Career Promotion System

Interdisciplinary Research in Career Promotion System

At Özyeğin University, interdisciplinary contributions are formally embedded in all three stages of the academic evaluation system — annual review, periodic evaluation, and promotion assessment.

ÖzÜ's evaluation framework covers four criteria at every stage — research, teaching, service, and community impact — and the Faculty Handbook explicitly requires interdisciplinary contributions to be recognised and weighted across all of them. Below is a concise account of where this applies and what it means in practice.

• Annual Review
  The Annual Report (AR) captures interdisciplinary work across three criteria. Under teaching, interdisciplinary course designs and studios co-run with other departments are explicitly listed. Under service, participation in interdisciplinary working groups and joint inter-faculty commissions is a named sub-category. Under social impact, interdisciplinary projects and SDG-related publications count toward the "Core Approach Contributions" sub-criterion. Everything entered here accumulates in the Academic CV used at periodic and promotion evaluations.

• Periodic Evaluation
  Periodic evaluations are carried out by the Faculty Evaluation Committee (FEC), which reviews each faculty member's Academic CV every three to five years. The Faculty Handbook states the following as a binding evaluation principle:
  
  "The FEC considers the candidate's interdisciplinary contributions and inter-faculty collaborations, if any, as an enriching element of academic development." — Faculty Handbook, §5.2.3, FEC Evaluation Principles
  
  The FEC does not conduct a specialist review, meaning interdisciplinary profiles are not disadvantaged by the absence of a field-specific assessor. Faculty may also submit a Supplementary Declaration Form (EBF) to provide context on contributions not automatically captured in university databases.

• Promotion
  Interdisciplinary work is formally recognised at each step of the promotion process. The Dean's letter is required to take into account "the candidate's interdisciplinary studies, if any, and the synergy created by these studies" (§5.3.1). The University Promotion Committee must include interdisciplinary studies and inter-faculty collaborations "as a valuable contribution in terms of academic richness and effectiveness" (§5.3.2). For external peer review, if the candidate's work is interdisciplinary, the referee panel must include experts from each relevant discipline (§5.3.5).
  
  The research statement submitted to referees is specifically required to highlight "the originality and impact of interdisciplinary research, if any." For faculty applying for early promotion before their standard periodic evaluation date, the justification letter must explain "the unique impact created by their interdisciplinary work, if any."

• In Practice
  Record interdisciplinary activities in your Annual Report every year — do not wait until a periodic evaluation. Use the Supplementary Declaration Form if relevant work is not captured automatically. When preparing for promotion, use your research statement and justification letter to articulate the breadth and impact of your interdisciplinary contributions. If your work crosses disciplines, inform your Dean and ensure your referee recommendations reflect the full range of disciplines your work engages.
  
  For detailed information on evaluation and promotion procedures, please refer to Section 5 of the Faculty Handbook at facultyhandbook.ozyegin.edu.tr