Dean elections 2019
On 22 October 2019, the electoral councils elected new deans for the University of Tartu’s four faculties. The new deans, who will commence work on 1 January 2020, are Raul Eamets, Margus Lember, Anti Selart and Leho Ainsaar.
Faculty of Arts and Humanities
62,22% of the members of the electoral council voted in the elections. 115 members of the electoral council voted for Anti Selart and 100 members of the electoral council supported Riho Altnurme. Consequently, the new dean is Anti Selart. Answering the questions asked by members of the university, Anti Selart said that his most important tasks will be the sustainable financing of the faculty the preservation and development of the diversity of specialities and ensuring the continued use of evidence-based practice in academic work.
Faculty of Social Sciences
Raul Eamets, who was supported by 176 members of the electoral council, will also continue as the dean. When Professor Eamets was asked about the three main issues he considers the most important for the dean to solve, he replied as follows: “Firstly, people must like working in the university. This means that they want to work; they feel needed when they are at work and understand that what they do is important. The second important thing is the optimal structure and number of curricula that would highlight this synergy at the contact points of different fields. We should not optimise and increase efficiency for the sake of it, but our goal should be to pay higher salaries to the people we have. Thirdly, the university’s budgetary principles must support my previous line of reasoning. Therefore, these principles need to change. The university’s current funding model is based on the premise that we’ll get more money if we have more students and issue more credits”.
Faculty of Medicine
Margus Lember, who received the votes of 152 members of the electoral council, continues as the Dean of Medicine. 121 members of the electoral council supported Ruth Kalda. According to Lember, there are five key issues that the dean should solve: interdisciplinarity, cooperation with other areas, researchers’ access to base funding of science, continuous work in ensuring high-quality education for students and residency development.
Faculty of Science and Technology
66,62% of the members of the electoral council voted in the elections. 321 members of the electoral council voted for Leho Ainsaar and 143 members of the electoral council supported Varmo Vene. Consequently, the new dean is Leho Ainsaar.
Leho Ainsaar divides the topics important to him as a future dean into three categories: research, higher education and structure. As far as research is concerned, Ainsaar considers coping with the setbacks of project-based funding as the most important task. In higher education, it is crucial to solve the issue of the disproportional development of disciplines. In terms of structure, he considers it important to integrate the Institute of Genomics into the faculty and solve the associated question of the division of work.
See who were the candidates for the deans of all the four faculties:
Faculty of Arts and Humanities:
Professor of Church History Riho Altnurme
Professor of Medieval History Anti Selart
Faculty of Social Sciences:
Professor of Macroeconomics Raul Eamets
Faculty of Medicine:
Professor of Propaedeutics of Internal Medicine Margus Lember
Professor of Family Medicine Ruth Kalda
Faculty of Science and Technology
Senior Research Fellow in Geology Leho Ainsaar
Professor of Programming Languages Semantics Varmo Vene.
Read answers provided by dean candidates to questions put by university staff
Dean elections are prepared and organised by the Election Committee:
- Academic Secretary Andres Soosaar (Chairman),
- Legal Counsel Aliis Liin,
- Lecturer in French Literature Tanel Lepsoo from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities,
- Lecturer in Social Media Maria Murumaa-Mengel from the Faculty of Social Sciences,
- Associate Professor in Human Physiology Aavo Lang from the Faculty of Medicine
- Researcher in Molecular Biology Margus Leppik from the Faculty of Science and Technology as faculty representatives.
Candidates can withdraw their candidacy two working days before the start of voting at the latest. This means that the Election Committee must be notified of the withdrawal decision by 18 October.
For the first time, dean elections will feature e-voting. The first round of voting will take place on 22 October 2019 from 00:00 to 18:00. The second round of voting is scheduled for 23 October, if necessary.
Deans are elected by electoral bodies of faculties. These consist of academic employees of faculties whose work load as a lecturer or a researcher is at least 20 hours per week and student representatives who belong to the councils of the faculty and its institutes and colleges. The rector will approve the list of the electoral body within two weeks before the elections.
Election information will be made available to voters within three weeks before the elections at www.valimised.ut.ee. During elections, the IT Department advises voters on IT issues.
The term of office of deans commencing work on 1 January 2020 is four years.