Skip to main content
Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost

Faculty Member being promoted from Associate to full Professor

Please review the following information if you are an:

  • Assistant Professor (Second Term) Being Promoted To Associate Professor With Tenure
  • Untenured Associate Professor Being Tenured
  • Associate Professor Being Promoted To Full Professor

As an NC State faculty member, you should be familiar with the Appointment, Reappointment, Promotion and Permanent Tenure Policy.  This document resides in the university’s Policies, Regulations and Rules (PRR) system.  It can also be accessed from the Provost’s web site under Promotion and Tenure.  This policy describes the procedures by which decisions concerning conferral of permanent tenure and promotion are made at NC State.

This guide pertains to faculty members being promoted from Assistant to Associate Professor and awarded permanent tenure, untenured Associate Professors being awarded permanent tenure, and faculty members being promoted  from Associate to full Professor..

Prior to the initiation of the process, you should already have a Statement of Faculty Responsibilities and fully understand the standards and procedures documented in your College RPT Rule and your Department RPT Rule.  If you have previously been reappointed or promoted and tenured at NC State you already have a dossier which should only need updating.

For Assistant Professors and untenured Associate Professors, your mandatory review cycle date is determined by your contract end date. The Review Timeline Information might be helpful in confirming which cycle you are mandated to use.  Reviews must be conducted so that the faculty member is notified of the decision no less than one year prior to the contract end date.  Because we have one cycle per year, often that requires a candidate to go through the process more than 12 months prior to the end date. If an Assistant Professor is promoted and tenured prior to their mandatory cycle, it is considered early. If an untenured Associate Professor is awarded tenure prior to the mandatory cycle it is not considered early.

Promotion from Associate Professor to full Professor has no mandatory date.

If you have not already started to develop a dossier, building the required dossier can, at first, seem like a monumental task. However, starting the building process well in advance of the departmental submission date will make the task much easier.  Development of the dossier is your responsibility, with assistance from your Department Head and other departmental mentors.

Instructions are provided on the Provost’s web site, including REG 05.20.20 RPT Dossier Format Requirements (describes what you must do) and a collection of optional and required formats on how to present certain dossier sections,

In addition to the items mentioned above, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) are designed to help answer your questions.  However, these may not meet all your needs, so make sure you know your department’s administrative support person for this process.  Along with your Department Head, the administrative support person should be your first contact for answers to questions you cannot find on the web site.  You should also know the departmental submission date well in advance.

The Provost’s Office holds general informational sessions to provide information about the process.  You should consider attending one of these sessions prior to going through the process.  Your college and/or department may offer similar sessions.