Now it's time to appoint who is going to run the departments for the next three years. When a new faculty board has taken office and begun its term of office in January, several other bodies at SLU will also be appointed for new terms of office, including heads of department and members of committees and councils.
The heads of department always used to start their assignments on 1 July. Now they are able to take office sometime between 1 June and 1 September.
There is a certain freedom for how a dean chooses to set up the recruitment. However, the internal process will be carried out during the month of March. It is not a question of an election in the true sense, but employees must be given the opportunity to give views on a proposed head of department as well as to be able to give their own proposals. Then it is the dean who makes the final decision.
The department often appoints some kind of advisory working group or recruitment group. The most common is that the head of department is recruited from the own department, but it has happened that they have been recruited from outside SLU.
One way to hear the employees' opinion is by arranging an anonymous web survey where they can give their views. A hearing is often held with the proposed candidates.
– At the NJ faculty, the process often starts with a nomination group discussing the department's conditions with the dean. After that, the employees are given the opportunity to submit proposals for a head of department, which can be a sitting or another candidate, says Pär Aronsson who is the Head of Faculty Administration at NJ.