Appointments and promotions to academic-promotion-track positions, interim faculty positions, or research faculty positions at the associate professor and full professor levels require successful completion of Bilkent University’s Promotions and Appointments Process.
Eligibility for Application to Associate Professor Position
Applicants must hold the title of associate professor (“doçent”) awarded by the Inter-University Board, a government body affiliated with the Council of Higher Education. Subject to the Provost’s approval, academic-promotion-track assistant professors currently employed at Bilkent University may begin the Bilkent University Promotions and Appointments Process only after having successfully handed in their application to the Inter-University Board. Candidates nominated for Interim Associate Professor positions may also proceed through the Promotions and Appointments Process with the Provost’s approval.
Current Bilkent faculty members must hold an academic-promotion-track assistant professor or research assistant professor position to be eligible. Teaching-track, extension, visiting, and adjunct faculty may apply for open academic-promotion-track positions under the same terms as external candidates.
Eligibility for Application to Full Professor Position
Applicants must have at least five years of academic experience in their field after receiving the title of associate professor (“doçent”) from the Inter-University Board.
Current Bilkent faculty members must hold an academic-promotion-track associate professor, research associate professor, or interim associate professor position. Teaching-track, extension, visiting, and adjunct faculty are eligible to apply for open academic-promotion-track positions under the same terms as external candidates.
Candidates who were nominated for Interim Professor positions may initiate the Promotions and Appointments Process only upon the approval of the Provost.
External Referees
The Bilkent University Promotions and Appointments Process requires evaluations from external reviewers alongside internal assessments. The candidate, Chair, Dean, and (when necessary) the Provost may determine names for the list of external referees.
External referees must be prominent and established scholars in the candidate’s field, capable of providing fair, objective, and detailed evaluations of the candidate’s work. External referees must hold (or have held) a rank equal to or higher than the candidate’s proposed rank.
While it is expected that external referees are from institutions outside Turkey, exceptions may be made in fields with strong national relevance (such as Turkish literature or Turkish law), where a limited number of referees from Turkey may be included.
To ensure impartiality, external referees must have an arm’s-length relationship with the candidate; i.e. they should not have close connections or relationships with the candidate, professional or personal. This requirement would exclude former advisors, frequent co-authors, co-editors, and research collaborators, in addition to relatives and friends.
The candidate must submit the names of five potential referees at the time of application and may also request the exclusion of one individual who should not be selected as a referee. Candidates are strictly prohibited from contacting potential referees before or after submitting their applications.
The Chair is responsible for proposing an additional three to five referees. Chairs are prohibited from contacting potential referees at all times.
The Dean determines the names of three to five referees. Deans do not contact potential referees beforehand to ask whether they are willing to serve as referees or not. If an exclusion request has been made by the candidate, the Dean is obligated to honor the request and not choose that person as a referee.
If the Dean and Chair are the same person, the Dean must submit six names, with any additional referees selected by the Provost.
The person nominating a referee must complete a Referee Information Form (see below), detailing the referee’s qualifications and any relationship to the candidate. In cases where strict adherence to the arm’s-length requirement is impractical, for example in an emerging or narrow field of study, an explanation must be provided on the form. In addition, the Dean may approve at most a single referee who does not fulfill the arm’s-length relationship requirement, provided they explain the rationale in their report.
Confidentiality is paramount throughout this process. The identities of external referees must never be disclosed to the candidate.
Referees are expressly forbidden from contacting the candidate or the Chair after receiving an evaluation request. Any such contact must be reported immediately to the Dean and Provost.
Application
Candidates seeking appointment to academic-promotion-track or research faculty positions at the associate professor or full professor level apply to their Department Chair accompanied by the following documentation:
1. A curriculum vitae prepared in the university’s standard format. (Link*)
2. A personal statement outlining scholarly achievements, academic activities, and future goals in research and/or artistic output (where applicable), teaching, and service. This statement should emphasize the impact of these contributions within the candidate’s field.
3. Complete copies of all publications and scholarly works listed in the CV.
4. A selection of the candidate’s most significant scholarly output, limited to no more than eight representative works.
5. Names of five potential external referees. A Referee Information Form should be submitted for each referee. (Link*)
All application materials must be submitted electronically to the Chair, along with one printed copy of each document (excluding items exceeding 30 pages). For non-printable materials, such as audio or video recordings, candidates should provide accessible digital links.
In cases where the university seeks to recruit a senior academic to a full professor position, with the approval of the Dean and the Provost, the Chair may compile the application dossier on behalf of the candidate.
Internal Assessment at the Department Level
Upon receiving a candidate’s application, the department Chair forwards all materials to the Dean and informs the Provost. The Dean and Chair jointly determine three faculty members to serve on the Internal Evaluation Committee. Committee members must hold academic-promotion-track positions at or above the rank sought by the candidate, including at least one full professor. While committee members are typically drawn from the candidate’s department, faculty from other departments may be selected when necessary.
The Dean provides the committee members with the candidate’s application materials for review. The committee convenes as needed to thoroughly evaluate the candidate’s research and/or artistic achievements along with teaching performance. Following deliberations, each member prepares an independent evaluation report containing a detailed assessment of the candidate’s qualifications, a final recommendation, and when possible, comparisons with departmental peers at similar career stages. All reports must reach the Dean within one month of the application date.
Strict confidentiality governs this process; evaluation reports are shared exclusively with the Dean, not with other committee members, the department Chair, or the candidate.
Concurrently, the Chair prepares their own comprehensive evaluation covering the candidate’s research/artistic contributions, teaching record, and service activities, culminating in a formal recommendation. The Chair must also identify three to five potential external referees (distinct from those proposed by the candidate) and submit their corresponding Referee Information Forms. This complete package must be delivered to the Dean within one month, though the Chair may request a deadline extension from the Provost if exceptional circumstances arise.
When the Dean and Chair roles are held by the same individual, the Dean assumes all Chair responsibilities for this process. In such cases, no separate Chair’s evaluation report is required, and the Chair does not nominate external referees.
The Dean determines the committee’s final recommendation through a simple majority vote of the three members’ individual recommendations.
Initial Evaluation by the Dean
Following review of all application materials and internal assessments, the Dean prepares an independent recommendation regarding the promotion application. The Dean also selects three to five external referees distinct from those proposed by both the candidate and Chair, completing Referee Information Forms for each. In cases where the Dean and the Chair are the same person, the Dean specifies six external referees and may request additional referee names from the Provost.
In cases where the faculty Dean is not an academic-promotion-track professor, the Provost takes over the rest of the process and solicits external referee reports directly from Provost Office. In such cases, the Dean forwards all documentation together with their own detailed evaluation report to the Provost.
After the Dean decides on their own recommendation for promotion, if the Internal Evaluation Committee (by majority), Chair, and Dean recommendations are all negative, and it is the first time the candidate has applied for promotion to this particular academic rank, the outcome of the application at hand is deemed unsuccessful. In this case, the Dean notifies the candidate and the Provost, sending all reports and application materials to the Provost, together with the Dean’s evaluation report detailing the reasons for the negative recommendation. The candidate may re-apply at any time after one year has passed following the Dean’s notification of the negative result. In this second application, even if all the recommendations for promotion are negative, the Dean forwards all reports, application materials, and Referee Information Forms to the Provost. The Provost then reviews the case and may decide that the application is again deemed unsuccessful and notifies the candidate and the Dean of this result. Alternatively, the Provost may decide to take over the rest of the process and solicit external referee reports directly from Provost Office.
If the Dean holds the opinion that the candidate does not meet the requirements for promotion and at least either the Internal Evaluation Committee or the Chair report is positive, the Dean must hand over the process to the Provost. In this case, the Dean sends all reports, application materials, and Referee Information Forms to the Provost, together with the Dean’s evaluation report detailing their reasons for the negative recommendation. The Provost then reviews the case and may decide that the application is deemed unsuccessful and in this case notifies the candidate and the Dean. Alternatively, the Provost may decide to solicit external referee letters directly from the Provost Office, taking over the process.
If the Dean holds the opinion that the candidate meets the requirements for promotion, they proceed with soliciting external referee reports even if one or both the Internal Evaluation Committee and Chair reports are negative.
Final List of External Referees
The candidate, the Chair, and the Dean are each responsible for assuring that the external referees they have proposed have all the qualities that are outlined in the External Referees section above, including the arm’s-length condition. If the Dean feels that a proposed referee does not meet all the qualifications, they may suggest the candidate or the Chair who has made the proposal to replace that name, but the final decision to change the proposed name or not lies with the candidate or the Chair.
In the final list of external referees, the Dean must include at least three of the five names provided by the candidate, and all the names provided by the Chair or the Provost when applicable. The total number of referees will therefore be at least 9 and at most 15.
Soliciting Reports from External Referees
The Dean writes to each external referee, asking them to evaluate and write a detailed report on the professional standing of the candidate. The Dean includes:
– The candidate’s Curriculum Vitae
– The candidate’s personal statement
– The candidates selected scholarly work, at most eight items
– A link to the candidate’s complete scholarly work
The Dean’s letter should set a specific deadline, not less than 6 and not more than 10 weeks.
After soliciting evaluation reports from external referees, the Dean sends the list of referees, their affiliations, and contact information together with all correspondence with the referees to the Provost.
If any of the external referees decline to write a report, the Dean may or may not choose to supplement the list of external referees.
After the stated deadline expires, the Dean may remind external referees who have not yet sent in their reports.
When the Dean is convinced that no new reports are likely to be sent in, they send to the Provost the entire application file together with all the internal reports, the external referee reports, all correspondence with the referees, and a table summarizing the interactions with all the referees, including those that were proposed but not chosen to be in the final list of external referees.
The Dean should not discuss the number of external referee reports received or their contents with the candidate or the Chair.
In cases when the external referee process has to be handed over to the Provost by the Dean, all functions of the Dean are carried out by the Provost. When finalizing the external referee list, the Provost must include all the referees proposed by the Dean but may choose to add up to five additional referees to the list.
After receiving the candidate’s file and the external referee reports, if deemed necessary the Provost may decide to solicit evaluation reports from up to five new external referees.
All correspondence with the external referees is handled exclusively by the faculty Dean and/or the Provost.
All internal electronic communication that includes referee information or evaluation reports is to be conveyed either via e-mail using encryption or via USB memory.
Promotions and Appointments Committee
The Promotions and Appointments Committee is composed of the Provost and 7 other academic-promotion-track professors, appointed or re-appointed for each academic year by the Rector upon the recommendation of the Provost. This committee is headed by the Provost, and the identities of its members are kept confidential.
The Provost forwards the file for each candidate to members of the Promotions and Appointments Committee and calls for a meeting to discuss the merits of the candidate’s application. Any committee member who is from the same department as the candidate may not participate in committee work for that candidate.
No one may have access to promotion file documents except the Provost, the Dean, the members of the Promotions and Appointments Committee, the Rector, and Provost Office staff.
The Committee meets as many times as the members find necessary to evaluate each candidate before
proceeding to the voting stage. Committee members may not abstain from voting. Votes are cast in secret and handed to the Provost, who in turn brings the votes to the Rector.
All committee work is kept strictly confidential.
Final Decision
The final decision of the Promotion and Appointment Committee is based on the majority of five votes, one of which is the Provost’s vote and the remaining four are randomly selected by the Rector, in order to ensure the anonymity of the votes.
Votes can only be seen by the Provost and the Rector. The number of positive and negative votes in the final decision after blind selection are shared only with the members of the Promotions and Appointments Committee and kept secret from all others.
The Provost informs the result of the vote to the candidate and the Dean and sets up a meeting with the candidate to discuss the overall evaluation of the Committee in broad terms without getting into specifics that might reveal the identities of external referees or Committee members, contents of evaluation reports, or statements made by any specific evaluator.
For successful candidates, the Provost notifies the Rector that a new faculty position may be advertised by the Human Resources Department.
Unsuccessful candidates may not re-apply for promotion for two years after a negative Promotions and Appointments Committee decision unless the Provost approves early application.
Potential Conflict of Interest
If the candidate, the Chair, the Dean, or the Provost holds the opinion that any individual involved in the promotion process, including themselves, may have a potential conflict of interest, they are obligated to inform the Rector. In this case, the Rector reviews the issue and decides on whether any potential conflict of interest is of a nature that may influence the evaluation process; if so, the Rector relieves that individual from their role for the particular candidate and appoints another suitable individual.
Promotion Applications Timeline Tracking
The university uses a timeline tracking system to record important milestones of the Promotions and Appointments Process.
After handing in their application to the Chair, the faculty member is required to log in to the Academic Information Registration System (AIRS) and fill out the required information under the “Register Promotion Application” menu item, indicating the date of their application.
The department Chair is required to record the dates of the Internal Evaluation Committee report and their own Chair evaluation report via the Department Academic Information System (DAIS).
The faculty Dean is required to provide the date of receiving the application from the Chair, the date of the earliest referee evaluation report request they have sent out, the date of the last received referee report, and the date of their own Dean evaluation report.
The Provost is required to record the date that the complete application file was received by the Provost Office, and the date of the Promotions and Appointments Committee meeting where the final decision was made.
This section details the appointment procedures for all assistant professor, associate professor, and professor positions, including academic-promotion-track, teaching-track, extension, and research faculty positions, but excluding interim, visiting, and adjunct appointments. These procedures are based on the Higher Education Law of Turkey and the rules and regulations of the Council of Higher Education, hence subject to change if any of the underlying regulations are modified.
The Provost, working in conjunction with the department Chair and faculty Dean, triggers the formal recruitment procedures to fill an open faculty position. Upon the recommendation of the Provost, the Rector notifies the Human Resources Department to advertise the open position, collect applications, and forward these to the Dean after the application deadline has expired.
Assistant Professors
The Dean forms a committee consisting of three professors and/or associate professors, one of whom must be from another university and, if the department Chair is an associate or full professor, one of whom must be the Chair. Each committee member writes a separate report on the academic qualifications and merits of the applicants. The Faculty Executive board meets to determine the best candidate for the open position, and the Dean forwards this decision to the Provost. Upon the recommendation of the Provost, the Rector appoints the proposed candidate to the open position.
Assistant professors are initially appointed for a duration of four years and re-appointed on an annual basis after that, provided their academic performance and career advancement are at a level found to be satisfactory. Academic-promotion-track assistant professors are expected to get promoted to the associate professor rank within a certain time frame, usually seven years, after their initial appointment; appointments of those who do not get promoted within the allotted time are not renewed.
Associate Professors
Candidates must have either obtained the “doçent” title or have had their associate professor status that was obtained outside of Turkey ratified through the Inter-University Board.
Candidates considered for academic-promotion-track associate professor positions must have completed Bilkent University’s Promotions and Appointments Process successfully.
The Rector forms a committee consisting of three professors, one of whom must be from another university and, if the department Chair is a full professor, one of whom must be the Chair. Each committee member writes a separate report on the academic qualifications and merits of the applicants. The University Executive Board meets and votes to determine the best candidate. The Rector appoints the chosen candidate to the open position.
Full Professors
Candidates must have worked in their academic field for a minimum of five years after having obtained the “doçent” title or having been appointed as associate professor outside of Turkey; in this case, their status must be ratified through the Inter-University Board.
Candidates considered for academic-promotion-track professor positions must have completed Bilkent University’s Promotions and Appointments Process successfully.
The University Executive Board forms a committee consisting of five professors, at least three of whom must be from other universities. Each committee member writes a separate report on the academic qualifications and merits of the applicants. The University Executive Board meets and votes to determine the best candidate. The Rector appoints the chosen candidate to the open position.
This section details the appointment procedures for all levels of teaching-track instructor positions, including lecturer, senior lecturer, and professional in residence appointments. These procedures are based on the Higher Education Law of Turkey and the rules and regulations of the Council of Higher Education, hence subject to change if any of the underlying regulations are modified.
All candidates for appointment to instructor positions must hold a master’s degree that has a thesis requirement or a higher degree. Turkish nationals must satisfy the minimum scores for ALES and English Language examinations as required by the Council of Higher Education regulations.
The Provost, working in conjunction with the department Chair and faculty Dean, triggers the formal recruitment procedures to fill an open instructor position. Upon the recommendation of the Provost, the Rector notifies the Human Resources Department to advertise the position, collect applications, and forward these to the Dean after the application deadline has expired.
The Dean forms a committee consisting of three assistant, associate, or full professors. The committee writes a single report on the qualifications and merits of the applicants. The Faculty Executive board meets to determine the best candidate for the open position, and the Dean forwards this decision to the Provost. Upon the recommendation of the Provost, the Rector appoints the proposed candidate to the position.
Instructors are initially appointed for a duration of two years and re-appointed on an annual basis after that, provided their teaching performances are at a level found to be satisfactory.
All fixed-term appointments are limited to the duration of the appointment.
The periodic renewal of all non-fixed-term appointments is contingent on continued academic performance.
According to the “Regulations on Retirement and End of Employment for Academic Staff”, the mandatory retirement date for full-time faculty members, except for those holding administrative positions as Dean, Vice Rector, and Rector, is the first 28 February or 31 August, whichever is earlier, following the day they turn 67 years of age. The appointments of faculty members who may be working in retired status or those who have not yet earned the right to retire in terms of the Social Security Institution also come to an end on the date specified here. The retirement or termination dates of faculty members who continue to perform at a high level of research, teaching, or service may be postponed upon the decision of the Retirement Committee. To be considered for such an extension, faculty members have to apply to their Dean no later than 6 months before the said date.
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