Selection of external peer reviewers for promotion to professor

Overview

Tenured Associate Professors are eligible to apply for promotion to Professor at any time. The steps and timelines for submission of the dossier (or any subsequent withdrawal of notification to apply) are the same as those which apply for tenure and promotion to Associate Professor. However, in addition to providing the components required of each candidate’s tenure and promotion file (TPF), all TPFs to be reviewed for the promotion to the rank of Professor must include letters of assessment from two external reviewers. This document outlines the process of selecting external peer reviewers as described in the terms and procedures for tenure and promotion and guide to the tenure and promotion process for candidates.

Recommendation by candidate

Associate Professors applying for promotion to Professor must provide the Dean with the names and contact information of two (2) external peer reviewers on or before June 10 of the year of application. Each name must be accompanied by a brief description of their qualifications to serve as a reviewer.

Typically, peer reviewers should be recognized academics who hold (or have held) the rank of Full Professor. In exceptional circumstances, the Dean may consider up to one external peer reviewer with equivalent expertise. All potential reviewers must be at arm’s length. No individual may act as an external referee where there is a real or perceived conflict of interest with the candidate.

Candidates may not recommend:

family members
anyone who served as your graduate or postdoctoral supervisor
anyone who has collaborated with you in any meaningful or direct way in the last five years
anyone who holds or has ever held an appointment at the University of the Fraser Valley.

Division Review Committee's recommendation and dean's selection

Without consultation to the candidate, the DRC is also required to submit the names and contact information of two (2) external peer reviewers to the Dean no later than June 22 of the year of application. Each name must be accompanied by a brief description of the individual’s qualifications to serve as a reviewer (which means the DRC will have access to the candidate’s dossier before it is officially opened for review). The Dean then selects one external reviewer from each list — one of the two names provided by the candidate and DRC respectively — who will be asked to provide letters of assessment for the candidate.

Right to challenge the selection

The candidate will be informed of the names of the potential reviewers and have the opportunity to challenge those names stating substantial reason. The Dean is obligated to consider the merit of any such challenge and make the decision. The candidate will not know the identity of actual reviewers. Rather, they will receive a copy of the assessments, with all of the external reviewers' identifying information removed, and have an opportunity to comment in writing prior to consideration of the assessments by the review committees.

Supplementary list

If none of the reviewers are able to provide an assessment, the Dean will ask the candidate and the DRC to provide a supplementary list of two potential reviewers each (including names, contact information, and brief description of their qualifications to serve as reviewers). If you or the DRC are unable to provide supplementary names, the Dean is responsible to find two suitable external reviewers. Regardless, the names of the two external reviewers finally chosen will not be made known. The candidate will receive anonymized copies of the assessments and have the opportunity to respond to them in writing, and to include them in your TPF.

Failure by either of the two external reviewers to provide an assessment prior to consideration by the DRC will not prejudice your application in any way. In such cases, the DRC will be instructed that it can base its decision on only one external review.

Letter of assessment

The Dean will provide the candidate's dossier in PDF format to the external reviewers along with the collated, numeric results of their teaching evaluations. Letters to reviewers will make clear that UFV is a primarily undergraduate and teaching–centered University, and that they shall evaluate the dossier using the Standards. Reviewers will be made aware of any special factors that have limited the candidate's productivity, and will not be required to evaluate any area of the application if they do not feel qualified to do so. The letters will not request that the reviewer make a recommendation either for or against promotion, but that they assess the candidate's record as described below.

Letters of assessment from external reviewers will reference the candidate's material provided by the Dean, and comment on the candidate's performance in teaching; research, scholarly and/or creative activities; and service as they relate to the Standards. Such letters of assessment will normally provide information on:

whether the reviewer knows the candidate and, if so, in what capacity and for how long;

the significance and influence of the candidate's teaching on its own merits and/or in comparison to instructional achievements of other leading teachers in a similar career stage in the same or related fields;

the significance and influence of the candidate's scholarship, research or creative work and the degree of national/international recognition on its own merits and/or in comparison with the accomplishments of other leading scholars, researchers or creative practitioners at a similar career stage in the same or related fields;