Changes to the Tenure and Promotion Policy were recently approved by Senate and the Board of Governors. Informed by Recommendation 1 of the Teaching Stream Working Group’s 2024 Report, the revised policy reflects the invaluable contributions of teaching-stream faculty and demonstrates McMaster’s commitment to equitable career experiences.
The new policy takes effect July 1, 2026. To help prepare for the change, please see the FAQ below.
The “McMaster University Revised Policy And Regulations With Respect To Academic Appointment, Tenure And Promotion” (also known as the “Tenure and Promotion Policy, and also known as “the Yellow Document”) was revised to reflect the suggestions made in Recommendation #1 of the Working Group on Teaching Stream Faculty Report. In addition, the SPS documents accompanying the Tenure and Promotion Policy were revised, to accurately reflect and align with the revisions made in the main Policy.
The policy changes do not affect you directly because all changes were specifically for teaching-stream faculty. However, if you serve on a Tenure and Promotion Committee in your unit, then you should be aware of the changes to the criteria for tenure and promotion for your teaching-stream colleagues. (See the more detailed FAQs for Tenure and Promotion Committee members below.)
In the old version of the policy, the phrase “tenure track” sometimes meant that a faculty member had not been granted tenure, while at other times, the phrase indicated that the member was not in a teaching-track appointment. Since the new policy grants tenure also to teaching-track members, this terminology would have led to much confusion. Therefore, the drafting committee decided to introduce the clarifying terminology “research stream” and “teaching stream” (in addition to “special stream”) to clearly delineate the different types of appointments.
In the revised policy, both research-stream and teaching-stream faculty members are eligible for tenure. The category of “permanence” has been eliminated. Teaching-stream faculty members who have already been granted permanence (on or before July 1, 2026) will be automatically granted tenure on July 1, 2026. (NOTE: see FAQ below for teaching-stream members who are currently permanent Assistant Professors, for further details.)
That is not the intention of these revisions, though the criteria will be different. The revisions intend to put teaching-stream faculty members on equal footing with their research-stream colleagues by linking the tenure and promotion decisions and aligning the timelines for both. Yes, the criteria will be different from before, and candidates must demonstrate not just teaching excellence, which was the criteria in the previous policy for permanence and is still part of the criteria for promotion, but also develop evidence of contributions in one other area as defined in Section III, 25, which states:
A candidate for tenure and promotion must have demonstrated that they are an effective teacher, have developed as an educator, and thereby have shown academic excellence. Since performance of university duties will be evaluated within the university, external reviewers should consider the candidate’s recognition external to the department in the following areas of activity. A candidate should have significant external recognition in two or more areas, but not necessarily in all, in order to be worthy of tenure and promotion.
Consideration shall also be given to the candidate’s performance of their University responsibilities uses 13 and 14 above).
At the same time, when Committee members review applications for promotion and tenure in the teaching-stream under the revised policy, they will need to evaluate performance and align their expectations with the time constraints of the initial five-year appointment.
In the revised policy, the “tenure clocks” for teaching-stream and research-stream faculty have been aligned. Therefore, under most circumstances, a teaching-stream Assistant Professor will be considered for tenure and promotion during their 5th year, which is the same as the timeline for permanence under the previous policy. Exceptions are made for special circumstances (e.g. parental leave) – see the revised policy, Section III, 29.
MUFA and the University Administration agreed at this time to focus on Recommendation #1 of the Report. Going forward, the Joint Committee will consider the other recommendations, now that Recommendation #1 has been addressed.
The changes will impact you in two ways. First, under the terms of the Memorandum of Agreement signed by MUFA and the University Administration, you will need to choose whether you proceed to apply for promotion and tenure under the terms of the revised policy on your original timeline, or whether you prefer to defer applying for promotion and tenure.
Those who are in their 5th year of their initial appointment and otherwise scheduled to apply for permanence in 2026-27 can defer their application for promotion and tenure for up to two years. Those who are in the 4th year, can defer their application for promotion and tenure for one year, from 2027-28 to 2028-29. If you choose to defer, your current contract will be extended for the duration of your deferral, and you will remain eligible for CP/M and your years of service will continue to accumulate.
Second, you will now be applying for tenure and promotion to Associate Professor, not permanence (see Section III, 24 on page 18 of the revised policy). Under the previous version of the policy, “teaching excellence” was the core criteria for permanence. In the revised policy, the requirements for tenure and promotion to Associate Professor are described in Section III, 25 (pages 18-19), which states:
You will notice that one of the areas for promotion under the revised policy is “Sustained excellence in teaching practice,” which closely aligns with the previous policy’s criteria for permanence. Under the revised policy, you will need to demonstrate a second area of contribution from the list in Section II, 25 to be considered for tenure and promotion.
Under the terms of the Memorandum of Agreement, the one or two year deferral option is in addition to any approved leave, consistent with the provisions of Section II, 7 of the previous and revised policy. You should confirm with your Chair how your leave will intersect with the terms of the Memorandum of Agreement and contact your Faculty Dean and/or MUFA if you have questions that your Chair cannot answer.
Under the revised policy, if you are currently permanent, you will become tenured on July 1, 2026, but your academic rank will not change. This means that permanent Assistant Professors will become tenured Assistant Professors. As under the previous policy, you can choose to apply for promotion under the revised policy when you feel you are ready to do so (see Section III, 34). Like before, when you are ready to apply for promotion, you should notify your Chair in writing.
When you apply for promotion under the revised policy, you will need to demonstrate that you meet the criteria for promotion outlined in Section III, 25, which states:
Section III, 34 makes clear that your application for promotion will otherwise follow the processes described in the policy for promotion and tenure (Section III, 34).
Generally, you should know that these revisions remove the category of permanence for teaching-stream faculty members and replaces it with tenure, similar to research-stream faculty (who were formerly known as tenure-track and tenured). Now, both teaching-stream and research-stream faculty will be eligible for tenure. In addition, the revisions to the policy revise the promotion “clock” for teaching-stream faculty members to align with that of research-stream faculty, and the revised policy will now link the decision to grant tenure with that of promotion for the teaching-stream, similar to the tenure and promotion of the research-stream. Therefore, you should review Section III of the revised Tenure and Promotion Policy to ensure that you understand the processes involved.
If you have any non-permanent teaching-stream faculty members in your Department or Area who would otherwise be eligible to apply for permanence in 2026-27 or 2027-28, you should know that they are likely eligible to defer the decision on their tenure and promotion to Associate Professor for one or two years according to the Memorandum of Agreement that MUFA signed with the University Administration. This Agreement serves to give teaching-stream faculty members additional time to prepare for the linked process of promotion and tenure in the revised policy.
If you have any permanent Assistant Professors in your Department or Area, you should know that they will be granted tenure on July 1, 2026, though they will not be promoted. Under the revised policy, permanent Assistant Professors should notify you in writing when they are ready to apply for promotion to Associate Professor under the new policy (see Section III, 34), and their application would then follow the normal process outlined in Section III of the Policy.
Finally, you should also review the criteria for promotion to Associate Professor in the teaching-stream and ensure that members of your Department or Area Tenure and Promotion Committee does so as well. It is important to note that there is no requirement that teaching-stream faculty members engage in disciplinary or pedagogical research in order to be promoted to Associate Professor; and research on pedagogical and related issues is one of the listed criteria. The revised policy provides the following criteria for promotion to Associate Professor, in Section III, 25:
You should discuss these criteria with both candidates for promotion and members of your Department or Area to ensure everyone understand the revised Policy. Committee members need to keep in mind that because the tenure and promotion decisions for teaching-stream candidates are now linked, these candidates will now need to meet the expectations for promotion to Associate Professor within the time constraints of their initial five-year appointment.