Associate senior lecturer in public administration

Subject area

The position focuses on public administration with a specialisation in the European Union, with an emphasis on how local and national authorities, as well as international organisations, are governed and operate. The subject area at Malmö University is interdisciplinary and includes such areas as public administration, organisation theory, law och policy analysis.

Job description

As an associate senior lecturer at Malmö University, you will be able to develop your independence as a researcher and complete both your scientific and educational qualifications required for promotion to an indefinite term position as a senior lecturer. The position’s duties are primarily research but also include teaching. As part of the position, you will also be given the opportunity to complete research leadership and higher education teaching training.

The position’s duties include research of at least 60% and teaching of at most 40% within public administration.

The position involves contributing to the development of the subject area public administration with a focus on the European Union. As an associate senior lecturer, your main duties are to pursue your own research, to apply for external research funding for yourself and others, and to teach. The position also involves development of courses, teaching and examination on the bachelor’s and master’s levels and collaboration with third parties. As an associate senior lecturer, you are expected to take part in collegial contexts and contribute to an active academic citizenship. Administrative duties related to research, teaching and cooperation are included in the position.

The position is closely linked to the research environments at the Department of Global Political Studies, where the research is conducted in strong local, national and international networks

Qualification requirements

Research expertise is a qualification requirement for employment as an associate senior lecturer. Candidates for the position of associate senior lecturer at Malmö University are required to have a PhD or have attained equivalent expertise.

Preference will be given to individuals awarded a PhD or having attained equivalent expertise no more than seven years prior to the expiry of the application period for the position.

Individuals who were awarded a PhD or attained equivalent research prior to this period can be considered under special circumstances. Special circumstances include absence due to illness, parental leave and similar circumstances.

It is a general qualification requirement that the candidate is appropriate for and has the skills in general required to fully complete the duties of this position (including the ability to work with others).

Additional qualification requirements for this position are:

• very high level of spoken and written English.

Assessment criteria

The overall assessment places the greatest emphasis on research expertise. The overall assessment includes teaching and collaborative expertise, academic citizenship, leadership and administrative expertise.

The assessment criteria for research expertise are:

• research in the field relevant for the position in question;
• active participation and being well-established in the scientific community;
• ability to initiate, plan, develop, independently implement and lead high-quality research with international impact and of significant scope;
• capable of international research collaboration;
• capable of attracting competitive external research funding in light of the subject area’s unique characteristics and traditions;
• ability to apply principles for open science; and
• ability to communicate research within and outside of the scientific community.

The assessment criteria for teaching expertise are:

• ability to plan, develop, implement and lead high-quality teaching using different teaching methods on the bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral levels;
• experience of educational development work and reflection on one’s own educational philosophy and application;
• ability to integrate research into bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral education both in terms of content and educational methods; and
• capable of participating in and leading international educational collaborations;
• experience of doctoral programmes, such as solid experience of planning, admissions, work with syllabuses and course development, summative assessments, supervision up to defence of doctoral thesis, and experience as the main doctoral supervisor, in light of the subject area’s unique characteristics and traditions.

Assessment criteria for collaborative expertise are:

• ability to initiate, develop and expand collaboration and mutual exchange with various public organisations at the local, national and international levels to strengthen the quality, relevance and benefit of research and education;
• ability to communication research and education to external target groups; and
• ability to translate research and education into innovation and apply them practically (utilisation).

Assessment criteria for academic citizenship, leadership and administrative expertise are:

• work within academia beyond regular duties within education and research and also with external activities and assignments where academic citizenship is practiced;
• collegial initiatives at a department, faculty, or equivalent that promote a healthy work environment and academic setting, such as work on boards and committees, and in working groups, responsibility for seminars, various leadership, coordination and mentor assignments within and outside of one’s own higher education institution, assessment and review assignments, and work with journals;
• experience from academic leadership and leadership positions and the ability to lead and develop an organisation and staff and to take responsibility for the organisation’s quality and outcomes, and create enthusiasm; and
• ability to plan, organise, implement and follow up work, assignments and operations and the ability to work in a structured way and contribute to development of organisational processes and procedures.

Assessment of qualifications will be done based on Malmö University’s appointments procedure and the adopted job description for the position. An overall assessment of the applicant’s qualifications and expertise based on the qualification requirements and assessment criteria will be made prior to a decision to hire an applicant.

See Malmö University’s appointments procedure for additional instructions on how to conduct the assessment.

Faculty

At the Faculty of Culture and Society, we provide science-based knowledge that builds and develops open, sustainable and democratic societies based on humanistic, social sciences and design sciences perspectives. The organisation is international, transboundary and characterised by close collaboration both within and outside of academia. We are organised in three departments: the Department of Urban Studies, the Department of Global Political Studies and the School of Arts and Communication.

Read more about the Faculty of Culture and Society here.

Department

The Department of Global Political Studies has a clear international profile where global perspectives are integral to its research and education. Studies of global processes and their consequences for power, security, justice and development are central themes. The department offers course and degree programmes in Swedish and English and has an international student and research environment.

Read more about the Department of Global Political Studies here.

Application instructions

Apply for the position through Malmö University’s recruitment system by clicking on the “Apply” button. Application documents are to be submitted electronically. Physical documents are only accepted in exceptional cases; contact hr@mau.se if you have books or other documents that cannot be submitted electronically.

All qualifications are to be documented so that both quality and scope can be assessed. You are responsible for ensuring that your application is complete in accordance with the job description and application instructions and that it is submitted no later than 3 May 2026. The application is to be written in Swedish, English or one of the other Scandinavian languages. When required, you are responsible for translating the application and any submitted documents.

For guidance on compiling qualifications, you can use Malmö University’s Academic Qualifications Portfolio.

The application is to include the following:

• a short application cover letter of at most two pages that describes your experience, background and expertise related to the position and an explanation of why you are applying
• curriculum vitae with attachments (maximum 10 pages of annexes)
• complete list of publications
• list of the three scientific works you wish to reference and your doctoral thesis. Provide the DOI code for each publication if there is one.
• describe your planned research (including schedule and publication plan) and research ambitions (maximum five pages)
• short presentation of your teaching qualifications (such as a summary of your teaching experience, a short reflection over your teaching approach and teaching qualifications, maximum three pages)
• the scientific works (maximum three)
• doctoral thesis
• other documents you wish to refer to

Terms of employment

Starts: 1 November 2026 or by agreement.

Form of employment: Fixed-term employment for four (4) years, with the potential for promotion to an indefinite term position as a senior lecturer.

Scope of the position: 100%

Salary: Individual salary setting

Swedish is the primary language at Malmö University, and it is a hope that non-Swedish speaking staff will acquire enough Swedish language skills to allow them to participate in teaching and research and in common and daily work at the department but also as a way to enable them to take on academic leadership positions.