When you register to apply, you will be sent a link to an application document to complete. This page tells you more about how we use that document to assess your application.

Individual circumstances

The University recognises that some individuals have personal circumstances that may have affected their performance, whether by reduction in the volume or range of activities undertaken, or in other ways. Such circumstances may include:

• Absences on maternity, paternity, adoption leave or shared parental leave;
• Part time or other flexible working;
• Disability, injury or ill health (permanent or temporary);
• Being from a black, Asian or minority ethnic background and/or International lived experience (first and second generation, cultural practices, etc)
• Absence from the workforce whilst acting as carer or undertaking domestic responsibilities;
• Career breaks unconnected with academic responsibilities;
• Substantive absences that the University is legally obliged to permit (including involvement as a representative of the workforce or for jury service)
• Direct impact of Covid-19, for example the impact of:
  • caring responsibilities
  • home-schooling responsibilities
  • reduced ability to fulfil research due to closure of the University or other facilities
  • reduced ability to undertake planned research, owing to the pressing need to prioritise teaching, from the summer term 2019/20 up to and including the academic year 2021/22;
  • extraordinary contributions of academic citizenship during the period

If you have circumstances that you feel should be considered, please describe these in the Individual Circumstances section of your application. Please provide specific detail as the Academic Promotions Committee cannot infer the extent of special circumstances or their impact. Due regard will be given to career breaks and relevant personal circumstances such as maternity leave, disability, long-term illness. While a career break might explain a delayed career development, it is not viewed as a weakness in a career profile.

Supplementary information

Applicants may use this section of their application to report material 'accepted for publication' or 'in press', accompanied by verifiable evidence of its status such as a letter from a publisher. It may similarly be used to report brief details of a funding application whose outcome is awaited.

Head of Department (HoD) report

A copy of your application will automatically go to your HoD (or Dean, if you are a HoD). The HoD / Dean is then responsible for completing a factual report, which is submitted to Human Resources.

HoDs should consult with appropriate senior colleagues, including colleagues in any other department with which an applicant has (or has had) a significant connection. HoDs are asked to confirm in the report that such consultation has taken place and to state explicitly how the applicant meets the criteria by providing supporting evidence and identifying any weaknesses.

These reports provide useful insights into all aspects of an applicant's work, but are especially important in assessing the applicant's contribution to the achievement of University and Departmental goals. The HoD should comment explicitly on the applicant's personal contribution to the department. In giving appropriate weight to teaching performance, HoDs' reports should be based on observation, student feedback and other forms of objective evidence. Anecdotal evidence is not sufficient to enable the Promotions Committee to reach sound conclusions.

The applicant will be asked by their HoD to review the report and sign it to confirm they accept the HoD's comments, or alternatively to add additional comments of their own.

Role of referees (only for promotion to Band 2 or 3)

References are sought where an applicant is seeking promotion to Band 2 or 3.

In determining promotion to Band 2 or 3, the University attaches considerable importance to the role and independence of external referees. External referees can provide useful insights into all aspects of an applicant's work, but are especially important in assessing the applicant's contribution and standing in scholarship and research.

Applications for promotion to Band 2 or 3 should include the names of up to ten external referees. Referees should be of professorial status and the applicant should not have worked closely with them in the last five years. The HoD will confirm the order in which referees are to be contacted. Human Resources will write to the first three referees to ask for their opinions on the applicant, providing the relevant criteria for promotion to Band 2 or 3 at York as well as timescales for providing the references. Further referees will only be contacted if the initial referees are unable to supply a reference.

Referees' reports are subject to the strictest confidentiality and are requested with explicit reference to the review criteria. All references are assessed with great care in relation to the criteria. Promotion would not be granted in the event that more than one reference was equivocal. If one reference was equivocal or if one reference was unequivocally negative, the Academic Promotions Committee would exercise their own judgement in determining the case. In such circumstances additional reports from one or more referees may be sought. In the light of the referees' comments, the Academic Promotions Committee will make a final decision on whether to advance the applicant.

Decision making

Promotion Applications

The Academic Promotions Committee, comprising the Deputy Vice-Chancellor and senior academic colleagues, is responsible for making all decisions on professorial promotion requests.

Communication of outcomes and feedback

Notification will be at the earliest opportunity following the Academic Promotions Committee reaching their decision. Confirmation at this point will be subject to Senate approval.

Where an applicant has been unsuccessful, the letter will detail how and from whom applicants may request feedback. Feedback will usually be given by a member of the relevant Committee. Unsuccessful applicants are also encouraged to discuss the feedback with their HoD and to include any agreed actions in their performance review and development plan.

Exceptionally, an applicant may seek a meeting with the Deputy Vice-Chancellor after the end of the cycle in question to discuss the decision. A member of staff, who thereafter is dissatisfied, may have recourse to the University's grievance procedure.

The University will strive to ensure that the procedures and criteria for promotion conform to the equal opportunities strands and policies detailed on the Equality and Diversity Office website.