9 PROMOTION

9.01 Promotion of Academic Staff

9.01.02 Promotion opportunities should take account of the needs of the University for staff to carry out functions in the PCS at the various Levels. There is no quota but vacant positions go back to the base grade (Associate Lecturer) unless a higher appointment is approved.

9.01.03 When assessing you for promotion, the Promotions Committee will consider, among other things:

• your formal qualifications or progress towards the qualifications;
• your achievement in scholarship and research and/or professional consultancy activities;
• your experience and achievement in teaching and/or curriculum development;
• your contribution to institutional planning and/or governance; and
• your service to the University, relevant profession and/or academic discipline and your relevant contributions to the wider community.

9.01.05 Promotion criteria will be made available to you and you will be assessed against the criteria.

Eligibility

9.01.06 You must have at least 1 year's service (or the same in broken periods) at the University by the closing date to apply for promotion.

9.01.07 If your application is received in the Personnel Office after the closing date, it will not be considered but will be held over to the following round.

9.01.08 You are encouraged not to reapply in the year following an unsuccessful application because of the short lead time and to allow you to take up any personal development suggested by the Committee or advisers.

Criteria For Promotion

9.01.09 Your whole career will be taken into account but special attention will be paid to your achievements at your current Level at the University.

9.01.10 The greatest weight is given to your overall achievements in the advancement of knowledge through scholarship and research and the dissemination of knowledge through teaching. Your involvement in the service of the University, the relevant profession and/or academic discipline and the wider community is also regarded as important.

9.01.11 For promotion to Lecturer, you should be able to show good performance in both teaching and research. You may make a case that your performance in one area be given greater weight, but attention must still be given to the other.

9.01.12 For promotion to Senior Lecturer, you should be able to show good performance in both teaching and research. You may make a case that your performance in one area is very good, but your performance in the other must still be satisfactory. You will put at risk an otherwise impressive application, if your record shows little or no service to the University or the community.

9.01.13 You may make a case for promotion to Lecturer or Senior Lecturer on the basis of your large and exceptional contributions to the goals of the University, sustained by administrative service, or professional service to the community, if this is supported by a good performance in one of the areas of teaching and research and a satisfactory performance in the other.

9.01.14 For promotion to Associate Professor, you should be able to show outstanding achievements in the advancement and dissemination of knowledge and give a clear indication from your program or plans that you will continue to perform at this Level. You must show that your all-round performance is clearly superior to that normally expected of a Senior Lecturer. In one of the areas of research or teaching, you must be able to show outstanding achievement, with a very good performance in the other.

9.01.15 For promotion to Associate Professor, your large and exceptional contributions to the goals of the University, sustained by administrative service, or professional service to the community, may compensate for a lesser, but still satisfactory, performance in the secondary area. You will put at risk an otherwise impressive application, if your record shows little or no service to the University or the community.

Discipline Profiles

9.01.16 The Promotions Committee will use the relevant discipline profile which shows that discipline's specific expectations for teaching, scholarship and research, and service for each of the Levels.

9.01.17 The Committee will assess your academic performance against your discipline profile.

9.01.18 You and the Department should make a special submission if, for any reason, the discipline profile is unsuitable or too restrictive for your promotion. This will not disadvantage you.

9.01.19 The Committee will tell you and other applicants after its first meeting if it will be suggesting changes to the discipline profile because it is unsuitable, restrictive, vague, or against the promotion criteria. This will allow you to add to your application before the interview meeting. The Committee will give the comments to the Division to allow a review of the profile.

Weightings

9.01.20 You may use weightings to show where you think that your contribution has been most significant. You should show on the Application Form if you are making a case for outstanding (for Associate Professor), very good, good or satisfactory, to show where you see your strengths and weaknesses, as a leader and practitioner, in each of the areas of:

• dissemination of knowledge through teaching;
• advancement of knowledge through scholarship and research;
• service to the University, the relevant profession and/or academic discipline and/or the community.

9.01.21 You must show that you have done more than carry out your duties satisfactorily over a number of years, since this is expected of all staff. Good teachers should expect some recognition of their contributions from their peers in the University, as well as above average ratings on student evaluations. Outstanding teachers should also expect recognition from outside the University.

9.01.22 The Committee will look for evidence of your achievement and development in such areas as:

• your mastery of the subject material and a lucid exposition of it as judged by colleagues, students and, where appropriate, Academic staff of other tertiary institutions;
• your concern for the education of students in a sense broader than the teaching of the discipline alone;
• your ability to get the active cooperation of students in the common enterprise of scholarship and to stimulate independent and innovative learning;
• the design of significant and original courses and programs;
• your capacity to design innovative experiments or learning programs which have helped students;
• your recognition as a teacher through invitation to teach or lecture at other institutions;
• your originality in teaching by contributions through publications on teaching;
• evidence that any methods introduced by you have gained acceptance outside this University;
• your published text books of quality as judged by acceptance outside this University;
• developed teaching aids of quality like computer programs, audio visual material, simulation models or games as judged by acceptance outside this University;
• the design and development of interdisciplinary courses which show your ability to disseminate knowledge beyond the discipline;
• your contribution to the development of teaching in the discipline.

9.01.24 You should send a Teaching Portfolio which includes:

• introduction:
• a statement of the discipline's expectations relevant to teaching;
• a statement of your philosophy of, and approaches to, teaching including teaching goals and methods;
• units you teach, undergraduate and postgraduate, including (possibly in table form):
• unit titles and codes, years, points value, enrolments, hours, level of responsibility (lectures, tutorials, laboratories, etc);
• current related duties such as course coordination;
• your supervision of honours and postgraduate students, including numbers and completions;
• material evidence, including representative unit syllabi, content aims, teaching methods and assessment tasks;
• reflective statements on unit construction and methods;
• your current teaching practices, including:
• teaching innovations;
• course, curriculum or departmental development;
• extent of formal and informal feedback to students, availability for consultation;
• assessment practices and assignments;
• teaching evaluation - collecting and using feedback including:
• feedback from peers/colleagues through team teaching or peer observation;
• feedback from students, informal and formal using the Teaching Evaluation for Development Services questionnaires;
• student achievement - outcomes of undergraduate and postgraduate teaching;
• recognition of your teaching, including teaching development grants, teaching awards and invitations to teach outside the University;
• your contributions to the discipline, in or outside the University, including publications and research on teaching, help to colleagues, and membership of teaching committees;
• your teaching development, including qualifications in university teaching, and professional development workshops and courses.

9.01.25 To assess your scholarship and research, the Committee will consider:

• your progress towards a higher degree (where appropriate, if you apply for Lecturer or Senior Lecturer). You may wish to ask your Academic supervisor to provide a report on your progress;
• evidence of your scholarly and creative work;
• publications:
  • paying greater attention in general to refereed contributions than to non-refereed contributions; and
  • considering the quality and impact and not merely the quantity;
• invitations to address scholarly meetings and conferences; and
• support from recognised sponsors of research.

9.01.27 If your case relies heavily on one major publication, it will be difficult for the Committee to give it adequate weight if it has not been available in the public domain long enough to allow peer review to take place. You should provide reviews of your work, where these are available.

9.01.28 Knowledge can be advanced through consultancy or any commissioned work you conduct for government authorities, industry or private enterprise, community organisations and groups, if that work is paid for or not. If the work is to be relevant for promotion, you must show the ways in which it has helped to advance knowledge in your field of study.

Documentation of Service to the University and the Community

9.01.29 You should outline the contributions you have made to University or Division/Department administration by more than merely listing the committees on which you have served or administrative responsibilities held. You should give the Committee information on the work involved in fulfilling your administrative responsibilities and the type of work each Committee undertakes, the frequency of meetings and your role in its deliberations.

9.01.30 For major contributions, the Head may nominate an additional referee, after consulting with you, to provide an assessment of your work.

9.01.31 Most Academic staff actively give to the community on the basis of their field of expertise. Your contributions need not be commissioned work or specific consultancies but may take the form of continuing involvement or frequent service. For example:

• services to secondary education through syllabus or examination committee membership;
• service to higher education;
• membership of the boards or governing bodies of public institutions;
• the provision of advice or information to governments, public service departments, industry, community groups and so on;

9.01.32 Your service in this category could include:

• dissemination of knowledge to the public;
• informing and contributing to public debate on topics relating to your area of academic expertise;
• serving as an expert member on policy or advisory bodies for government, industry and community groups.

Referees and Nominees

9.01.34 You must give the names and addresses of three referees who have agreed to give written reports, in confidence, on research, teaching and other scholarly and professional activities, as appropriate. At least one should be from outside the University and one from inside. Internal referees will be asked to comment specifically on your teaching. Referees should be established persons familiar with your recent work and, if you apply for Senior Lecturer or Associate Professor, able to show its impact on the field. You should consult the Head, adviser and your other mentors about referees.

9.01.35 You may give the name of a nominee, who should be a more senior staff member (perhaps your adviser) with first hand knowledge of your research, scholarship, teaching and other contributions and who has agreed to meet the Committee and give an opinion of your work in terms of the criteria.

9.01.36 You should send your application to the Head, who will consult the Professors of the discipline, your adviser and other colleagues and give written comments on the application and give you a copy of those comments.

The Promotions Committee

9.01.37 Each year all applications for promotion will be considered within 3 months of the closing date by a single Committee for each Level. The Deputy Vice-Chancellor or a nominee of the Vice-Chancellor will chair and the Committee will include representatives from each College and a person nominated by the Union who will be invited to be present as an observer at all meetings.

9.01.38 The EEO Officer may go to all meetings.

9.01.39 EEO principles will be observed.

Committee Procedure

9.01.40 The Committee will hold a preliminary meeting to look at all applications and decide if any additional information is needed or if in terms of 9.01.19 you will be offered an opportunity to change your application.

9.01.41 The Committee will interview you, together with the Head or a senior member of staff nominated by the Head and the staff member nominated by you. After the interview, the members from the Division will be invited to comment on the application and the interview.

9.01.42 The Committee will decide by simple majority. It may recommend promotion, accelerated progression in your current range or neither of these. If promoted or given accelerated progression, your appointment will become a continuing appointment if you are on probation. If in a convertible position, this will apply only if the position is continued.

9.01.43 Committee members (or participants) may not communicate the recommendations or any discussions to anyone outside the Committee.

9.01.44 The Committee will send its recommendations to the Vice-Chancellor with a report on its proceedings.

Notification of the Decision

9.01.45 The Personnel Office will tell you the result of your application in writing. The wording of the notification will be prepared by the Committee and be in line with the promotion criteria.

9.01.46 Your promotion will be from 1 January of the year after your successful application. If you are fixed-term and your term ends before promotion can be effective, you will be given a statement to that effect for the information of any employer with whom you might look for employment.

9.01.47 If your application is unsuccessful, the Committee will give you a brief statement of its reasons, which will include a summary of the factors that the Promotions Committee considered relevant to the application and the conclusions drawn from them. This statement, through the Personnel Office, should show your strengths and weaknesses and should include specific reference to the criteria and the discipline profile.

9.01.48 You will be told that you may lodge an appeal with the Personnel Office within 20 working days of your having received the advice. This period may be extended if you are unable to meet the deadline because of illness or absence overseas.

9.01.49 You are encouraged to talk with the Chair of the Committee about the recommendation on your application and the factors leading to it.

Where the Head is an Applicant for Promotion to Associate Professor

9.01.50 Where a Head, appointed on an interim basis, intends to apply for promotion to Associate Professor, the Chair should, after consultation in the Division, nominate from the Professors and Associate Professors in the Division, a member who will carry out all the duties that the Head would normally carry out in that year concerning promotion to Associate Professor.

Responsibilities of the Head or Nominee

9.01.51 The Head, through the PMS and in consultation with your Head of Department, adviser and senior members of the discipline, should be familiar with your progress.

9.01.52 In consultation with senior members, the Head should help you in ways that will allow you to achieve promotion should you so wish.

9.01.53 The Head should, in particular:

• be familiar with your teaching abilities and offer help or refer you to those regarded as good teachers;
• be aware of and advise you on your research programs, the availability of research funds, where you might have your research work published and the most appropriate form of publication;
• make sure that you can take part in the administrative work of the Division and University by nominating you to committees where you have appropriate expertise or express interest and/or by encouraging you to stand for election and/or nomination;
• be aware of, and encourage you, to contribute in a professional capacity to the community or to the University's goals.

• offer you help in writing the application and in choosing referees
• give the Promotions Committee information on your overall career development, including consultations the Head has had with you.

9.01.56 Heads may delegate this role, while making sure that appropriate help is available.

Responsibilities of the Nominee of the Union

9.01.57 The Union nominee should make sure that your interests are protected. You may alert the nominee to any concerns you have about differences between yourself and Committee participants.

9.01.58 The nominee will go to all meetings and at the end will be asked to prepare a report for the Vice-Chancellor and to raise any concerns.

9.01.59 The nominee should prepare a more general report, which will not identify participants, for electronic publication by the Personnel Office and distribution to intending applicants in the next round.

Responsibilities of Nominee of the Applicant

9.01.60 Before agreeing to act for you, nominees should be:

• willing and able to comment on your capabilities;
• thoroughly familiar with your scholarship and research and your teaching and able to give assessments of those aspects; and
• fully aware of your contribution to the Division, Department and University, including administration and community service.

Responsibilities of the Promotions Committee

9.01.62 Members of the Academic staff accepting nomination to be elected to service on the Promotions Committee should be willing to:

• serve on that Committee for 3 years;
• go to all meetings for their entirety;
• take part in all votes, abstaining only in exceptional circumstances;
• thoroughly prepare themselves to talk about each application by reading the material and, where desirable, having the Committee ask for additional information.

9.02 Appeals Against Non-Promotion of Academic Staff

9.02.02 The only grounds for appeal will be that the University did not follow the procedures set down.

9.02.03 If your appeal succeeds, the evidence sent to the Promotions Committee will be re-evaluated by the re-hearing Committee (as in 9.02.13).

9.02.04 Your appeal against the recommendation must state clearly the grounds on which your appeal is based and must be received with all supporting papers in the period set in 9.01.48 or any approved extension.

The Appeals Committee

9.02.05 The Committee will be appointed with full regard to EEO. Members must be experienced in University selection and promotion procedures and will not have been members or observers of the Promotions Committee.

9.02.06 The Committee will be composed of a person nominated by the Vice-Chancellor, who will be the Chair, a person nominated by the Union and three College representatives. The EEO Officer may go to any meetings.

9.02.07 You will be told of the composition of the Committee before it hears the appeal. You will be given 5 working days in which to object in writing to any member hearing the appeal. The objection will be to the Vice-Chancellor, setting out reasons why you believe the member should not take part.

9.02.08 Members will usually be appointed for a term of 3 years. The Chair will arrange the terms of members to provide for some continuity from year to year and may vary the term of a member by plus or minus 1 year where appropriate. Members may be appointed for a further term but will not usually serve more than 2 consecutive terms.

9.02.09 Each year the Appeals Committee will provide a written account of its work to the University community.

9.02.10 The Committee will:

• meet in 2 months and consider all appeals quickly;
• decide if the University's procedures were followed in each case;
• consider each ground of appeal raised by you and any other grounds raised during the appeal;
• restrict the material it will look at to that available when the Promotions Committee met. It will not consider your career achievements since that date;
• recommend to the Vice-Chancellor, giving reasons, if:
  • the appeal should be dismissed; or
  • the appeal should be upheld and the application be reheard.

• look at the official record of the Promotions Committee;
• hear you and/or, if you so choose, a person nominated by you. Professional legal representation will not be allowed;
• interview the Promotions Committee Chair and the Union observer;
• interview other persons, or get other information, as it may need or as you may reasonably ask.

Re-hearing of the Application for Promotion

9.02.13 The Committee to rehear your application for promotion will consist of the members of the Appeals Committee and the following members of the Promotions Committee that considered your case:

• Deputy Vice-Chancellor or nominee;
• Vice-President of Academic Senate or nominee;
• Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) or nominee.

9.02.15 The Committee will meet in 2 months, follow the relevant Promotions Committee procedures, and report to the Vice-Chancellor.

9.02.16 The Vice-Chancellor's decision based on this re-hearing will be final.

9.03 Personal Chairs

9.03.02 You will be expected to have served at least one year at Associate Professor at the University at the closing date. However, if you are a Senior Lecturer when nominated, that should not prevent your appointment.

9.03.03 The existence of a Personal Chair or Chairs will not be taken into account when consideration is being given to the establishment of a new Chair, or to the continuation of an existing Chair or Chairs in the Division concerned. The Personal Chair will lapse when vacated.

9.03.04 The terms, duties and responsibilities of Personal Chairs are the same as for any other professor.

9.03.05 The funding of a Personal Chair will be from Divisional income.

Nomination/Application

9.03.06 You can be considered for appointment to a Personal Chair:

• by nomination by three members of Academic staff; or
• by your personal application.

9.03.08 The application or nomination must be with the Personnel Office by the closing date and include the suggested reasons why you should be appointed and supporting evidence. An up-to-date copy of your CV is needed and, in the case of nomination, your written consent to accept the nomination.

Screening Committee

9.03.09 The nomination/application will be referred to a Screening Committee consisting of:

• the Vice-Chancellor or nominee;
• the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic); and
• the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research).

9.03.11 The Screening Committee may decide that a prima facie case has not been made in the application and, if so, will report this conclusion to the full Selection Committee.

Appointment of Assessors and Advisers

9.03.12 If a prima facie case exists, the Vice-Chancellor, after appropriate consultation, will appoint at least four persons expert in your field to act as assessors, at least three of whom should be from outside the University.

9.03.13 Advice on the assessments will be sought from persons who may be able to give useful information. Advice will be sought from at least one person expert in your area of research and scholarship. The advice is to be given in person to the Committee or communicated in writing.

9.03.14 You will be given the panel of names from which the assessors and advisers will be drawn and will be invited to comment on their selection. You will have the right to request that an additional assessor be consulted.

Selection Committee

9.03.15 A Personal Chairs Selection Committee made up as follows will consider nominations/applications:

• the Vice-Chancellor;
• the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic);
• the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research);
• three members of the Academic staff of the University, 2 being at Level E and one at either Level D or Level C, appointed for a term of 3 years by the Vice-Chancellor, after consultation with the Academic Senate; and
• an observer appointed by the Union.

9.03.17 You will be told of the Selection Committee's actions.

9.03.18 The criteria to be used by the Screening Committee may include:

• your international reputation for research and scholarship based on your refereed publications and other output, all of which enhance your reputation, your Division and the University;
• your reputation as a clearly conspicuous scholar in the international community, i.e. you should have achieved exceptional distinction both nationally and internationally shown by:
  • invitations to deliver keynote addresses at conferences;
  • prizes;
  • election to learned academies;
  • editorships;
  • quality of journals you use for publication of research;
  • quality of reviews of your books and other published works;
  • and/or your success in gaining research grants;
• your impact in your field of research and if you are a focal point for research activity shown by, for example, international scholars coming to the University to carry out joint research or develop techniques;
• if you have a proved track record of successful PhD supervision (where appropriate);
• if your contribution to teaching and administration, although a secondary criterion, gives supporting evidence for your case; and
• if you have made a prima facie case through your application.

9.03.20 The determination of Council will be final.

9.04 Promotion of General Staff

• the responsibilities of, or qualifications for, the position, or a replacement position under restructuring, are so different that competitive advertisement is needed;
• the position is one of a number of similar positions in the area and all occupants should be able to compete through a local advertisement;
• or your performance is subject to an ongoing review under the PMS, in which case the proposal for promotion should depend on the satisfaction of the review aims.