A lot has changed since 2017, the last time the professorship policy was set in stone: a new law on the legal status of civil servants, the Recognition and Rewards project, and increasing media attention on external funding for professors and transparency around work carried out for third parties. According to the explanatory notes in the policy document, the practical implementation sometimes deviated from what was strictly permitted on paper. Another important point: the Executive Board wants more diversity (fewer old, white men but also people with different socio-cultural backgrounds or ideologies) and strives to appoint no more than half the professorial positions to people of the same sex or gender identity. Currently, four out of ten professors at UM are women (Women Professors Monitor from last December).
There are two types of professor set out in the Higher Education and Research Act (WHW): (ordinary) professors and endowed professors (i.e., the researcher usually works at the university one day a week, and the chair is funded by an external organisation or foundation where that person is employed). These are the two categories UM will use from now on. It’s a major change of course, because there were more ‘options’ available before. For example, a personal chair, someone who was granted a chair for strategic reasons (e.g., because a particular subject required extra attention), or a professor with a specialised remit, an associate professor who was allowed to move up the career ladder. These will all now be ‘ordinary’ professors.
The combination of assistant/associate professor and part-time endowed chair will be abolished. That will no longer be permitted, “to ensure a clear human resources policy”, the new policy says. “After all, a professor is expected to carry out the job in its entirety and at that level.” It is unclear how many researchers are currently using this construction. Some research shows that the UM website, which lists all the professors and their job titles by faculty, is not up to date.
As far as we know, there are at least some associate professors at the Faculty of Law who hold an endowed chair, less than a handful. According to dean Jan Smits, these members of staff will be appointed as professors, “otherwise their legal status would be downgraded, which is obviously something we wish to avoid”.
Top researchers can still be appointed as distinguished university professors, a position that has existed at UM since 2014. In the past, Michel Dumontier, Peter Peters (since retired), Clemens van Blitterswijk and Ron Heeren were recruited for this position.