To recognise and reward excellent performance that supports the delivery of University objectives in a fair and transparent way.
The Academic Promotions Committee holds delegated authority from Senate to make promotion decisions into and within the Professoriate and to oversee the decisions made at Faculty Promotion Panels (FPP). They will monitor decisions by FPPs through the reviewing of analysis on outcomes, identifying improvements and taking action for future rounds.
They also have responsibility for overseeing the decisions of the Faculty Promotions Panels to ensure fairness and equity of decision making.
2. Committee remit
The remit of the committee under the following core, agenda-aligned headings is:
Strategic development, planning, performance monitoring and resourcing: items for consideration and/or decision
To consider and approve applications for promotion into and within the Professoriate via the annual promotions process.
To oversee promotion decisions taken at a Faculty level up to and including Reader for the purposes of ensuring fairness and consistency of decisions.
To consider and approve all applications for academic promotion for retention purposes.
To note the outcomes of academic probation.
Policy and regulatory matters
To keep under review the criteria for promotion and make recommendations on changes to Senate.
To promote and enhance equal opportunities and to eliminate discrimination from the promotions processes.
3. Reporting requirements
The Academic Promotions Committee is a committee of Senate and reports directly to it in the following ways:
Annually through reports on the outcomes of the academic promotions processes following conclusion of each promotions round (considered Cat II business).
Periodically referring and/or reporting on individual items of business where necessary.
4. Meeting frequency
Meetings will be held physically, virtually or both simultaneously to the following schedule:
May: Up to three meetings to review applications (with all supporting documents including department assessments and references) for promotion into and within the Professoriate.
June: One meeting to review EDI data from decisions across the whole round, including decisions by Faculty Promotions Panels.
Other business will be conducted via written resolutions as necessary e.g. for consideration of retention promotion requests.
Meetings will be either a physical, virtual or hybrid convening of members and attendees.
5. Constituency
The Academic Promotions Committee consists of:
Deputy Vice-Chancellor & Provost as Chair
Two Pro-Vice Chancellors
Deans (Faculty Promotion Panel Chairs)
Three Professors - one from each Faculty
Other attendees are:
Director of Human Resources to provide fairness and equity challenge
Reward Manager to provide procedural guidance as required
Administrative support provided by the Reward team
Membership:
The Chair of the Academic Promotions Committee is responsible for ensuring, wherever possible, that the panel as a whole is representative in terms of contract type, gender and ethnicity balance.
Ex-Officio members i.e. where membership of this Committee is linked to a role e.g. Pro-Vice Chancellor or Dean, the term on this committee will match their time in that role.
Other members are expected to serve a three year term, usually running from 01 August to 31 July. This may be extended up to a maximum of an additional three years.
A quorum of 50% of members, or 50% rounded up where the number of members is odd, is required for meetings to take place.
Conflicts of interest and unconscious bias
Members are required to complete unconscious bias training annually, prior to commencement of the May meetings.
At all times, Committee members will ensure that they do not indicate outcomes or share the content of discussions outside of the Committee meetings.
Before discussions begin, Committee members must declare any conflicts of interest, or any personal relationship with a candidate that might be perceived as a conflict of interest. The Chair will make the decision as to whether the information provided constitutes a conflict.
Where a conflict is identified, the Committee member will be asked to either leave the meeting during the discussion of the case, or to remain in the room but not participate, as appropriate.
