About Our Track System
Our three professional schools include Health Professions, Medicine and Nursing, with faculty members serving on campuses in Kansas City, Wichita and Salina. Applicable and available in all three schools is an academic rank, or title, and a track system (PDF).
Additional "working titles" held by a faculty member could include examples like director, dean, department chair, etc.
Faculty have personal and professional goals and without a clear understanding of the Academic Track System, the new faculty member may or may not be aimed down the right path to reach his or her goals and achieve a promotion in the time they anticipated. Learn more about promotion and tenure at the medical center and specific guidelines within KU School of Medicine.
Faculty Ranks
Academic titles, or ranks, either modified or unmodified, include: instructor, assistant professor, associate professor and professor. The title of teaching associate is given to faculty members who do not hold terminal degrees yet and who participate in teaching under supervision.
- Modified titles are those in which a descriptor precedes the faculty title. The modifier might be clinical or research, as in Clinical Assistant Professor or Research Assistant Professor.
- An unmodified title means there is no descriptor, so the title is Assistant Professor. The decision regarding track (tenure or non-tenure) and rank (modified or unmodified title) is made by the Chair and requires the approval of the Executive Dean and the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.
Academic Tracks
Academic TracksEvery faculty member in the schools of Health Professions, Medicine and Nursing are appointed to a specific academic track. Each of the academic tracks describes not only the faculty member's job responsibilities but also the criteria for advancement, and in some instances, tenure, that reflect the professional and academic achievements expected of faculty in various roles. There are two tracks, tenure track and non-tenure track, and each has unique, specific professional and academic expectations.
