. These assessments are provided in writing (email) only to the Committee Chair (Dean) and must normally be kept strictly confidential. The Dean may share these comments with the Search Committee as needed, either directly (verbatim) or anonymously (in the form of a synopsis of the comments) during the discussions of the Search Committee.
Upon detailed deliberations of all candidates interviewed, the Search Committee prepares a recommendation, which may involve a single candidate for appointment or multiple candidates to be evaluated by the President or the respective Executive Council.
Alternatively, the Search Committee may recommend that no appointment be made at that time, since none of the candidates are worthy of further consideration.
For Assistant Professor appointments, the President brings the endorsed dossier by the Faculty Executive Council to the University Executive Council for informal council. For Associate Professor appointments, the President brings the dossier to the University Executive Council for information and informal counsel, after which the President decides to submit the appointment for final approval to the Board of Trustees. For appointments at the level of Full Professor, the dossier is brought to the University Executive Council for formal discussion and endorsement, upon which the President submits the appointment to the Board of Trustees for final approval.
It should be noted that, in order to process SGK entries properly, candidates who are approved for employment in accordance with YÖK Legislation and University policies, are required to complete their employment documents and submit them to Human Resources.