The University of Copenhagen offers particularly talented associate professors’ employment with the possibility to enter into a promotion programme that can lead to employment as a professor.​ To be employed as an associate professor on the promotion programme, the candidate must both qualify to work as an associate professor now and demonstrate the potential to transition into a position as a professor at the end of the programme. Both will be assessed based on the UCHP criteria for merit.

An associate professor is usually on the promotion programme for a minimum of 2 years and a maximum of 8 years. During the programme, there will be annual interviews with the head of department to assess if the associate professor is “on track”. The programme ends with a final assessment before transitioning to professorship.