The Regulation is established based on subsection 7 (1) and clause 14) of § 9 of the Statutes of Tallinn University of Technology.

§ 1. Scope of the Regulation

(1) The Visiting Academic Staff Statute (hereinafter referred to as “the Statute”) applies to the recruitment and employment relationships of visiting academic staff (hereinafter referred to as “visiting staff”) in compliance with subsections 34 (1) and (5) of the Higher Education Act.

(2) The Statute does not apply to the positions or employment relationships of academic staff laid down in the Regulation on the Academic Career Management.

§ 2. Visiting staff

(1) Researchers, creative persons or prominent practitioners in their field can be invited to teach or conduct research as visiting staff members for up to five years.

(2) The title of a visiting staff member is Visiting Professor, Visiting Lecturer or Visiting Researcher according to the academic or professional qualifications of the visiting staff member.

(3) A person can be employed as a visiting staff member even if the person does not meet all the qualification requirements for academic staff.

(4) A visiting staff member is a member of the university and is included in the list of employees of the academic structural unit.

(5) The rights and obligations of a visiting staff member shall be laid down in the contract concluded with the visiting staff member.

§ 3. Recruitment of visiting staff

(1) The recruitment of a visiting staff member is organised by the head of the department or a person appointed by the head of the department.

(2) To recruit a visiting staff member:
1) the need for recruitment shall be assessed;
2) the purpose of inviting the visiting staff member and the expected work results shall be defined;
3) the visiting staff member’s education, academic degree or qualifications and compliance thereof with the requirements for the academic position shall be assessed;
4) the previous performance indicators of the visiting staff member shall be assessed for compliance with threshold requirements for the academic position related to the qualifications of the visiting staff member.

(3) A decision on recruitment of a visiting staff member is made as follows:
1) in the case of visiting lecturer, by the head of the department in coordination with the programme directors of the field;
2) in the case of a visiting researcher, jointly by the head of the research group or subunit and the head of the department;
3) in the case of the visiting professor, by the Academic Committee of the Senate on the proposal of the head of the department.

(4) The head of the department shall make a proposal to recruit a visiting professor to the Academic Committee of the Senate in coordination with the dean. The proposal must include the data specified in subsection 3 (2).

(5) The head of the department shall enter into an authorisation agreement with the visiting staff member for the period of employment.

§ 4. Entry into force of the Regulation

(1) The Visiting Teaching Staff Statute (approved by Resolution No 43 of 20.06.2017 of the Council) is repealed.

(2) The Regulation shall enter into force on 1.12.2023.