General
As a university that fundamentally believes in the necessity of social equity, we are committed to expressing this within our community as well as our research. Our social impact is enriched by our large proportion of talented diverse academic staff, and we look to further their substantial contribution. That is why EUR announced Round 1 25/25 programme in 2019 - to support female academics for the next step in their professional career. Round 2 of the 25/25 programme, now called Beyond 25/25, expands the initial focus beyond gender to include an intersectional perspective, opening also to colleagues with migration/ethnic minority background.
This measure was selected in 2019 after numerous discussions with Diversity and Inclusion team, HR policy, Academic Affairs, Faculty Diversity Officers, the Rector Magnificus. It was also based on input from outside experts such as HR team for Delft Technology Fellowship (Delft University) and Philip Eijlander Diversity Program (University Tilburg), LNVH HR platform, and Professor Curt Rice, renowned expert in the field of gender equality in the workplace. When the measure was designed, it was agreed to hold two rounds, one in 2020 and one in 2023/2024.
The focus of this programme is to help bridge structural divides for colleagues of underrepresented groups in the higher levels of academia. The programme has an intersectional view, and it is designed to welcome colleagues that due to their gender and/or their migration or ethnic minority background feel that they could use some extra support to prepare for a promotion to associate and full professor. Specifically, we are looking for assistant professors that want to work on an associate professor appointment within two to three years (including tenure tracks) or those on a fast track to professorship, and associate professors who want to make a nomination for full professor position within one to two years.
This is a modular programme that will include different elements to help create a community of peers while giving our participants tools to better face the challenges and opportunities in their search for a promotion. Our programme includes workshops with experts, mentoring, a workshop for the promotion portfolio, an evaluation of such portfolio by an independent committee, and possible financial support - up to max. €10.000, supported by the Faculty and the Beyond 25/25 programme.
The programme will run in the academic year 2023/2024 and will require a time investment of around 25 hours, not including portfolio preparations. More information and details will come at informational sessions on August 29 (11:00 online) and September 7 (15:00, room M1-06 on campus Woudestein). If you have further questions about this, please email the Beyond 25/25 team at beyond25-25@eur.nl.
For a tentative schedule of activities, see the following table. Please note that other activities might also be added to complement the discussions and learning processes.
| Event | Date |
|---|---|
| Kickoff Meeting/Opening Event | October 10, 15:30 - 18:00 |
| Q&A Mentoring | November 6, 15:00 – 17:00 |
| Mentoring Event: A conversation with the Rector, a Round Table + a Social Moment | November 28, 16:00 – 18:00 |
| Skills Workshop – Finding the Red Thread of your Academic Narrative + Drinks | December 11, 15:00 – 18:00 |
| Event: The role of Intersectionality in your Academic Career | January 18, 10:00 – 12:00 |
| Portfolio Workshops | February 13/15 (Week 7) |
| Portfolio Support Space 1 (Optional Intervision Sessions) | March 12/14 (Week 11) |
| Portfolio Support Space 2 (Optional Intervision Sessions) | April 16/18 (Week 16) |
| Deadline for Portfolio | April 26 |
| Skills Workshop 4 - Topic TBD + Community Social Event | May 24 (Week 3) |
| Evaluation Portfolio by the Independent Committee | May / June |
| B2525 Community Social Event 3 (Pre-evaluation) | June (Week 25) |
| Communication Results and Debrief | July 1 – 5 |
| Deadline application for financial support | July 19 |
| Communication results financial support | August 19 |
| Closing event | September (Week 37) |
Self-nomination and nomination by a dean, head of department or colleague have the same status. The weight they carry is the same. The Beyond 25/25 team will contact colleagues that have been nominated and have not applied to encourage them to do so. The nomination will remain anonymous to the participants and self-nomination will be anonymous for the faculty.
No, not within the scope of this programme. Our goal is to help participants get a fair and transparent shot at advancing their careers through the steps outlined in the FAQs.
Mentoring
Mentors serve as role models to participants, and help share their network, experiences with participants. From literature it is known that persons who have a mentor, have a higher chance of progressing in their careers than individuals who are not mentored. Mentoring also helps senior staff better understand the challenges confronting their colleagues and helps them make a substantive contribution to their mentees’ professional growth.
Mentors are associate or full professors in any institution, who support the participant in the process of preparing the portfolio, and also share advice on questions that participants have concerning their own career progression.
To explain the roles of mentors and participants, a booklet with information will be provided to mentors and participants and during the kickoff, further information about responsibilities and ways of working between the mentor and participant will be provided.
Every participant will identify their own mentors and will be able to develop a follow-up plan in the workshops of the programme.
In the nomination forms, we asked each participant to think of potential mentors, internal or external to EUR. At the kick-off meeting, participants will be provided a mentoring booklet outlining the mentoring process, some best practices, and guidelines for the mentor-mentee relationship including time investment and suggested frequency of meetings (e.g., 2-3 meetings in the duration of the program). Participants can then approach proposed mentor(s) from their list, inform them about the Beyond 25/25 programme and get their agreement to serve as mentor. We recommend that at least one, if not all, mentor-mentee meetings happen in person. If, for any reason, a participant does not find a mentor, we will help match them to a suitable individual. After all participants have a mentor, they are requested to share the details of their mentor with us via email (beyond25-25@eur.nl) so that they can be invited to future events or workshops organized as part of the programme.
Some may ask if it is not advisable to first know the gaps in one’s portfolio and then identify a mentor who can help with those specific gaps. If you feel strongly about flipping the format (i.e., identifying gaps in the portfolio and then looking for a mentor), please go ahead. Our vision for the mentoring process is for the mentor to support you in the individual goals and development needs you identify for yourself. In other words, you are in the driver seat in steering the mentoring relationship and goals. However, if your experiences suggest otherwise, you are free to adapt the programme activities in a way that works best for you.
At this time, no mentor trainings are planned. In the mentoring guidelines, there are some resources that your mentors might find useful. If you or your mentor have specific questions, please let us know.
Supervisors and performance and development (P&D) cycle
The role of the supervisor depends on your relationship. If you have a good relationship with your supervisor, they can certainly play a supportive and facilitating role. Even if you nominated yourself but have a good relationship with your supervisor, you may indeed bring them on board, discuss your participation in the Beyond 25/25 programme, and/or seek their advice on your portfolio, for instance.
The project team regularly communicates with the deans, HR partners, and, as necessary, with other stakeholders in each faculty. To ensure that relevant actors (including supervisors and/or heads of department) understand the programme and are kept informed of developments, the project team is looking at sending faculty-wide updates during the programme. These will be circulated via the faculty secretariat to ensure wider dissemination and a better understanding of what the programme entails. In the meantime, if your supervisor has a question, please encourage them to email us.
The Beyond 25/25 programme is neither related nor a substitute for the P&D. It is not meant to impose on regular faculty processes. Also, faculties should continue their regular processes and not wait for the outcomes of the programme. For example, if someone is ready for promotion, their portfolio review should continue in a timely manner regardless of their participation in the programme.
Feedback and outcomes
The feedback is provided in a written form. Every portfolio can get one of the following overall scores:
- ready for promotion: the portfolio meets the faculty criteria for promotion
- nearly ready: the portfolio has 1 or 2 small gaps that need to be bridged before the person meets the faculty criteria for promotion
- needs more time: the portfolio has a few gaps that need to be bridged before meeting the faculty criteria for promotion.
Besides the scoring (1-3) participants also obtains concrete feedback on the portfolio:
1) Where is their portfolio strong?
2) Are there areas that need improvement?
3) What exactly should be improved?
No, the advice is independent and confidential. Only the participant will have access to the Committee’s feedback and can decide whether to share it with the faculty or not.
It is advisory, based on internal promotion criteria given by esteemed professors in the field. It is based on valued end expert opinion, but is non-binding. For official promotion decisions, the internal selection committee of the faculty remains the body with binding advice.
This feedback is strictly confidential. No-one, besides the applicant herself, will be able to see this information.
If it is the case that there are some participants of the programme that receive positive advice from the independent and internal committee, but that there is no opportunity to grow due to financial aspects, it will open a room for dialogue: When would there be such an opportunity? What is the estimated timeline? Can an agreement be made about this timeline? Is there room to grow at another department/or even another faculty within the EUR? In case there is no/limited chances for growth, the participant has, in any case, more clarity about the possibility for her career progression. They can decide whether to wait for such an opportunity within the EUR or look for opportunities outside of EUR.
Independent Committee
Committee members are internal and external professors who are familiar with the professional field of the participant. A mix of internal and external members ensures an objective, non-biased, decision.
The members of the committee will base their advice on the official written criteria for promotion that is used in the faculty of the participant. Each portfolio will be judged independently, using these internal promotion criteria.
Independent committees will review portfolios and offer their confidential advice in accordance with the formal, written, criteria of the respective faculty. These criteria will be presented as part of the portfolio preparation workshop, and subsequently shared with members of the independent committees.
The answer depends on the faculty criteria for promotion. If the faculty recognizes excellence in teaching as an area of impact in promotion decisions, the independent committee will certainly take this into account. To this end, the Beyond 25/25 programme tries to ensure that faculty criteria for promotion are clear and easily available to all staff (and independent committee) members. Knowledge of the faculty criteria is a vital step in already building a portfolio for career advancement.
Each portfolio obtains one of the following outcomes: 1 (ready for submission to the faculty VCL/BAC committee). 2 (nearly ready for submission, mentioning what needs to be still achieved prior to submission of the portfolio) 3 (not there yet-candidate needs to work on a number of items to satisfy the promotion criteria). Furthermore, for scores 2 and 3, committee members will give specific feedback concerning the areas where the participant needs to strengthen their portfolio.
Some faculties are in the process of revising their criteria. However, the faculties are fully aware of the importance of the formal, written criteria for the portfolio preparation and assessment in the Beyond 25/25 programme. The criteria we have received from the faculties are the ones that are currently in use. The project team is in regular contact with the faculties, so participants do not need to keep track of changes. If at all there are any foreseen changes to the criteria in the duration of the programme, we will have a conversation with the faculties and also inform the participants of the attendant implications.
If it is the case that there are some participants of the Beyond 25/25 programme that receive positive advice from the independent and internal committee, but that there is no opportunity to grow due to financial aspects, it will open a room for dialogue: when would there be such an opportunity? What is the estimated timeline? Can an agreement be made about this timeline? Is there room to grow at another department/or even another faculty within the EUR? In case there are no/limited chances for growth, the participant has, in any case, more clarity about the possibility for her career progression. They can decide whether to wait for such an opportunity within the EUR or look for opportunities outside of EUR. Please note that the project team will monitor closely if there is a similar trend in faculty reactions to the independent advice.
Portfolio Support
There will be a group workshop that will explain the structure of the portfolio, so it can function as a genuine application for promotion. Following questions will be addressed: What does a good portfolio consist of? How is it structured? How can it be written as to help the committee with their work? Eminent professors from different fields will be invited to the workshop to reflect on the process, acknowledging cultural differences for promotion among different areas of research.
The process entails following a group workshop for all the participants and talking with a mentor. Based on this input, participants prepare the portfolio using the form and promotion criteria used in their respective faculty.
Participants have approximately eight weeks to produce an application portfolio.
We are working on a multi-layered approach to the portfolio preparation workshop. Also, the requirements are different per faculty, therefore, there is no standard template that can be provided to all participants. Portfolios will be prepared in accordance with the faculty criteria for promotion to associate and to full professor positions. However, we will certainly try to demarcate and/or emphasize the specifics of each trajectory.
Financial Support
Eligible participants are those who receive ‘nearly ready’ feedback. Based on the content of the feedback from the committee, participants will make a plan on what actions they will undertake to improve their portfolio.
There is no pre-determined list of activities that can be funded. If you receive an assessment saying ‘nearly ready for submission,’ you are eligible for monetary support. Members of the independent committee may offer clear suggestions on what these development needs are and you will be urged to draw up a plan with your mentor on how you can best use the monetary support to bridge the gap (e.g., through a workshop, academic coaching, recruiting a research assistant, etcetera). At this time, there is no application or selection process; however, we will ask for a brief plan of action (more details will be available later in the programme).