Career Advancement

People with fewer than 3 years of post-PhD experience are only eligible to be “Assistant Professor on contract” as per government (GoI) rules. Ater gaining the 3-year experience (even if that is at IIT Delhi), “regular” appointment as Assistant Professor is possible. If you join IIT Delhi as Assistant Professor on contract, please proactively seek the regular position at the completion of the 3-year experience. Apply through the head of your academic unit. As a part of the application, you will also file the special appraisal report at ERP. (You should also be aware of the annual self-assessment report required of all faculty members at the end of each academic year, July-June).

You will be asked to present the body of your work to a 3-member committee of the unit. This committee comprises one senior faculty member of your unit and two senior faculty members from other units. The evaluation process is relatively informal. Faculty members who join as regular Assistant Professors also have a one-year probationary period. At the end of the year, special appraisal is required of them just as it is for those on contract. In this case, in-person evaluation is not necessary. Instead, the head defends the body of work to the evaluation committee. If the progress is as expected, the probation is ended, and the appointment confirmed.

Promotion to Associate Professor and Professor levels are treated akin to fresh appointments against open calls for application. (There are minor process differences between the external applicants and internal applicants.) Applications are forwarded to the institute on the recommendation of the “Committee of Professors” (COP) of your academic unit. The shortlisting criterion for each academic unit is decided by the COP. These are over and above the institute-wide minimum eligibility criteria (including the experience period). These criteria mostly span the quality of publication, teaching effort, administrative service, success with extramural grants and projects, and outreach activities. Candidates necessarily present their body of work before an audience including COP members and, sometimes, members of the final selection committee instituted by the Director. After this presentation, a personal interview is scheduled with that selection committee. Candidates selected after the interview are then referred to the institute board of governors (BOG), which is the formal appointing authority.