To address the unique needs of postdoctoral appointees, the University recently announced a new Postdoctoral Education Policy that affects Arts & Sciences, the schools of Engineering & Applied Science and Medicine and the George Warren Brown School of Social Work.
The policy, which includes a minimum benefits and leave package, will be effective July 1 for all new postdoctoral appointees.
Postdoctoral appointees are individuals with a doctorate who train in a faculty member’s research program or laboratory for up to five years in preparation for a research or teaching career.
“Postdoctoral appointees are critical to the University’s teaching and research activities, and it is an important part of the University’s mission to provide them with training opportunities of the hightest quality,” said Theodore J. Cicero, Ph.D., vice chancellor for research and head of the committee that developed the new policy. “By establishing this policy, the University is formalizing our commitment to providing exemplary training and professional development opportunities to our postdoctoral appointees.”
Although the new policy applies across the University, individual schools will develop an implementation plan, including a strategy for existing postdoctoral appointees.
A key part of the policy is the creation of a separate classification for postdoctoral appointees, and each school will create new appointment titles to distinguish this group from students, faculty and staff. Additionally, individual schools will establish a minimum salary/stipend, uniform sick and vacation leave policies and optional benefits packages that include disability and medical insurance.
Further details about the policy and its implementation within each school will be announced in the upcoming months.
For more information, call Cicero’s office at 362-7010 or Denise McCartney, associate vice chancellor for research administration, at 747-6253.
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