Office for Faculty Affairs
Professorships are the foundation of ETH Zurich. In the service of society, for pioneering basic research and to meet the global challenges of our age, they create knowledge, develop technologies and educate the next generation of specialists. As Office for Faculty Affairs, we contribute on behalf of the President to attracting the most talented scientists to ETH Zurich and supporting them in their academic development.
Together with the departments and in consultation with the Executive Board, we coordinate ETH Zurich's planning of professorships and support its operational implementation. We support the recruitment of future professors and ensure that the needs of a professorship are optimally matched with the relevant resources. We are the coordination office for budgeting and long-term planning of the basic funding of the departments. We advise and support the departments on strategic academic topics and are the point of contact for professors on academic matters.
Centrally organised and connected throughout ETH, we help with our expertise to implement forward-looking and effective solutions in the interests of ETH Zurich and its social responsibility. In this way, we play an active role in shaping the long-term development of the university.
The unit Consulting for Professors within the Vice-Presidency for Personnel Development and Leadership is responsible for matters relating to the personal development of professors.
Key topics
The planning of professorships forms a key organisation axis within ETH Zurich, ultimately determining the development of the departmental basic funding, the accommodation requirements and the establishments of scientific platforms and infrastructural facilities. The planning of professorships is therefore strongly grounded within the Executive Board’s business management process.
The basic intention underlying the planning of professorships is determined in the four-year strategies of the departments. The planning is firmly established in the annual dialogues between the Executive Board and the departments and is thus further developed and specified. Its implementation is shaped by the so-called Freigabegespr?che between the President and the departments, during which the planned professorships on application of the departments are approved for advertisement.
Considering the teaching requirements as well, each professorship profile is attuned to the current and future challenges of the corresponding speciality.
The Office for Faculty Affairs is the coordination centre for the financial planning and the budgeting of the departments’ basic funding. The funds allocated to a professorship by the President are integrated into the budget of the corresponding department and, after the five-year starting phase, come under the departmental guidelines for the allocation of funds (see departmental rules of procedure).
The basic funding of a department is adapted according to changes in the number of professorships of the corresponding department (for example additional professorships, vacancies, waiver of continuation, etc.).
Professorships which are implemented by means of third-party funding (so-called third-party initial financing) are equal to professorships financed through internal funds in terms of their financial rights and obligations.
The recruitment of professors at all levels is a very well established, transparent process, which is internationally recognised as best practice. Since this core process of ETH Zurich is handled by the Office for Faculty Affairs, which reports directly to the President, a very high level of professionalism and efficiency can be ensured.