Lecturers provide a significant part of the education within the UvA and are therefore an important and inseparable part of the university. This means the UvA must have a specific vision on the position of lecturers, with clarity about their career opportunities.

Key points of the policy

The new policy will offer lecturers better career prospects and more opportunities to develop professionally. It will also offer more security, since it includes long-term or permanent appointments, depending on the position. Some important points are:

• Lecturers will from now on receive an appointment of 0.8 fte - 1.0 fte (as long as the duties contained in the job description allow for it), unless they express a preference for a contract for fewer hours.
• In order to increase both job security and the quality of education, the starting point for the D4 entry-level appointment will be one long-term temporary contract for four years. This is similar to the temporary appointments given to PhD candidates.
• As with a PhD candidate, a professional development plan will be drawn up at the start of the appointment. Lecturers are given the opportunity to follow a BKO (University Teaching Qualification) (or could fill this time differently, in consultation with a supervisor).
• A permanent contract is the starting point for all other lecturer positions (D3-D1).
• There is a transitional arrangement, in which extra attention will be paid to incumbent lecturers.
• If lecturers are structurally assigned duties that do not match the remit of their employment level, ways will be sought to adapt their range of duties.

Marking strike ended

Over the past months, 120 lecturers held a marking strike to draw attention to the position of teachers. They called for better contract scope, workload transparency, and professional development opportunities. In the course of the development of the new policy, meetings and consultations were held. Following the adoption of the new policy, the lecturers, united in Casual UvA, decided to end the marking strike because the new policy has "the potential to improve working conditions for all teachers, especially those on temporary contracts”.

Implementation

An implementation plan has also been agreed for the new policy and will be underway before the summer. The faculties will work on the implementation for both existing and new lecturers. The implementation will be worked out by each of the faculties.

Previous news items about the lecturer policy: