Advancement

Doe LibraryWe strive to make faculty advancement at UC Berkeley transparent and equitable. There is a potential tenured position for every faculty member hired as an assistant professor. Most tenured faculty advance at a regular rate through the steps and ranks. Everyone has a chance to advance, even those who get stalled for a time for one reason or another. We hope that all faculty find success and fulfillment in their research, teaching, and service. The links below guide you to resources if you want to learn more about the advancement process.

Advancement Criteria

The Academic Personnel Manual (APM) 210 specifies the criteria that review committees should use in advising on actions concerning appointees in the professor series. The review committee is asked to consider the record of the candidate’s performance in (1) teaching, (2) research and other creative work, (3) professional activity, and (4) University and public service. Superior intellectual attainment is an indispensable qualification for appointment or promotion to tenure positions. This typically means that there is strong evidence of the impact of the candidate's contributions. 

Academic Ladder

The academic ladder consists of three ranks (assistant professor, associate professor, and full professor) and multiple steps within each rank. The associate and full professor ranks are with tenure. There are four major academic reviews: To associate professor (tenure review), to full professor, to full professor step 6, and to above scale.

Salary Scales

The salaries of all faculty members except for those with Above Scale status include a rank/step scale component that is determined by the relevant UC pay scale approved each year by the UC President. The salaries of many faculty members also include a “decoupled” component, a fixed increment that is retained over time. Berkeley currently sets salaries at the time of recruitment. Salaries may be increased in several ways:

Career Equity

A Career Equity Review provides a mechanism to address inequities in evaluation that become apparent only over the course of multiple review periods. The Associate Vice Provost for the Faculty is available to advise on the preparation of a case and the corrective advancement under consideration. 

Contributions to Diversity

The Academic Personnel Manual (APM) 210 policy states that faculty contributions to diversity should receive recognition and reward in the academic personnel process. Faculty are offered an opportunity to provide a statement describing such contributions for each merit review. 

Mid-Career and Tenure Reviews

The appraisal process takes place in the 7th semester (mid-career) and 11th semester (tenure) on the tenure clock. The process is quite lengthy with a number of reviewers, each carefully deliberating on the contributions of the assistant professor.

External Letters 

External letters of evaluation are solicited for promotion reviews and advancement to above scale, and sometimes for advancement to full professor, step 6. The department and the candidate should compile independent lists. If the department and the candidate independently submit the same name, campus reviewers will consider such reviewers as coming from the department’s list.