Vacant assistant professorships and associate professorships in jurisprudence at the Department of Law, University of Southern Denmark

At the Department of Law at SDU, one or more assistant professorships and associate professorships in jurisprudence will be available as of 1 February 2026 or by further agreement. The associate professorships are permanent positions and either part-time or full time, while the assistant professorships have a duration of three years and are full time. The place of work is at the University of Southern Denmark’s campus in Odense or Esbjerg.

Job content

At the Department of Law, our vision is to participate in shaping and impacting on the society of the future and contributing to creating a sustainable world through:

• Creating new and relevant legal research results of high quality
• Educating a diverse pool of talent which turns into talented and requested graduates
• Interacting and cooperating with the surrounding society
• Communicating and exchanging our research-based knowledge

We are looking for assistant professors and associate professors who want to help implement this vision.

We expect applicants to be resourceful and to be able to contribute actively and with commitment within both research and education, as well as actively participate in collaborations at the Department of Law.

In terms of teaching, the candidates must be able to teach and supervise within one or more of the basic disciplines in law.

Qualifications

In order to qualify for the positions, candidates must meet the department’s qualification criteria. This assessment is carried out by an appointed assessment committee.

In order to be considered for the positions, the candidates must be a match for the department’s current needs, the department’s strategy and the job tasks tied to the positions. This assessment is carried out by an appointed hiring committee and is based on i.e. the applicant’s research and teaching profile, the submitted research plan, the grade of the assessment and the impressions during a prospective job interview. Furthermore, the applicant’s expected level of contribution to the department’s further development will be weighted highly.

Those appointed are expected to show commitment and visibility and to contribute to the department’s positive work environment and the continuous operation of the department.

The applicants must be able to teach in Danish and/or English. Non-Danish speakers are expected – within three to five years – to speak Danish on a level which enables teaching law courses in Danish.

Application, salary and conditions of employment etc

Employment takes place in accordance with the agreement between the Ministry of Finance and the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations and requires scholarly qualifications at PhD level. The person employed in the position may, based on a specific individual managerial assessment, be exempted from time registration, also known as a self-organiser.

SDU recommends that international applicants take the time to visit Work in Denmark, where there is information and facts about moving to, working and living in Denmark, as well as the International Staff Office at SDU.

Application

Applications for the assistant professorships must contain the following:

• Motivated application incl. a specification of the professorship applied for (assistant professorship).
• Detailed curriculum vitae (educational and employment history must be specified with months and years).
• Certificates/diplomas (from the Master’s and the PhD).
• Information about experience with teaching or other kinds of research communication.
• A comprehensive list of publications (incl. a specification of the publications attached to the application).
• Up to three of the most relevant academic publications. Please attach a pdf file for each publication.
• If a publication has co-authors, a co-author statement stating your contribution must be attached as part of the pdf file in question.
• If it is available, please attach the PhD dissertation as a publication. If the evaluation is not yet available, it must be forwarded to pers.sc@sam.sdu.dk.
• A research plan for the next three years and a publication plan, if any.
• A review of other qualifications relevant to the position, including experience with external funding, if any.

Applications for the associate professorships must contain the following:

• Motivated application incl. a specification of the professorship applied for (associate professorship).
• Detailed curriculum vitae (educational and employment history must be specified by months and years).
• Certificates/diplomas (from the Master’s and the PhD).
• A teaching portfolio containing documentation of your teaching qualifications as well as an account of your on learning and reflections on teaching methods and the development thereof.
• A comprehensive list of publications (incl. a specification of the publications attached to the application).
• Up to six academic publications based on which you wish to be evaluated. Please attach a pdf file for each publication.
• If there are co-authors for a publication, a co-author declaration stating your contribution must be attached as part of the pdf file in question.
• If your PhD dissertation is attached as one of the requested publications, the written evaluation must be submitted as well.
• A research plan containing information concerning already planned research activities, publication plans and plans regarding applications for research funds from research foundations (external funding), if any.
• A review of other qualifications relevant to the position, including experience with external funding, if any

Applies to all applications: Documents should not contain your civil registration number. Documents which are not in Danish, Norwegian or Swedish must be translated into English. SDU may discard applications which are incomplete regarding the above-mentioned criteria without further notice.

Application procedure

The assessment of applications will be carried out in accordance with the current employment announcement for universities. The applications will be assessed by an assessment committee. However, the evaluation committee may require additional material to be included. In such a case, it is the applicant's responsibility to provide the necessary copies of the material.

Once the assessment committee have completed their assessment, each of the applicants concerned will receive the assessment concerning him/her. Shortlisting may be applied in the assessment process. Please note that only shortlisted applicants will receive a written assessment.

As part of the overall assessment of the applicant's qualifications, an interview may be included. The University of Southern Denmark wishes our staff to reflect the diversity of our society and thus welcomes applications from all qualified applicants, regardless of personal background.

The application must be submitted electronically via the "Apply now" link no later than 17 November 2025 at 23:59 CET. Uploaded files must be in an (unlocked) pdf or Word format. Applicants are advised to carefully read the SDU information on how to apply.

Please note that the motivated application shall be uploaded as ‘Cover letter’ (max. 5 MB), Curriculum Vitae shall be uploaded as ‘Resume’ (max 5 MB). All other documents shall be uploaded as ‘Miscellaneous documents’.

Further information concerning the positions is available from: interim Head of Department Nina Dietz Legind, e-mail: ndj@sam.sdu.dk. After 1 September 2025, enquiries should be directed to: Head of Department Ole Hammerslev, e-mail: ohv@sam.sdu.dk. If you experience technical problems with the online application process, please contact SDU’s HR support at hcm-support@sdu.dk.

Find further information on the department, its strategy and activities on the department’s website. The Department of Law is part of the Faculty of Business and Social Sciences, which is comprised of five departments. The department currently has approximately 65 permanent employees and a number of part-time lecturers. We work to ensure high quality and social relevance as regards both jurisprudent research, education and knowledge exchange.

The Department of Law offers the traditional law degree (the Bachelor programme and the Master’s programme) both as daytime studies and part-time studies (the teaching takes place on Saturdays). We also offer a Bachelor programme as well as a Master’s programme in Business Administration and Commercial Laws. In addition, the department is responsible for the teaching of other legal subjects offered at SDU, e.g. on the Master’s programme in Business Economics and Auditing, on the engineering programmes, on the Bachelor programmes in Economics and Business Administration and on the Diploma programmes in Business Administration.

The department is based on three of the University of Southern Denmark’s campuses: in Odense (where most of the employees are affiliated), in Kolding and in Esbjerg. The Bachelor programme in Esbjerg started in September 2023 for which reason the legal professional environment at that campus is still being developed.

The University of Southern Denmark was established to create value for and with society. Whether our contributions come in the form of excellent research, innovative solutions, education or learning, we must make a positive difference to society and contribute to a sustainable future. We do this by cultivating talents and creating the best environments for research and learning. It is therefore crucial that SDU retains, develops and recruits talent. At the same time, we need to ensure consistently high quality in all our activities – and we can only do that with the right people. The University’s researchers, lecturers, students, managers and technical/administrative staff are the foundation of our success.