Tohoku University Program to Disseminate Tenure Tracking System�E�Structure and Governance

Structure and Governance

The tenure track system is implemented centering on the dean of the Graduate School of Engineering. It has been established as a promotion system for which decision making is conducted through a meeting the chairs of the Department of Graduate School of Engineering. Selection of tenure track candidates, employment, and tenure inspection results are deliberated via a meeting the chairs of the Department of Graduate School of Engineering.
The content of practical operations such as recruitment and application of the system are practically promoted by centering on the chairs of the four Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Giving young faculty an independent research environment and the incentive of acquiring tenure increases the desire of these faculty to engage in education and research. In addition, stimulating independence early is expected to increase the sophistication of education and research, and invigorate the same, in the Graduate School of Engineering.

Faculty employed as tenure track faculty are provided with startup funds via the budget of the Graduate School of Engineering.

International recruitment is conducted for two months and an outline of tenure track inspection standards is specified at the time of recruitment.
Selection of candidates is conducted by a Selection Committee consisting of two or more members from the recruiting department and one or more members of another department. Selection is deliberated at a meeting of the chairs of the Department of Graduate School of Engineering
Current and past advisors are excluded from being Selection Committee members; candidates are selected via a process of peer review.

Tenure track faculty establish an independent research environment with startup funds (subsides + out-of-pocket expenses).
Each tenure track faculty is provided with research space consisting of a 25 m² research laboratory for their exclusive use and a shared 100 m² experiment laboratory.
Each tenure track faculty is provided with multiple professors who serve as senior mentors so that tenure track faculty may be able to smoothly conduct research and education, and so as to provide tenure track faculty with an independent research environment.