Interuniversity Board Presidency (ÜAK) has made a significant change by working on it for almost 3 years. Many commissions specialized in their fields carried out long-term studies for changes.
The “Announcement on the Change of Application Conditions for Associate Professorship” has been rearranged within the framework determined by the Council of Higher Education (YÖK).
In accordance with Article 3/1 of the Associate Professorship Regulations, the updates in the application requirements for associate professorship will be applied in the second application period, that is, in March 2024, after the date of their acceptance.
Differences will be sought with talents and works.
The changes in the application requirements for associate professorship were made by the Secretary General of the Interuniversity Board Prof. Dr. We asked Abdulkerim Caliskan. So, what innovations were made for the candidates? What roadmap will be followed from now on?
The first issue that Çalışkan mentioned in the application requirements for associate professorship was that the application requirements for 12 basic fields were renewed in every aspect. Stating that there has been formal standardization in all fields, Çalışkan says, “In addition, field-specific differences have been developed. By introducing different conditions specific to fields (under the heading of other conditions) rather than a single template, associate professor candidates will be able to reveal their differences with their skills and works belonging to their fields of expertise.”
Emphasizing that their main aim is to contribute to education by increasing the quality of publications, Çalışkan said, “The aim is not to make it difficult with the renewed associate professorship application requirements, but to eliminate the uncertainties about the application requirements. Adapting to the innovations in the world and in the scientific community, bringing the difficulty/easiness levels of the fields closer to each other, losing their importance and importance. We want the areas of expertise that will enable the emergence of winning areas and the support of our country’s energy, agriculture, defense industry, sports and regional priorities with scientific studies,” he said.
“The award, invention and patent will be generously scored”
Stating that they want to add a new vision to the associate professorship, Çalışkan stated that the previously unscored areas have been made scoreable, and says, “We also aim to include incentives that will contribute to the country’s vision in strategic areas in the application requirements for associate professorship.”
Our aim is not to make associate professorship difficult; To ensure that qualified, equipped and developed people who are updated according to changing conditions meet with this title.
Stating that they have brought criteria rewarding young talents in agriculture, engineering and sports, points are now taken from the H index, which could not be scored before, and thus pre-doctoral studies are also rewarded, Çalışkan said, “Additional points will be given to those who teach at the world’s leading universities, and points to national athletes and athletes who win medals. “The points system will be added to support young engineers working within the Turkish Armed Forces Foundation. TiGEM experts will be supported in the same way. Now, awards, inventions and patents will be scored more detailed and generously than before.”
Caliskan states that the new regulation is a quality-enhancing and positive study for academics.
“It would be wrong to think that the criteria for associate professorship before the arrangement we made did not reflect the quality. Before the central associate professor oral exam was left to universities with the law no. 7100, the ambiguities in the rules regarding the work section were not vital, as the juries could evaluate the candidates closely and face to face in the oral exam. And the technology is artificial intelligence like today. had not yet reached the stage of production.
The juries could easily reveal the candidates’ level of knowledge, whether they produced the works themselves, and their level of contribution to the work, with the questions they asked at the oral stage. However, with the removal of the oral examination from the center, he started to become an associate professor only by examining the work, and the current criteria alone weakened the ability to measure the real situation of the candidate.
Therefore, the reason why the examination on the basis of the works was handled in such detail for the first time after the oral examination was abolished is that the only contact surface of the juries and candidates is the works uploaded to the system. For this reason, the criteria, such as the lack of testing of the uncertainties that were possible in the oral stage, the desire of the candidates to become associate professors, the irregularity of publishing houses that move away from publishing ethics due to commercial concerns, the commercialization of the papers, symposiums and congress sector, etc. The application requirements for associate professorship, which have been applied to date due to reasons such as the production of works that do not belong to them, have lost their ability to measure. We think that we have made a comprehensive change by carrying out activities in coordination with YÖK.”
“The aim is not to make associate professorship difficult”
In the requirements for associate professorship in basic fields such as Educational Sciences, Sciences and Mathematics, Philology, Law, Health Sciences, Engineering, Social Humanities and Administrative Sciences, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries; There are application items such as international articles, national articles, publications produced from graduate theses, books, citations, thesis consultancy, scientific research projects, scientific meetings, education-training, patents/utility models, awards and other.
In the field of fine arts, in addition to the general application requirements, special application requirements that require performance and presentation are also sought. In the field of theology, the item “investigation” and “artistic practice”, which are not scored in other areas, are also among the items to be sought in new associate professorship applications. In addition, studies such as ‘competition, project, software and patent’ in the field of Architecture will be requested from associate professor candidates. Candidates who want to become an associate professor in the field of sports will be able to get points from the ‘sportive success and representation’ condition in addition to the general application requirements if they fulfill it.
You can find all the details regarding the changes in the application requirements for associate professorship at www.uak.gov.tr.
We would like to see the works, publications, articles and projects of our esteemed academics in both national and international literature and to increase the place of our universities in prestigious ranking institutions.
Giving information about the newly introduced associate professorship application requirements, Caliskan said that their aim is not to make associate professorship difficult; He conveyed that they want to ensure that people who are updated according to changing conditions, who are qualified, equipped and who have improved themselves in different fields, meet with the title of associate professor.
Caliskan stated that the changes regarding the criteria were welcomed in the world of science and academia. Stating that those who gain titles quickly and with unethical solidarity mechanisms are not happy in the long run, Çalışkan said, “We want to see the works, publications, articles, and projects of our valuable academicians in both national and international literature and to raise our universities’ place in prestigious ranking institutions. We believe that within a few years. “There will be noticeable accelerations in the number of universities entering the first five hundred. In our country, where the shares allocated to higher education and research have increased significantly, we see that young academics have the ability, capacity and determination to quickly adapt to these conditions,” he said.
Stating that they have eliminated the ambiguity in the field indices that differ in the main fields and cause complexity, Çalışkan says, “Instead of this definition, the articles published in the journals within the scope of AHCI, ESCI, Scopus were scored. We consider this study very valuable for our candidates.”
Improved the impact of broadcasts in scoring
Talking about increasing the quality of publications, Çalışkan said, “The score of articles published in journals for national articles has been increased. Thus, the impact of national and Turkish publications on the scoring has also increased. A minimum requirement of one author publication has been introduced for each main field. The number of existing ones has been increased.”
Stating that they know the importance of teamwork in fields such as health, physics and engineering, Çalışkan said that they prioritize single-author publications within the limits of equity, “At the same time, restrictions were imposed on the editorship of national and international book chapters. Academicians subject to 2547 have to comply with ethical rules in terms of discipline. Therefore, we We gave points to the books that are edited by professors who have proven their academic competence and are subject to ethical discipline rules and who have received permission from the university administration to be addressed by the Interuniversity Board. they can write a department in organizations, use it in their own university, in incentives, in their resume.We have determined the editorial books that we will give points for in terms of our own institution.For example, there are dozens of language exams conducted by various institutions, some institutions accept language scores while others do not. In fact, some universities may not even accept the YÖKDİL exam indirectly. It is important for us that editorial books can be controlled academically, administratively and ethically.”
Contributing to the world of academia
In order to explain this subject in more detail, he asked himself “How can this contribute to the publications?” When we asked him, Mr. Çalışkan detailed the issue as follows:
“The efforts and publications of our esteemed academicians are very valuable. However, sometimes we also see the fact of abuse in publications. Unfortunately, articles are written in journals for a fee. Candidates who do not meet the necessary academic conditions and conditions but formally ‘bypass’ the institutions and rules obtain the title of associate professor as a result of these publications. “Our main goal here is to prevent this abuse and to ensure that our associate professors become associate professors with qualified publications. We expect our academics, who will raise people, shape generations, whose students are role models and who should set an example for the society, to be more qualified, principled and honest than anyone else. We wanted to make this expectation a rule.”
Stating that they are working on the basis of justice, Çalışkan stated that he thinks that the application conditions for associate professorship will make the associate professor candidates more qualified and equipped, and that this will have a positive reflection on the country’s academy.