Dean of the School of Arts, Design and Architecture

Aalto ARTS is one of the most prestigious international universities of art, design and architecture in the world. Our areas of research are design, digital media, audiovisual representation, art, visual culture, architecture, as well as urban planning and design. We are ranked number 9 in the world in the field of Art and Design (QS 2018) and our ambition is to continue the work well underway, to aim at the very top in our fields. Aalto ARTS educates students to be global citizens, contributing to their communities with collaborative, compassionate and unconventional solutions to some of the most pressing questions of our time.

Our new home, the Väre complex at the Otaniemi campus in Espoo serves as a focal point for collaboration and generation of new thinking within the School and with a range of other stakeholders.

As our current Dean’s term of office is coming to an end, we are now seeking a new Dean to further empower our community towards excellence in academic, artistic and societal impact. 

Your goals

As our Dean, you will lead and manage activities at the School and ensure steady progress towards high-ranking international excellence and influence in our constituent fields. You will be a key contributor in further raising the impact and international profile of the School in the coming years. You have the drive and capacity to lead the School towards our ambitious goals as well as promoting the common goals of Aalto University.

More specifically, you will be in charge of:

• leading and managing all School operations with ambitious vision, clear strategy, well communicated goals and active collaboration and dialogue
• leading the School’s personnel to excel and thrive in their work
• providing academic leadership and ensuring excellence in research, artistic work and education
• leading the School’s funding efforts
• building and nurturing mutually rewarding relationships with key stakeholders in the field, both nationally and internationally
• managing the school operating plan and budget, including allocation of resources in order to secure the School’s scientific and artistic impact and capacity to educate future visionaries
• handling administrative personnel and degree related issues such as proposing, appointing and hiring personnel, admitting students and awarding degrees, and
• other duties assigned by the Board, the President, and the bylaws of the School.

You lead the School organization of 420 faculty and experts as well as actively engage with the other Schools and the Aalto community as a whole. As a member of the University’s top leadership team, you actively contribute to University-wide goals and work towards engaging and inspiring the community as a whole. The position is fixed-term for a period of 5 years with a possibility for a second term. You report to Provost.
 

Your experience and skills

To succeed in this role, you have an excellent track record in research and/or artistic work in one or more of ARTS’ fields and proven experience in successfully leading multidisciplinary communities within those fields. You have strong experience in managing, leading and inspiring academic communities either as Dean, Department Head or in an equivalent management position. Having excellent leadership skills, you inspire people to work together towards our strategic goals. You are an enabling and visionary leader with willingness to give people freedom to excel.

We value your cross-disciplinary experience within ARTS’ fields as well as diversity of experience with different fields and approaches of research and artistic work. You have strong international networks relevant to our fields, fundraising capabilities and the ability to nurture industrial and other collaborations. You proactively network with stakeholders nationally and internationally, acting as our ambassador. For this position, a doctoral degree in a relevant field is strongly preferred, but in exceptional cases persons not holding a doctoral degree may also be considered. You communicate fluently in English within our international and multicultural working environment.

Your passion and ambitions

As a strategic thinker, you have the ability to paint the big picture and build common awareness of the vision for our School. We value your strong communication, interaction and collaboration skills in leading our diverse and creative community. In addition, you are committed to promoting cross-disciplinary thinking across the whole University. You foster excellent relations with Aalto’s schools, student bodies and other internal and external stakeholders. As an open and inclusive person, you are driven by the values of diversity and equality. You have a high level of ambition and integrity, and strong motivation to paving our way towards the top level of our fields. 

Want to join us in shaping the future?

Please send your CV (max. 3 pages) and motivation letter (max. 2 pages) as separate attachments, in English. In your motivation letter, please include a) your reason for applying for this position and, b) your vision for higher education in the fields represented by the School of ARTS. To apply, please send your application materials by email to [email protected] by October 10, 2018.

Recruitment committee Chair, Philip Dean ([email protected]) and Committee Secretary Anna Lehtinen ([email protected]) are happy to answer your questions.

**
About Aalto University

Aalto University is a community of bold thinkers where science and art meet technology and business. We are committed to identifying and solving grand societal challenges and building an innovative future. Aalto University has been ranked the 7th best young university in the world (Top 50 under 50, QS 2018) and one of the world’s top technology challenger universities (THE 2017), thinking outside the box on research collaboration, funding and innovation. Aalto has six schools with nearly 11 000 students and 4000 employees of which close to 400 are professors. Our campuses are located in Espoo and Helsinki, Finland. With 37% of our academic faculty coming from outside Finland, we are a highly international community with strong academic standing.

At Aalto, high-quality research, art, education and entrepreneurship are promoted hand in hand. Disciplinary excellence is combined with multidisciplinary activities, engaging both students and the local innovation ecosystem. Our main campus is quickly transforming into an open collaboration hub that encourages encounters between students, researchers, industry, startups and other partners. Aalto University was founded in 2010 as three leading Finnish universities, Helsinki University of Technology, the Helsinki School of Economics and the University of Art and Design Helsinki, were merged to strengthen Finland’s innovative capability.