Post-Tenure Reviews

Tenured faculty at Indiana University will begin undergoing post-tenure productivity reviews in early 2026. This new type of review is required by law and will affect all full-time faculty who already have tenure, as well as those who will receive tenure in the future.

What do you need to know about post-tenure reviews? How can you prepare? And where should you go if you have questions?

IU School of Medicine Dean Jay Hess, MD, has a conversation with a colleague.

What are Post-Tenure Reviews?

Post-tenure reviews are systematic evaluations of performance by tenured faculty over a five-year period. They assess whether faculty are fulfilling their responsibilities in teaching, scholarship (research and/or creative activity) and service, according to the expectations of their departments, schools and Indiana University.

About Post-Tenure Reviews

Indiana University’s post-tenure review policy is mandated by Indiana state law (specifically IC 21-38-3.5 and IC 21-39.5-2.2) and was formalized in the IU Board of Trustees’ Post-Tenure Faculty Productivity and Annual Review policy (BOT-24) as of June 2025

The IU policy:

Holds the university in compliance with the state law.
Helps affirm tenured-faculty contributions in research, service and teaching are at levels in line with IU’s high academic standards and mission.
Provides a structured path (performance improvement plan) to help faculty regain acceptable productivity, if needed.
Promotes clarity in what is expected of tenured faculty, reducing uncertainty and enhancing fairness. This is largely in part due to the establishment of discipline-specific criteria (standardized rubrics) for assessing performance in the areas of scholarship, teaching and service.

The post-tenure review includes a thorough review of the past five faculty annual reviews. It is critical that you have a review each year, so that the post-tenure review is an accurate and complete picture of your previous five years of productivity.

Faculty annual reviews are designed to foster continuous improvement, accountability and alignment with institutional goals.

Under the IU policy, post-tenure reviews examine performance in three broad categories:

Teaching
Research/scholarship
Service — including university and public service

At minimum, the review considers:

The faculty member’s teaching workload
The number of learners taught (graduate and undergraduate)
Time devoted to instructional assignments, including graduate student supervision
The faculty member’s research/scholarship productivity
Service contributions consistent with the expectations in the unit, school and university

Each school (e.g., IU School of Medicine) is required to define discipline-specific criteria that specify expected performance levels in each area, tailored to norms in the field and allowing for variations in allocation of effort. You can view, comment on or ask questions about the IU School of Medicine rubrics until Nov. 16.

(Note that the rubrics are only available on MedNet. You will need to use your IU login credentials to access the page. If you have trouble, try opening a browser you don't normally use — like Firefox or Chrome — or open an incognito window, then log in using your Indiana University – not IU Health – credentials.)

As a result of post-tenure review, faculty will receive one of four possible university-level ratings:

Exceeds productivity expectations
Meets productivity expectations
Does not meet productivity expectations
- This may reflect sustained performance below expectations, unsatisfactory annual reviews or lack of evidence of fulfilling duties.
- When this rating is the outcome, a performance improvement plan (PIP) that outlines goals, timelines, support structures and criteria for defined improvement is required. The PIP cannot exceed 12 months, and noncompliance can lead to dismissal.
Unsatisfactory productivity
- This rating could be the result of multiple unsatisfactory annual ratings, or violations of policy or law.
- An “unsatisfactory productivity” rating may trigger dismissal proceedings by the chief academic officer.

You will receive a letter of response from the dean upon completion of your post-tenure review. After receiving the dean’s letter, you have the right to submit an optional response before your dossier and dean’s letter move to the chief academic officer for final review. You will have five business days from the receipt of the dean’s letter to respond.

You may appeal an adverse decision via a Faculty Board of Review.

timeline showing review process and responsibilities

Review Processes and Responsibilities Timeline

Throughout the year, there are several review-related processes occurring, including those related to faculty annual reviews, 3- and 5-year dossier reviews, and post-tenure productivity reviews.

Wondering how your responsibilities fall into the overall timeline of the post-tenure review process?

Download the review processes timeline

Preparing for Post-Tenure Reviews

IU School of Medicine recognizes that post-tenure reviews can stir a sense of anxiety in faculty. To help you prepare for your first post-tenure review, stay informed. Bookmark this page and plan to revisit well ahead of your first review.

The Indiana University Post-Tenure Faculty Productivity and Annual Review policy — based on requirements of a 2025 Indiana state law — requires all tenured faculty to have a post-tenure review every five years.

When you receive your first review depends on your effective date of tenure.

Those whose tenure became (or will become) effective in _____...		...will receive a post-tenure review in spring ____ and every five years thereafter.
Future		Five years after your effective tenure date
2025		2030
2024		2029
2023		2028
2022		2027
2021		2026
2020 or before	20% of IU Indianapolis faculty granted tenure before 2021*	2026
	Another 20% of IU Indianapolis faculty granted tenure before 2021	2027
	Another 20% of IU Indianapolis faculty granted tenure before 2021	2028
	Another 20% of IU Indianapolis faculty granted tenure before 2021	2029
	Another 20% of IU Indianapolis faculty granted tenure before 2021	2030

* For 2026, about 80 of those faculty are from the IU School of Medicine.

Exception: If you have an administrative role (e.g., department chair, director) of 0.5 FTE or greater, you will receive your first post-tenure productivity review five years after your administrative role concludes. You will, however, continue to receive regular annual reviews during this administrative period.

We encourage you to proactively prepare for your first post-tenure review.

Attend an information session on post-tenure review, Dec. 16, from 9 to 10 a.m. ET via Zoom. This one-hour information session will provide guidance, answers and tools that will help you better understand:
- When to expect your first and future post-tenure productivity reviews
- What will be measured during each review
- How you should prepare for your review
- The process and people involved from start to finish
- What happens with your review results
- And more.
Familiarize yourself with evaluation criteria.
- Review the standard evaluation rubrics for research/scholarship, teaching and service. These draft rubrics will be available beginning Oct. 17, 2025. (Note: If you have trouble accessing the MedNet page, try opening a browser you don't normally use — like Firefox or Chrome — or open an incognito window, then log in using your Indiana University – not IU Health – credentials.)
- Note that from Oct. 17 to Nov. 16, you can submit comments and suggestions for the rubrics on the MedNet site. The rubric task forces will review all comments and suggestions and determine if there is a need for adjusting the rubrics before they are officially adopted ahead of the spring 2026 post-tenure review season.
Maintain detailed documentation.
- Get/keep your Elements profile up-to-date. Using Elements is now required for all faculty annual review processes. The reports generated from your faculty annual reviews form the building blocks of post-tenure reviews. Be sure your profile includes all activity for all years covered during your review.
  - For those who will be undergoing a post-tenure review in 2026, it will not be necessary to have five years’ worth of activity entered into Elements. Instead, be sure all activity from the 2025 calendar year is entered into Elements, and then focus on writing your one-page summaries (detailed below).
  - For those undergoing post-tenure reviews in 2027 or beyond, be sure you have the past five years’ worth of activity data entered into Elements.
- Keep an up-to-date curriculum vitae (CV), as well as a summary of accomplishments in each of the three domains: Teaching, scholarship and service.
Craft your post-tenure productivity review packet, including:
- Your current CV
- A one-page summary for each domain (teaching, scholarship and service), summarizing your accomplishments over the review period.
  - Include both quantitative metrics (publications, citations, grants, student evaluations, service roles) as well as qualitative narrative (explanation of context, challenges, innovations, collaborations).
  - Integrate clinical, translational, education and service metrics (e.g., clinical productivity, patient outcomes, curricular innovation, external funding, committee work) into your narrative and documentation.
Anticipate questions and possible areas of concern, such as gaps or less active periods in your record.
- Prepare brief explanations.
- Be ready to show plans for how to strengthen future performance.
Submit your post-tenure review packet to your chair or chair’s designee in Elements by Feb. 1.
Use feedback proactively. Use all feedback — positive, negative or mixed — as a roadmap for your next cycle of productivity and development.

Answers to FAQs

The Academic Leadership Council has published answers to frequently asked questions about post-tenure and faculty annual reviews. There, you can find answers to questions like:

Are there templates for post-tenure productivity review letters and performance improvement plans?
Are individual departments and units responsible for identifying specific criteria for post-tenure productivity reviews?
What happens if a faculty member did not receive an annual review of their performance during part or all of the previous-five-year window that is covered in their post-tenure productivity review period?
And more

Info Session: Post-Tenure Reviews

Dec. 16, 9 to 10 a.m. ET, via Zoom

This one-hour information session will provide guidance, answers and tools that will help you better understand:

When to expect your first and future post-tenure productivity reviews
What will be measured during each review
How you should prepare for your review
The process and people involved from start to finish
What happens with your review results
And more

Town Hall: New Faculty Annual Review Standard Rubrics

Nov. 6, 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. ET, via Zoom

Elected faculty officers, task force co-chairs and members of FAPD will explain the new, standardized performance rubrics and how they pertain to post-tenure review, answer questions and address comments. The session will not be recorded; plan to attend the live webinar.

Annual review information and Elements training

See the Faculty Annual Reviews page for detailed information about training opportunities and resources related to annual reviews and Elements, based on your role (reviewer or reviewee).