Association of Professors of the University of Luxembourg – APUL
Minutes from the Extraordinary General Meeting
Wednesday, October 19, 2011, 17h00
Room BS 0.01 Campus Limpertsberg
Present: A. BINSFELD, R. BISDORFF (chair), M. COLE, D. HIEZ, M. HAPPOLD, M. PAULY, P. PICARD
Excused: I. BEHRMAN, A. COSMA, I. De SAINT-GEORGES, R. HARMSEN, S. MAUW, Ph. POIRIER, P. RYAN, Chr. SCHOMMER, N. TEFERLE, G. ZIEGLER, E. WEYDERT
The meeting starts at 17h00
Agenda
Approval of the Minutes from the EGM of Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Accepted as they are (see APUL web site: http://leopold-loewenheim.uni.lu/apul/?page_id=284 ).
Continuing the revision of the Position Text concerning the UL Law Revision
The following colleagues did provide written comments and/or suggestions for modifications:
A. Biryukov, I. De Saint-Georges, and E. Weydert.
Concerning Secttion II “Quant à la nouvelle balance des pouvoirs”
The proposed text is accepted with the exception of the motivation for strengthening the University Council, namely that in the new legal situation, the Minister for Higher Education and Research would no more supervise the decisions of the Governance Board. This sentence has been dropped as the argument is not correct. Essential remains the idea to strengthen the role of the University Council in the sense of a Senate, independent in its work from the rectorate and therefore headed by a president chosen exclusively among its elected members. Furthermore, the rectorate should have no more a voting power in this body.
Concerning Secttion III “Quant à d’autres modifications”
Here a summary point by point of the other modification proposals eventually adopted:
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Mobility exemptions for Bachelor students should be explicitly allowed and regulated by the ROI.
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The Faculties should be subdivided into disciplinary “research and training units” which may be furthermore subdivided into labs only if opportune.
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When refusing the choice of a recruitment commission the Governance Board will have to motivate his decision. In any case, no own initiative for modifying the ranking of the recruitment commission should be allowed.
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Stipulating that the rector eventually decides on the admissibility of doctoral students may only concern the administrative aspects of the registration as UL student.
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In order to guarantee the necessary independence and visibility of the work of the Scientific Advisory Board, this body should be defined as body of the UL in a proper Section of the Law text, independent from the attributions of the rectorate. And all official reports of this body should be automatically transmitted to all UL bodies concerned with strategic planning and decision making.
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Each Faculty should have the possibility to elect a vice-dean. The mandates of dean and vice-dean may be less than five years in duration, in order to allow an academic to get back to a scientific career afterwards.
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Empowerment to direct research and Ph.D. students should be automatic with the statute of UL professor. A procedure for empowerment of other academics should be installed. Besides a doctor title, an appropriate scientific publication should be required.
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After a long discussion, it is proposed to simplify the UL academic careers in the following sense: Only two distinct positions called senior lecturers and (full) professors should be made, where the professor position is divided into level A (early stage professors) and level B (seniors). The distinction between levels A and B should consist in an appropriate difference in the corresponding scientific CVs. This difference should also provide the criteria for the administrative career advancing from level A to level B professor.
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No working task distinction should anyway be made between both levels of professorship. And both categories should be allowed to take sabbatical leaves.
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Sabbatical leaves should also be given to both categories of Professors after having directed over a period of five years a study program or a research and training unit.
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unchanged.
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The actual statute of the doctoral assistants is not clear and it is proposed to replace these positions with either UL internal AFR or scientific auxiliary contracts.
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unchanged.
The eventual APUL Position Text concerning the UL Law revision made be consulted on the APUL site:http://leopold-loewenheim.uni.lu/apul/?page_id=232
The EGM finishes at 19h
Minutes prepared by R. Bisdorff, E. Friederich, and M. Pauly
Luxembourg, October 26 2011