Working Group to review the Learning and Teaching and Research Terms and Conditions and the use of Fixed Term Contracts (Phase II)

(2023-2024)

 

Terms of Reference

The purpose of the Group is to discuss and feed into the areas below, in order to inform the Board’s decisions on the following:

  • Review of the current Learning & Teaching role criteria, the promotion process, and the development of criteria for the new Level 7 equivalent role.
  • Review of the job titles within the Learning & Teaching, and Research job families.
  • Review of the Research job family role criteria and the promotion process to identify any gaps that may impact on career progression, in addition to proposing options on how to approach these.
  • Review if the enhanced terms and conditions offered to academic staff could also be extended to all job families - these include recognition of previous HEI/NHS service for maternity/family leave; and for teaching and research staff, a percentage of time allocated for scholarships and sabbatical leave.
  • Review the use of fixed-term contracts for all job families.

The Group is co-chaired by Professor Peter Haynes, Vice-Provost (Education and Student Experience) and Professor Mary Ryan, Vice-Provost (Research and Enterprise).

The Working Group made recommendations, and the Academic Strategy Committee and University Management Board have agreed that the changes below be implemented: 

  • Introduce 10 professional development days for Teaching Fellows from 1 August 2023.
  • Implement new role profiles for the Teaching and Research job families which underpin revised generic job descriptions and person specifications from 1 September 2023.
  • Implement a new career progression framework for the Teaching and Research job families, with effect from the 2024 promotions round.  The existing process will remain in place for Teaching staff until the Autumn of 2023, and for Learning staff until further notice.
  • Assign a new job title, ‘Principal Lecturer (Teaching)', to Level 6 teaching fellows from September 2023, with transition arrangement of existing titles for those already at the grade.
  • Open up recruitment to the level 7 equivalent Teaching role, which will be titled Professor of Teaching in XXX (where XXX is the Department or Discipline) from September 2023. Allow staff to progress to this level when the new progression framework is developed and implemented.
  • Remove spine point 19 from the Teaching salary scale from 1 August 2023.
  • Undertake further work in Phase III to review Learning Technologists, Research Software Engineers, Instrument Specialists and staff employed long-term on grant/project funds from October 2023.  Terms and conditions and membership will be published in due course.

A further review has been commissioned of the job titles and progression process for the Academic job family and the interplay between the Research and Teaching job families’ job titles including  details of practical steps for the progression process.

Group membership

Professor Peter Haynes

Professor Peter Haynes
Vice-Provost (Education and Student Experience)

Professor Mary Ryan

Professor Mary Ryan
Vice-Provost (Research and Enterprise)

Leila Guerra

Leila Guerra
Vice Dean (Education) Business School

Daljeet Birdy

Daljeet Birdy
Academic Progression and Job Evaluation Manager

Professor Jason Riley

Professor Jason Riley
Vice- Dean (Education), Faculty of Engineering

Professor Ramon Vilar Compte

Professor Ramon Vilar Compte
Professor of Medicinal Inorganic Chemistry & Vice-Dean (Research), Faculty of Natural Sciences

Lynne Cox

Lynne Cox
Director of Research Office

Dr Chris Watkins

Dr Chris Watkins
Faculty Operating Officer, Faculty of Medicine

Professor Clare Lloyd

Professor Clare Lloyd
Vice-Dean (Institutional Affairs); Faculty of Medicine

Matthias Heger

Matthias Heger
School Manager (School of Public Health)

Dr Liz Elvidge

Dr Liz Elvidge
Head of Postdoc and Fellows Development

Professor Martyn Kingsbury

Professor Martyn Kingsbury
Professor of Higher Education, Centre for Higher Education Research & Scholarship (CHERS)

Dr Vijay Tymms

Dr Vijay Tymms
UCU representative

Ahlam Khamliche

Ahlam Khamliche
Unite representative

Tanya Hunt

Tanya Hunt
Unison representative

Professor Jonathon Mestel

Professor Jonathon Mestel
Senior Consul & Professor of Applied Mathematics

Dr Julia Makinde

Dr Julia Makinde
Honorary Lecturer, Department of Infectious Disease

Support to Co-Chairs and Working Group

  • Audrey Fraser – Deputy HR Director, (Strategic Partnering and Reward)
  • Angela Kehoe - Strategic HR Partner for Faculty of Natural Sciences
  • Ellie Robinson – HR & Reward Co-ordinator

Meeting Summaries

June 2023

The Learning & Teaching and Research Terms and Conditions and use of Fixed Term Contracts Working Group reconvened for their first meeting, commencing the Phase III period.

 In this meeting, Working Group members discussed the approach that would be taken to implement the changes that were agreed upon in the Academic Strategy Committee.

The outcome of this included:

  • The formation of a Task & Finish Group to develop guidance on how to use the ten professional development days for the Teaching job family.
  • An update on the new role profiles for the Teaching and Research job families, now available on the Promotion webpage. Discussed the benefits of generic job specifications for the two job families with the ability to add a role specific paragraph. 
  • Support for aligning the new career progression and promotion process for the Teaching and Research job families with the Academic job family, creating consistency and transparency. Initial work is to be undertaken by the newly combined Teaching and Research workstream. 
  • Recruitment to the new Level 7 Professor of Teaching in XXX (where XXX is the Department or Discipline) will follow a formal process akin to that of a professorial appointments board.
  • Understanding needs to be sought on the impacts on, and needs of the Faculties and the Business School, when opening promotions for the new Level 7 role, as this could impact introduction.

 The Terms of Reference for Phase III were then considered and discussed.

 The Working Group agreed that monthly, 90-minute meetings would be appropriate.

July 2023

The Working Group began the July meeting by reviewing Actions from the previous meeting:

  • Agreed the September meeting would review the output from the Task and Finish group guidance on the 10 CPD Days for staff within the Teaching job family.
  • Identified that the new role profiles which had been added to the website and draft Teaching job family job descriptions required further work.
    • The essential and desirable requirements to be considered critically in terms of EDI, and what actually can and cannot be evidenced.
    • Incorporate equivalent qualifications.
    • The addition of the professional services equivalent grades, reflective of the Hay methodology.
  • That the September agenda would include a discussion on the configuration of recruitment panels and the College Welcome Service and Senior Appointments Manager invited to contribute to the discussion.
  • The individual Vice Deans of Education to consult with Faculties and Central Services who have Teaching Fellows, to understand local plans for recruitment for the Level 7 role, and to report back to the working group.

Phase III review:

It was acknowledged that it would be important to capture the relevant roles within scope.  The roles identified by the group included: Research Software Engineers, Learning Technologists, Instrument Technicians, Experimental Facility Managers and Clinical Trial Specialists.

Communications:

Communications with the College community were discussed and whether the current approach was sufficient, as well as how this could be improved.  Suggestions made included cascading relevant information through departments to ensure comms reached the local level. 

September 2023

At the September Learning & Teaching and Research Terms and Conditions and Use of Fixed Term Contracts Working Group meeting, the group discussed the finalised terms and approach to implementing 10 Development Days for Teaching Fellows. Discussions also included identifying ways of ensuring Teaching Fellows can use these development days. The next steps involve adding the development days to the contract template, a communications plan and an anonymous survey to review the use of the days in one year.

The Working Group also discussed the formal panel composition for appointments in the Teaching job family, with a consensus on there being at least one, although preferably two, external panel members and a Consul for Levels 6 and 7 promotions. It was decided that flexibility may be needed, i.e. one external panel member and one internal panel member from a different Faculty.

It was raised that the promotions documentation may need to be reviewed to consider whether it is accessible for individuals who are neurodivergent.

Responsibilities held by Teaching staff in addition to their everyday roles were discussed to find out what these are across Faculties to ensure uniformity. 

November 2023

At the November meeting the Working Group reviewed and discussed the updated Teaching promotion documents, which have been aligned with the Academic documents. The documents reviewed included the Application Form, Reference Request Letters, HoD Citation briefing and formal Promotions Guidance. Some of the discussions centred around the hope to streamline the forms, which is currently restricted by technology, as well as the number and types of referees required across levels. The deadline for the submission of applications was also discussed, and it was agreed that this would be set as late as practically possible for the first round.

Further guidance will be provided via a presentation at a Teaching Fellows Lunch, along with the associated slides and recording, which will focus more on practical guidance and there will be opportunities for questions from Teaching Fellows, which will be captured in a FAQ document.

An update was given on the Communications plan for the roll out of the 10 Development Days for Teaching Fellows.

January 2024

At the January meeting, the Working Group reflected on the progress made under Phase II of the Learning & Teaching and Research Terms & Conditions and use of Fixed Term contracts project; the Teaching Role Profiles have been updated, new titles were agreed for Levels 6 and 7, and the 10 Development Days for Teaching Fellows had been implemented. The new Teaching annual promotions process is currently underway and will be monitored closely. A review will be undertaken to evaluate and make improvements based on the first year of operation.  It was agreed that, once a review had taken place, this will then inform the Research job family annual promotions process implementation.

The potential need for an updated name for the Working Group was discussed, to align more with the current scope of the Working Group.

The Terms of Reference for Phase III were also reviewed by the Working Group. Those that fall under “Technology Specialists” were considered, as well as those that hold roles which sit between the Research job family and PTO staff. It was considered that there may be department-specific roles which may fall within the remit of this Phase which may need to be sought out.

The Working Group were asked to consider workstream membership for Phase III.