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University of York

Online election of members to the Senate

As in previous years, the Senate election will be conducted by means of the online voting system developed by IT Services.

There will be two vacancies for members of academic staff based in the Faculties to be elected for three years. The vacancies to be filled are:

  • ​Faculty of Sciences: 1 vacancy
  • Faculty of Social Sciences: 1 vacancy

To be eligible to stand nominees must be members of academic staff on SM (Senior Management), TR (Teaching and Research), RL (Research Only) or TS (Teaching and Scholarship) contracts.

Candidates must also be seconded by one other member of academic staff, as set out on the nomination form.

While this is a democratic election with the outcome determined by voting in a ‘first past the post’ manner, Senate is particularly keen to strengthen the diversity of its membership and therefore encourages individuals to stand from under-represented groups (which includes female, black, Asian and minority ethnic, disabled, LGBT+ and gender-diverse candidates) and from across the full span of academic grades/roles.

Academic colleagues holding honorary titles of the University (including Emeritus Professor, Emeritus Reader, Honorary Professor, Honorary Fellow, Honorary Visiting Professor or Honorary Visiting Fellow) are not eligible to stand/vote in the election. 

Timescale

The first email from the system inviting nominations will be sent on Friday 17 May 2024. 

The final deadline for submission of the self-nomination form (with the completed seconder support and candidate statement) by email is Friday 14 June 2024 (17:00).

Completed nomination forms do not require a signature and should be submitted electronically as an email attachment to governance@york.ac.uk. Receipt will be acknowledged by the team with follow-up if required. If we receive more eligible nominations than there are vacancies, an election will then be held in the period 28 June - 26 July 2024. The two individuals with the highest number of votes, split by Faculty as above, will serve until 31 July 2027. 

Notes

Up to 19 academic staff members are elected to the Senate. These positions are divided equally between the three Faculties, ie six elected members from each Faculty, plus one member elected by and from non-Faculty aligned academic staff.

Chaired by the Vice-Chancellor and acting in an advisory capacity to the University Council, the Senate meets four times per year and holds ultimate oversight of University academic policy and regulatory matters.

E-voting and confidentiality

Members of staff require an IT Services username and password to access the online voting system. In order to reassure colleagues about the confidentiality of e-voting, it should be noted that:

  • the online system conducts a data audit which records whether a given username has voted or not (so that an automatically generated reminder email can be sent to those who are yet to vote);
  • the system does NOT capture information regarding the candidates selected by individual voters but it does automatically count the votes submitted for each candidate, ie it is still a secret ballot conducted on a 'first past the post' basis.

Any queries relating to the election should be sent to governance@york.ac.uk.

Election dates

  • Friday 17 May 2024: email announcing election and inviting nominations
  • Friday 14 June 2024: deadline for nominations
  • Friday 28 June 2024: email invitation to vote
  • Friday 26 July 2024: deadline for voting
  • w/c Monday 29 July 2024: results announced