From: Trevor Young, Vice-President & Provost
Date: March 6, 2025
Re: Response to the Time to Tenure and Promotion Report (PDAD&C #26)
As part of the University of Toronto’s commitment to equity, as reflected in the University’s Statement on Equity, Diversity and Excellence, the University is committed to ensuring that all faculty are treated equitably.
In 2024, Professor Heather Boon, Vice-Provost, Faculty & Academic Life, convened a working group to analyze time to tenure and time to promotion of male and female faculty in the tenured/tenure stream. The goal was to identify whether there are meaningful differences in the time to tenure or time to promotion.
The report contains two important findings:
- There is no difference in time to tenure between males and females for those either on a five-year or six-year ‘clock’.[1]
- There is a difference between males and females in time to promotion, with females being promoted, on average, six to seven months after males.
In response to this analysis, I am reassured by the finding that there are no differences in time to tenure between males and females. However, in relation to promotion, there is work to be done. The University is committed to ensuring that males and females across all divisional groupings have the same ability to achieve career advancement. Steps will be taken to ensure that the promotion criteria under the Policy and Procedures Governing Promotions (PPP) are clear to all academic administrators, as well as individual faculty members. This will be achieved through programming and support materials for Deans and Chairs as well as for faculty members.
The role of an academic unit head (i.e., Chair, Dean) is of great importance in ensuring a fair and transparent promotion process as per the PPP, which includes annual consideration of all Associate Professors regarding potential readiness for promotion. Academic administrators play a pivotal role in providing mentorship and support to faculty members regardless of their career stage, and in ensuring that faculty members in their unit have clarity about their pathways toward promotion. Through the Office of the Vice-Provost, Faculty & Academic Life, we will support academic administrators so that they may, in turn, support faculty members within their units in the promotion process.
Report:
In conclusion, I want to take this opportunity to thank the Office of Faculty & Academic Life and those involved for conducting the analysis and drafting this report.
[1] The tenure ‘clock’ is the timeline to tenure established in policy. The term ‘clock’ is used in common parlance but is not a term established in policy. At the University of Toronto, that ‘clock’ is, since 2015, a six year ‘clock’: faculty are reviewed in their sixth year following appointment as an Assistant Professor. See the Policy and Procedures on Academic Appointments (PPAA).