These pages offer specific details for academic titles and ranks at the University of Washington. See the list below for a breakdown of how specific titles and ranks are grouped together for ease of navigation.

Note: Any discrepancies between information found on these titles and ranks pages and existing University policies including those in UW’s Policy Directory, the UW Librarian Personnel Code and relevant collective bargaining agreements are unintentional. In such cases, the official UW policy document prevails.

Academic Title/Rank Categories

Acting Titles
Adjunct Appointments
Administrative Appointments
Affiliate Titles
Clinical Titles
Librarian Ranks
Non-Professorial Instructional and Other Related Titles
Postdoctoral Scholar Titles
Professorial Tracks
Residents and Fellows
Visiting Titles
Emeritus Appointments and Re-Employed Retirees

For information about Applied Physics Lab (APL) and ROTC ranks, please contact acadpers@uw.edu.

Key Terms

Title, rank, and appointment: These terms are used throughout OAP’s titles and ranks pages when referring to the general designation of someone’s role at the University. While these terms are often used interchangeably in casual conversation or specifically in other contexts (e.g., Workday), use on OAP’s titles and ranks pages is intended to align directly where relevant with how each designation is styled in the UW Faculty Code, the UW Librarian Personnel Code, and relevant collective bargaining agreements.
Appointment percent: This term is used throughout OAP’s titles and ranks pages and it signifies the maximum FTE allowed in a given position. Appointment percent is referred to as roster percent in Workday and is distinct from FTE which can fluctuate, for instance, when someone is on an approved leave.
Tenure status: This field is used throughout OAP’s titles and ranks pages to indicate whether the title/rank requires tenure (tenured) or a mandatory review for tenure (on tenure track), or is ineligible for tenure (N/A).

Additional Resources

Sextant
Clock-managed ranks
ISC user guides
Faculty voting guidelines
Annual vs. quarterly appointments
Background checks (Academic HR is no longer conducting; checks are conducted at the local level)
Interfolio user guides
Legacy job class codes