The teaching ladder starts with adjunct instructor (adjunkt), continues with lecturer (lektor), and ends with professor.
[3] The Swedish Government Official Report (SOU 2007:98) on Academic Career Pathways published in December 2007 proposed several changes to the here described structure.
Previously, only holders of a chair of an academic department had the title professor, but, since the 1990s, a second career path has been opened, allowing qualified lecturers to apply for promotion.
A docent is an academic postdoctoral qualification, closely related to the Habilitation found in certain countries in Europe.
The title docent is not an employment position, but rather a competency level ("habilitation") required to be the main supervisor of a doctoral student, or to serve as a member of the committee that assesses the defense of a PhD thesis.
This teaching position typically requires a PhD, and is similar to a tenured associate professor in the USA.
Administrative or pedagogical skills can substitute for a lack in research work, if combined with long service.
A Postdoktor position usually entails working under the supervision of a senior researcher, such as forskarassistent, docent or professor.
Assistant professors can be lab and group leaders and usually carry independent research especially when have been given substantial grants.
This is an academic title that entails a research education, typically involving publication of scientific articles and successful defense of a doctoral thesis.
While employment as doktorand is unpopular with faculty for economical reasons, it is widely demanded by student organizations and acknowledge in law.
The position as doktorand does not per se distinguish between those students who are employed and those benefiting from public or private grants.
The emeritus rank is most commonly used for retired professors, although there is no particular regulation prohibiting a lektor to add the letters em after their title.
However, while directors general of all other departments and authorities are parachuted from above, no vice-chancellor is appointed without the board of the university's recommendation.
A formal account of the hearing process, including aspects of equal opportunity, is part of the recommendation sent to the Government.
Responsibilities include, but are not limited to, Student's Welfare, Education Quality, Off-Campus Programmes, Corporate Affairs, Information Technology and Internationalisation.
While the internal organization of the higher education institutions are not regulated by law, most have opted to divide into faculties or areas headed by a board and a dekan or dekanus, the dean.
A vice dean has rather been given a special area of responsibility within a faculty, e.g. collaboration with the surrounding society or internationalization.