Professors working at different levels (assistant, associate and full) of our tenure track career system are experts and teachers in their fields. In addition to them, there are distinguished professionals from business life, the public sector and arts working in Professor of Practice tasks. Adjunct Professors are professors who work at Aalto part-time and are involved in teaching, in particular. Aalto also has visiting professors from other organisations.
In their work, lecturers focus especially on teaching and its developing. In addition, they are involved in research and/or artistic activities. The purpose of the lecturer career system at Aalto University is to promote the competence development of the teaching staff: responsibility for the development and management of teaching increases with experience.
Postdoctoral researchers are recent doctoral graduates who are improving their research competence. The position offers a great opportunity to develop as a researcher, to obtain teaching experience and to work towards the tenure track career path. Research Fellows are researchers, who have already distinguished themselves and are further developing their academic skills.
Researchers working as Staff Scientists and Senior Scientists support professors and lecturers in their research work. They have special expertise in, for example, the use and development of research equipment as part of research. Staff Scientist and Senior Scientist positions require a doctoral degree or equivalent artistic merits.
Doctoral education is the first step in an academic career. Aalto University offers internationally high-quality doctoral education in all areas of its research and art. Our schools usually organise a doctoral candidate selection once or twice a year. Some programmes have continuous application period - a more detailed application procedure can be found on the schools’ websites. Read more about Aalto University’s doctoral programmes.
Top-level science and art require the support of a top-level network of experts. A large number of experts work in service and expert tasks at Aalto. There are positions in the fields of innovation services, learning, IT, marketing, HR, finance and real estate administration, among other things.
Aalto University has been awarded the “HR Excellence in Research” -award by the European Commission as the first university in Finland in 2012. More information available here.
This page introduces the Aalto University tenure track career system for professors. The page contains information on the general principles of the tenure track, levels and description of the career system, professors' work profile and work time allocation as well as general regulations (Aalto tenure track policies and procedures).
Aalto lecturer career system is intended primarily for individuals conducting teaching. The lecturer career system supports individual development and career advancement through clear principles and systematic evaluation criteria and allows Aalto teachers and lecturers to advance in their careers with teaching-focused merits. Teachers and lecturers have the opportunity to advance within the career system, from the university teacher level to the university lecturer level, and further to the position of a senior university lecturer and principal university lecturer. This page contains principles of the lecturer career system, levels in lecturer career system, generic time allocation in lecturer career levels as well as descriptions of recruitment and advancement processes.
This page describes other academic positions than tenure track professor and lecturer positions. Here you will also find official policies and procedures for other academic positions as well as instructions on how to appoint a docent.