OFD's Sabbaticals and Professional Development Fellowships resource provides guidance and information about procedures, funding, and strategies related to sabbaticals and professional development fellowships for UMass Amherst faculty and librarians. This page includes links to internal policies and procedures, resources for planning, and links to selected funding agencies. Faculty and librarians are also invited to participate in annual professional development fellowship workshops and biennial sabbatical workshops for more personalized support. Let your next sabbatical or fellowship provide the space and restoration to further open doors to creativity.
Academic Personnel Policy and Process
The Academic Personnel Office (APO) in the Office of the Provost manages information and procedures related to faculty leave.
APO's Professional Improvement Programs include sabbatical leave and Senior Lecturer Professional Development Fellowships.
APO's Academic Personnel Workflow System (APWS) is a tool for faculty and librarian personnel actions, such as applying for reappointment, promotion, tenure, or sabbatical leave.
Resources: Sabbatical & Professional Development Fellowship Planning
- NCFDD Webinar: How to Maximize Your Sabbatical: From Application through Completion, facilitated by Peggy Jones (UMass provides you with a free institutional membership. Just create your login to access the webinars.)
- How to Sabbatical, Jen Lundquist and Joya Misra’s piece in Inside Higher Ed
- Five Steps to a Successful Sabbatical, published in Science
- Mindful Sabbatical Resources, a local listing of resources to support your sabbatical collected by Brian Baldi, CTL (Please email @email for a copy of this syllabus example during our website transition)
- Sabbatical Syllabus example, an example template of how to map out your personal and professional sabbatical goals by a UMass professor (Please email @email for a copy of this syllabus example during our website transition)
- Strategies for Optimizing Your Sabbatical for Professional and Personal Growth, by Bryn Harris, published by the Society for the Study of School Psychology
- CoJourn accountability program (article: Support, Connection, and Growth: Two Conway Grads Buddy Up through Cojourn)
Professional Development Fellowships
Professional Development Fellowships provide a one-semester release for select non-tenure-track faculty who have achieved the rank of senior lecturer or above or have six or more years of full-time equivalent service in an extension or clinical title. Professional Development Fellowships support professional improvement activities that directly relate to the faculty member’s job responsibilities and/or advance important initiatives for their department or college.
External Funding Opportunities
Associate Provost for Faculty Development, Professor of Resource Economics