Guide to Grading and Progression/Promotion for staff in the Education & Scholarship job family

Appointment at Grade H Associate Professor (Education and Scholarship)

Exceptionally, an appointment may be made at Associate Professor (Education and Scholarship) (grade H) subject to:

• an assessment by the College of the requirements of the role; and

• funding approval and the approval of the line managing Deputy Vice-Chancellor via the SR1 process; and

The expectations of staff at these levels are summarised in the role profile for Associate Professor (Education and Scholarship). The preferred applicant must satisfy the requirements of the Education and Scholarship Career Path for appointment to Associate Professor - including HEA recognition at the appropriate level – for this post and will be evidenced by an application and interview process as part of the University’s agreed recruitment and selection procedure.

Progression to Personal Chair (Education and Scholarship)

When a College is considering whether an Associate Professor should be put forward for promotion to Professor/Personal Chair, the College Dean should carry out an initial assessment, supported by the Associate Dean of Education and the HRBP for the Colleges of whether:

(a) there is an ongoing need in the College for work at Professor level;

(b) the member of staff is ready for progression and that their skills and competences can be evidenced against the appropriate promotion criteria for staff in the Education and Scholarship Job Family, including the requirement for HEA recognition at the relevant level.

Colleges are advised to seek advice from HR Business Partner for the College before making a submission.

If the College Dean is satisfied that there is a case for considering promotion a written submission should be made using form PD08, together with a portfolio of evidence (based on their Personal Development Reviews) to support the application. The case will be strengthened if the portfolio contains evidence of external activity including testimonies from people employed outside of the University. This should be submitted to the HR Business Partner for the College.

If the Dean is unable to support the application, they should explain their reasons to the member of staff who has the right to make a personal submission.

The application will be considered by a panel normally comprising of the line managing Deputy Vice Chancellor (Chair of Panel), the College Dean, the College Associate Dean for Education, a Senior Academic from another College and the Director of HR (or their nominee). The panel will:

(a) conduct an initial assessment of the portfolio against the appropriate promotion criteria;

(b) interview the member of staff, who will also be required to make a presentation in support of their application and answer questions on the evidence presented.

Human Resources will notify the staff member of the arrangements for interview. The purpose of the interview is to establish the suitability of the member of staff for promotion to Professor.

The panel will make a recommendation to the Vice-Chancellor’s Executive Group on whether the promotion criteria have been met. The decision on promotion will be taken by the Vice-Chancellor’s Executive Group.

If the Vice-Chancellor’s Executive Group is satisfied that the member of staff should progress to Personal Chair, the employee will be promoted from the 1st of the month following the date on which the Dean has submitted the case to the HR Business Partner.

The University’s equality and diversity standards requires that appointment and promotion decisions be made on merit and free from discrimination, as required by the Equality Act. Consequently, the agreed assessment criteria should be fully and fairly applied when considering promotion applications. (The University may be challenged to justify that selection/promotion decisions were made on objective criteria.)As part of its equality and diversity programme, the University has committed to a number of employment targets to increase the percentage of women in senior academic roles and to increase the percentage of Black Minority Ethnic staff in academic roles. In addition, the University has adopted the Athena Swann commitment to establish excellent employment practices for women, through appropriate recruitment (at all levels of seniority) and career development strategies, in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine and across the entire University.