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Teaching and Scholarship

 

After the deadline for applications, the Secretary of the FC circulates a summary list of applicants and the full documentation to each member of the FC.  In advance of the FC meeting, the Chair and Secretary, in consultation with the FC members by circulation, confirms for each applicant: 

  • Whether the application is interdisciplinary/cross-departmental (and if so, decides whether further information from and/or consultation with an additional person(s) is required);  
  • Whether any Contextual Factors and/or COVID-related impacts have been declared (identifying what action to take and seeking advice from the relevant HR Schools Teams where necessary); 
  • The choice of References, internal and external, that will be taken forward. The ACP Team requesting the reference will include the full application (without the Contextual Factors and/or COVID Impact Statement) and refer the referee to the relevant Assessment Criteria and Indicators of Excellence; 
  • Where an application is a re-application, the previous year’s references should be carried forward and consideration given to updating existing references if appropriate; this would be treated as one of the references for the current round;  
  • What action may be required having reviewed the gender and ethnicity balance of the applications and seeking further information from the relevant Head of Institution as appropriate.  
  • The appropriate person (usually the Head of Institution but may be delegated to another senior academic officer) to provide the Institutional Statement;  
  • Whether information on College teaching and/or clinical/veterinary work is required (see additional details below);  
  • Whether the application is for the appropriate level of academic office/post (and, in exceptional cases, whether a new application for a different office/post should be submitted);  
  • If the applicant has made reference to their contribution to clinical work and postgraduate medical teaching and training, the Chair of the FC should request a statement from the appropriate NHS Trust to provide comment on their role and effectiveness.  
  • If the applicant has made reference to their contribution to clinical work including postgraduate veterinary teaching and training, the Chair of the FC should request a statement from the appropriate Clinical Manager to provide comment on their role and effectiveness.
  • If an applicant requests that their College teaching or work as Director of Studies should be taken into account, the Chair of the FC should request a statement from the Senior Tutor of the College at which the member of staff has regularly undertaken the greater part of their College teaching. The Senior Tutor should be asked to provide a factual description of the scope and amount of such teaching work, and comment on the effectiveness of the applicant’s contribution.  
Faculty Committee (FC) Meeting

The FC will consider all the documentation for each application and agree collectively the evaluation and scores against each of the Assessment Criteria documenting in each case whether the application for promotion/progression is supported and the reasons for its decision. The Committee should then rank the applicants in a list according to the strength of their applications and make its recommendation to the SC.  The Chair of each FC should attend part of the relevant SC meeting in a non-voting capacity.    

The Secretary of the FC will attend the meeting to provide advice and guidance as appropriate and, together with the Chair, oversee the fair and effective operation of the procedure.  The Chair might also wish to invite the relevant Head of School (or another nominated member of the SC) as an invited observer, who then may pass any observations on to the School Committee.

In addition, FCs may invite additional persons to attend meetings to assist in the consideration of interdisciplinary/cross-departmental applications, these persons are not committee members and are not entitled to vote but the names of those invited to attend may be disclosed to applicants.  

Each member of each Committee has a responsibility to ensure its business is conducted in accordance with the guidance; the Chair of each Committee has a particular role in this regard. 

Each Committee member, and those attending the Committee meetings, should ensure that:

  • they are familiar with this guidance (the Chair will ask each Member for confirmation);
     
  • in considering the applications, they adhere to the Assessment Criteria and do not import additional considerations into their evaluations which may be construed as additional criteria;  
     
  • they treat Indicators of Excellence as being suggestive in nature and non-exhaustive; not all indicators will be relevant to all applicants;  
     
  • they are aware of their responsibilities relating to equality, diversity and inclusion, including the potential risk of unconscious bias, and have completed the appropriate training (see Key Principles) to ensure their considerations are collective, fair, impartial and evidence based;  
     
  • they consider whether any allowance should be made for Contextual Factors and/or COVID-related impacts; and they state any declarations of interest to enable the Committee to agree appropriate action to be taken before consideration of applications. 
     
  • Each Committee, together with any other staff involved, is responsible for ensuring all relevant documentation and associated content is treated in the strictest of confidence.   
     

 

Faculty Committee Minutes

The FC will provide a fairly and objectively worded minute that:

  • Confirms whether:
    • an application has been treated as interdisciplinary/cross-departmental,
    • an application is to be referred to the SC from an FC in a different School,
    • if  allowance has been made for Contextual Factors or COVID Impacts, and/or
    • if there has been a departure from the standard scoring model and if so, the reasons.
       
  • Provides a reasoned justification of the agreed evaluations and its determination of the rank order for each office/post.
     
  • Provides a justification where high scores have been awarded that indicate an exceptional contribution.
     
  • Records where the Committee’s assessment differs from that suggested by a referee(s) and where it has either taken strong account of, or apparently disregarded, a single critical reference amongst a group of positive references.
School Committee (SC) Meeting

The SC will check that applicants have been consistently assessed across the FCs, clearly indicating in its minutes for each application any changes from the FC evaluations and the reasons, as well as whether the application for promotion/progression is supported.   

The Chair of each FC should attend part of the relevant SC meeting in a non-voting capacity to present cases and provide clarification where needed.  

The relevant Lead HR Business Partner will act as Secretary, providing advice and guidance and, together with the Chair, overseeing the fair and effective operation of the procedure. The relevant HR Schools Team will prepare and circulate the documentation not less than a week in advance of the meeting, including:   

  • an agenda; 
  • a copy of this guidance; 
  • the complete documentation for each applicant; 
  • comprehensive lists of all applicants for each academic office/post and; 
  • the approved FC Minutes including its evaluations, comments and ranking. 

The full documentation received by the SC (from the FC), together with the SC’s recommendations and signed Minutes should then be forwarded to the Secretary of the VCC Committee.   

 Applicants should not be informed of the outcome of the School Committee’s evaluation or provided with feedback at this stage (see Outcome and Feedback for further information).
 

School Committee Minutes

Following the meeting, the SC will provide a fairly and objectively worded minute that:

  • Confirms whether:
    • an application has been treated as interdisciplinary/cross-departmental,
    • an application is to be referred to the SC from an FC in a different School,
    • if allowance has been made for Contextual Factors or COVID Impacts, and/or
    • if there has been a departure from the standard scoring model and if so, the reasons,  
       
  • Provides a reasoned justification of the agreed evaluations and its determination of the rank order for each office/post, including clear reasons for any adjustment in the FC evaluations, banding, scoring. If there is complete agreement between a FC and a SC no comment will be necessary.
     
  • Provides a justification where high scores have been awarded that indicate an exceptional contribution;
     
  • Records where the Committee’s assessment differs from that suggested by a referee(s) and where it has either taken strong account of, or apparently disregarded, a single critical reference amongst a group of positive references, and;
     
  • Provides a feedback statement to be shared with the applicant.
     
  • Reference may be made to comments contained in referees’ statements; however, any such reference must be anonymised.
Vice-Chancellor's Committee (VCC) Meeting

The role of the Vice-Chancellor’s Committee (VCC) is to moderate between the SCs to ensure that a consistent standard has been achieved for all applications.  Therefore, the VCC will receive the rank order of applicants for each academic office/post and consider the documentary evidence for each applicant, deciding whether any adjustments in evaluation are necessary.  

The Secretary will circulate the documentation for the meeting electronically in good time in advance of the meeting. The documentation should comprise:

  • an agenda;
  • a copy of this guidance;
  • the complete documentation for each applicant from the SCs;
  • signed Minutes of the SC and FC with summary lists of evaluations and rankings agreed by the SC for all applicants in relation to each academic office/post applied to.
     

The Chairs of the SC, assisted by the respective external members, will present in turn their SC assessments, explaining for which applicants and why promotion/progression was supported and not supported.   

They will also identify any cases where the SC reached a different conclusion from the FC, and any cases in which non-standard aspects have caused difficulty.  The role of the VCC is in part to moderate between the SCs to ensure that a consistent standard has been achieved.   

Therefore, the VCC will consider the documented evidence in respect of each applicant and decide whether any adjustments in evaluations agreed by the FC and/or SC are necessary.   

If there is complete agreement with previous Committee evaluations, banding and scorings, no further comment is necessary; however, where there is not complete agreement further comments must be recorded.  Reference may be made in the Minutes to comments contained in referees’ statements but will be anonymised.

The VCC will then make its recommendations to the GB concerning applicants that should be successful.  The GB receives these recommendations and confirms the cases for promotion or progression.