Review of the Research Institute for History and - Universiteit Utrecht

8. International and Political History (prof. H. Righart 1994-2001, prof. Duco Hellema 2001-)
9. Social and Economic History (prof. Jan Luiten van Zanden, 1994-)
10. Gender Studies (prof. Rosi Braidotti 1994-)
The division of OGC research programmes matches that of the national research schools, in which the
majority of OGC-faculty participate. This structure has been chosen to optimize collaboration between
the local institute and national research organizations, and thus to profi t from the momentum and scope of
these national research schools. These provide graduate courses for PhDs. Local programme leaders are the
interface between local and national organization. They are almost to a man/woman involved in board or
management of the national research schools. It is their task to ensure that members of the research groups
participate in the various programmes of the national research schools, and to organize local activities,
ranging from seminars and lectures to full-scale conferences, by and for the members of their group. On the
level of the programmes international cooperation takes place in different modalities. On the level of the
institute, the OGC has an exchange agreement with UCLA, and is a member of the Consortium of
Humanities Centres and Institutes (CHCI).
B 4. Researchers and other personnel
OGC faculty includes the following categories of researchers:
(a) permanent academic staff (offi cially working in one of the teaching institutes and seconded to OGC for
their research time, a few fte is directly affi liated with OGC)
(b) post-doctoral researchers (directly affi liated with OGC)
(c) PhD students (directly affi liated with OGC).
Permanent (academic) staff
The Dutch system has three ranks for the permanent faculty members:
(i) Full professor;
(ii) Associate professor (UHD in Dutch);
(iii) Assistant professor (UD in Dutch).
For the senior ranks the faculty of Arts has a more or less fi xed number of positions. There is no promotion
system. In order to move up in rank one has to apply if there is a vacancy. Assistant professors are evaluated for
tenure after two years. If the evaluation is positive they get tenure, but they stay in their rank.
In addition to regular full professors there are also special chairs, mostly for 1 day a week. Holders of such
a special chair are usually appointed by a foundation under approval of the Faculty and the Board of the university.
Only full professors and special chair professors have the right to act as promoter(e)s (in the Netherlands
the full right to supervise dissertations, called ius promovendi). Associate and assistant professors can act as daily
supervisors (so-called co-promotor).
In the Faculty of Arts research time is allotted by a standard rule: full professors and associate professors
have 40% research time, assistant professors have 30% research time. These percentages are indicative. That is,
the actual amount of research time of individual researchers may in principle vary over the years. In practice,
it turns out that the amount of research time actually available is lower than the amount indicated, because of
teaching pressures. The Utrecht Faculty of Arts and the Humanities does not have a system of sabbaticals.
The members of the academic staff with research time are appointed by the teaching institutes, and
subsequently included in one of the research institutes. It has been the explicit policy of the Faculty Board to
include as many faculty as possible in either of the research institutes.
As table B.1 shows, the average age of OGC faculty has increased, especially in the categories of full and
associate professors. In the next evaluation period (2005-2010) many of them will retire and be replaced with
young scholars.
363 Research Institute for History and Culture OGC
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