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In its vision for 2030, ‘Universities without walls’, the European University Association calls for a reform of academic careers. In parallel, EUA’s Strategic Plan, adopted in 2020, includes a commitment to ‘identify and share good practices in shaping academic careers’ and ‘celebrate parity of esteem for learning and teaching with research and innovation within our institutions’. As such, the Association promotes a comprehensive, holistic approach to academic careers and assessment, supported by activities in the fields of research assessment and teaching enhancement. Incentives and rewards for academic careers are thus a cross-cutting issue that relates to education, research and innovation.
A key issue is the enhancement of the present practice of basing academic assessment on selected quantitative research metrics. The careers of individual academics can be diverse, reflecting the diverse missions of universities. Academic assessment needs to reflect this diversity. There are examples of institutional and system-level initiatives to improve assessment practices, such as those jointly collected by the Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), EUA and SPARC Europe.
Reimagining academic assessment: stories of innovation and change
At the policy level, assessment reform is high on the agenda of the European Commission and has received support from several national governments, as well as in the context of the European Research Area. The European Commission is also planning a framework for sustainable and attractive academic careers, in the context of the European Strategy for Universities and the European Education Area.
Universities need to be in the driver’s seat for reforming how the quality and impact of academic activities and careers are evaluated. To support this, EUA draws on its wide-ranging expertise, notably in the fields of research assessment, Open Science, learning and teaching, doctoral education and quality assurance.
Research assessment is the combination of qualitative and quantitative practices used to evaluate the quality and impact of research activities. Therefore, it is an important part of academic assessment.
EUA works towards improving the institutional capacity, autonomy and equity of opportunity among its members. This is an essential part of efforts to develop and implement more responsible, inclusive, transparent and sustainable evaluation practices for research activities and careers, including incentives and rewards for Open Science throughout the research process. Developing institutional approaches to research assessment is also a key priority area for the Association, as laid out in the EUA Open Science Agenda 2025.
Improving academic career assessment is a shared responsibility and requires a comprehensive approach uniting diverse stakeholders. Therefore, EUA builds and sustains dialogue between universities and with other actors such as research performing organisations, learned societies and policy makers, by organising workshops, webinars and other opportunities for exchange.
Having co-led the drafting of the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment and joined the ensuing Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA), EUA now jointly leads the CoARA Working Group on Reforming Academic Career Assessment, which aims to develop an adaptable toolbox considering all university missions and the broad scope of activities, skills and competences of academic staff at different stages of their career.
Learn about the CoARA Working Group on Reforming Academic Career Assessment
A better balance of responsibilities reflecting all university missions in academic careers is needed. This will foster greater recognition of the education mission of universities and enable them to act in the best interest of academics. In this regard, academic assessment also relates to advancing the professional role and identity of academics in Europe as they juggle various, and occasionally conflicting, expectations.
EUA’s activities in learning and teaching have constantly demonstrated the need for teaching to be fully recognised as central to the academic profession and considered in assessment practices and career development. The input, engagement and competence of academic staff is crucial to enhance learning and teaching.
To raise the status of teaching in higher education, incentives and policies are needed for academic staff to invest in teaching, develop their teaching competences, better balance their teaching and research workload and progress in their careers in teaching. From 2015 to 2019, the European Forum for Enhanced Collaboration in Teaching (EFFECT) project addressed teaching enhancement, notably with a feasibility study on teaching enhancement in European higher education. Subsequently, the Leadership and Organisation for Teaching and Learning at European Universities (LOTUS) project (2020-2022) pinpointed staff development in teaching and the need to relate to career development and incentives as key ways to enhance teaching. The Staff Development in Learning and Teaching at European universities (STAFF-DEV) project continues the work with a mapping of staff development approaches across Europe, as well as capacity building activities (2024-2026).
Policies for sustainable and attractive academic careers go well beyond those related to academic assessment. In order to create a comprehensive vision for academic careers, in 2024 EUA established a Task and Finish Group of experts from its membership and different working groups.
This group’s work on key principles for academic careers includes topics such as:
On 9 December, the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) elected a new Chair and seven Steering Board members during its General Assembly. ...
On 25 November, the Council of the European Union adopted a recommendation on making careers in higher education more attractive and sustainable. ...
