Nine dean candidates for four University of Tartu faculties
On September 8, the election commissions approved the dean candidates for the University of Tartu’s four faculties. The new deans are elected at the end of September and beginning of October and their term of office begins on 1 January 2016 when the university’s academic units continue as four faculties within the new structure.
Candidate for the position of dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities is Margit Sutrop who is the Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy, Head of Centre for Ethics and Professor of Practical Philosophy. The dean is elected on 28 September.
There are two candidates for the position of dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences: Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration and Professor of Macroeconomics Raul Eamets and, representing the Faculty of Social Sciences and Education, Eiki Berg, Programme Director of International Relations and Regional Studies and Professor of International Relations Theory. The dean is elected on 29 September.
Running for dean of the Faculty of Medicine are Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Head of the Department of Internal Medicine and Professor of Propaedeutics of Internal Medicine Margus Lember, Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Senior Research Fellow and Associate Professor of Medical Microbiology Tõnis Karki and Lead Research Fellow of Physiological Genomics and Professor of Pathophysiology Sulev Kõks. The dean of the Faculty of Medicine is elected on 30 September.
There competition is tighter also in the Faculty of Science and Technology where the dean candidates are Dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology and Professor of Chemical Physics Peeter Burk, Director of the Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences and Senior Research Fellow in Geology Leho Ainsaar and Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science and Professor of Programming Languages Semantics Varmo Vene. The election day is on 1 October.
Rector Volli Kalm was pleased with the active participation in submitting the candidates: “All submitted candidates are skilled leaders. Taking the deans’ elections seriously shows that the university is preparing for the transition to the new structure.” The rector stressed that as members of the university’s administration and academic leaders of their faculties, the new deans have an important role and responsibility in reinforcing the cooperation between specialties and in the balanced management of the university’s development.
Introductions of the dean candidates are available on the web http://www.ut.ee/en/about-us/deans-elections. You can ask questions from the candidates during the debates and also by using the web form http://www.ut.ee/en/ask-dean-candidate. The web form is open until 13 September, the answers will be published on the intranet and the UT website at least one week before the elections, i.e. 21 September.
Electoral councils have been formed for the deans’ elections which comprise of the faculty’s academic employees whose working load as teaching or research staff is at least 20 hours a week. The electoral councils also comprise students who are members of the faculty councils and councils of the faculty’s institutes and colleges.
The deans’ elections are followed by the elections of the representatives of academic staff to the faculty councils on 23 October. The mandate of the new faculty councils begins also on 1 January 2016.
Read more about the deans’ elections on the intranet and the UT website: http://www.ut.ee/en/about-us/deans-elections
Additional information: Andres Soosaar, Academic Secretary, tel. 737 5605, e-mail. andres.soosaar [ät] ut.ee.