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UCL Teaching Fellows - Promotion Procedures

Contents - key sections

1. Introduction

2. Departmental and Faculty Selection and Submission Procedure

3. Direct Route cases

4. Definition of Promotion Criteria

5. Promotion to Senior Teaching Fellow Grade 8

6. Promotion to Principal Teaching Fellow Grade 9

Annexure 1 - Criteria for the promotion of Teaching Staff

Annexure 2 - Required elements of Curriculm Vitae

 

In the event of queries please contact the HR Assistant in the HR Consultancy Team with responsibility for your department

1. Introduction

Cases for promoting teaching staff up to and including Grade 8 can be reviewed at any time during the year using the promotion form available on the HR website here.

Proposals for promotion to Principal Teaching Fellow Grade 9 (as well as for promotion to Professor Grade 10 based upon teaching achievements) are incorporated into the annual Academic Staff Senior Promotions exercise and follow the same timetable.

This document defines the procedures to be followed, the criteria that will be used in reaching decisions on the proposals. The criteria and procedure apply to both clinical and non-clinical teaching roles, as well as Language Tutor roles.

2 Departmental and faculty selection and submission procedure

It has not been traditional at UCL for any formal procedure for selection of promotion candidates to be implemented at Departmental level. However, every Head of Department should consider whether or not it would be appropriate to convene a yearly "Review Panel" consisting of senior members of the Department's staff, to ensure that all staff are considered and assessed as to whether or not they should be put forward for promotion that year. Any such review panel should not use criteria more or less stringent or restrictive than those of the Academic Promotions Committee itself.

All promotion proposals (including Direct Route cases) to Principal Teaching Fellow Grade 9 are considered initially by one of the appropriate Cross Faculty Committees (CF Com), which are formal sub-committees of the main Academic Promotions Committee. The three CF Coms group certain Faculties together;

  1. Arts & Humanities, Laws and SHS (including SSEES and the UCL Language Centre) (CF Com 1)
  2. Built Environment, Engineering Sciences & MAPS (CF Com 2)
  3. Biomedical Sciences (including PGIs) and Life Sciences (CF Com 3)

CF Com 1 and 2 comprises the three Executive Deans, together with three professorial members of staff, one from each Faculty represented. CF Com 3 comprises the two Executive Deans plus an appointed representative from the PGIs.

The Academic Promotions Committee will consider only those cases put forward for recommendation and / or further consideration by the three CF Coms.

Candidates who are put forward for consideration by the main Academic Promotions Committee but who are unsuccessful should not be put forward for consideration in the year following failure unless this is justified by exceptional circumstances.

Details of material to be supplied by the candidate and the Head of Department are provided later within this procedure.

3. Direct route cases (self-proposals)

Every member of the teaching staff has the right to propose him or herself for promotion. All members of the teaching staff will receive notification of the start of the annual promotion exercise at the same time as Heads of Department, together with appropriate instructions for preparing a self-proposal. In all respects, the procedure will be the same as that for departmentally proposed candidates except that the self-proposed candidate will deal directly with the Faculty Dean.

The Head of Department will have no direct role to play but will, however, be informed by the Dean that the self-proposal has been made. The Dean will consult with whomever he/she considers appropriate when preparing the case for presentation to the CF Com.

Self-proposals for promotion to Principal Teaching Fellow Grade 9 will be considered as part of the Academic Staff Senior Promotions exercise. In such cases the appropriate Dean will agree a list of referees with the candidate but will not provide any supporting statement to accompany the application. Deans are responsible for forwarding the appropriate numbers of direct route copies to HR Consultancy

4. Definition of promotion criteria

These are laid down in ANNEXURE 1 (Criteria for the Promotion of Teaching Staff), which will be available to potential candidates, Heads of Department and others involved in the Teaching Staff Promotions exercise.

5. Promotion from Teaching Fellow (Grade 7) to Senior Teaching Fellow (Grade 8)

Promotion from Teaching Fellow Grade 7 to Senior Teaching FellowGrade 8 can be considered at any time on the Head of Department's positive recommendation. The promotion form is available here.

5.1 Specification of material to be provided by the candidate to the Head of Department:

5.2 The Head of Department should then assess the case using the criteria at ANNEXURE 1. Once agreed s/he should write to HR Consultancy requesting formal confirmation of the promotion. When financial approval has been verified (for any grant funded cases), Human Resources will send a new contract to the individual and arrange for payroll action to be taken.

6. Promotion to Principal Teaching Fellow Grade 9

Proposals for promotion to Principal Teaching Fellow Grade 9 are incorporated into the annual Academic Staff Senior Promotions exercise and will follow the same timetable. However, the promotion criteria is detailed at annexure 1 for information/reference.

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ANNEXURE 1

CRITERIA FOR THE PROMOTION OF TEACHING STAFF

1. Consideration of proposals for promotion involves primarily assessing achievement in teaching, i.e. contribution to, or leadership of the strategic development and management of a subject and / or teaching programme. At a senior level this may involve the co-ordination of the work of a teaching team, and the creation of cross-faculty and cross-institutional teaching collaborations.

2. For promotion to Senior Teaching Fellow (Grade 8); the candidate would be expected to have gained an established teaching reputation, with evidence of specialist knowledge in their particular discipline, and sufficient teaching and professional experience in the subject to be able to deliver and advance established teaching programmes.

Applicants would be expected to provide evidence to show that they fulfil the following promotion criteria

Recognised expertise in learning and teaching technologies, and proven experience of establishing networks with other institutions with regard to your area of expertise

Experience of teaching Masters students and taking responsibility for course delivery at taught graduate level

Involvement in pastoral care within the department or relating to a specific programme and involvement as departmental / programme tutor (if requested)

A significant contribution to the management and administration of a programme within a department / faculty including participation in teaching committees and exam boards, and playing a leading role in admission processes

Leadership in curriculum design, course design and innovation in learning, teaching and assessment techniques. Embracing new technologies as they develop, and applying these to the innovative development and/or use of teaching materials

Active participation in Subject Networks/Subject Centres and establishment of cross-departmental and cross-disciplinary networks and workshops in relation to teaching developments and their pedagogy. Sharing experience in relation to teaching and assessment across the department, faculty and UCL as appropriate e.g. sitting on IQR panels

A proven track record of seeking funding to support teaching development from sources such as JISC, Higher Education Academy, Graduate School, etc

Playing a pro-active role in widening participation initiatives e.g. sharing ideas and experience through organising seminars and workshops, both nationally and at international conferences (as appropriate)

Developing own scholarship through the sifting, filtering and shaping of research outcomes for use in teaching. Senior Teaching Fellows would be expected to show evidence of extending, transforming and applying their knowledge from scholarship to teaching and appropriate external activities e.g. publishing work by means of conference papers relating to teaching a particular subject, or in high quality journals with regard to scholarship into pedagogy

3. For promotion to Principal Teaching Fellow (Grade 9); In terms of teaching achievement, promotion to Grade 9 should be considered broadly equivalent in complexity to promotion of an academic staff member to Reader, or a research member of staff to Principal Research Fellow (Grade 9).

As well as meeting the Senior Teaching Fellow Grade 8 promotion criteria applicants are expected to provide evidence to show how they fulfil the following Grade 9 promotion criteria;

Evidence of academic leadership and a proven ability to lead, develop and motivate colleagues, working as part of a team to achieve Departmental, Faculty and UCL goals

Making a leading contribution to the formulation, monitoring, administration and review of departmental, faculty and institutional teaching and learning related strategies e.g. responsibility for the strategic development of a series of course modules and / or course programme; involvement in driving forward international teaching and learning strategies; designing and managing peer observation within the faculty

Experience of introducing innovative / transformational changes to the curriculum and of a significant contribution to the skills/knowledge base in relation to teaching and learning within UCL and/or discipline

Active involvement at institutional level in strategy development in relation to teaching and learning and involvement in/chairing of working parties as requested e.g. IQR Panels, actively engaging in furthering the work of CALT and the Graduate School, participating in external quality audit teams

Managing and developing the admissions process in the department and/or faculty

Active membership of a Subject Centre. A national leadership role and/or recognition as a national authority on the teaching of their subject, and dissemination of scholarship e.g. through organising national seminars, workshops and/or conferences; regular contributions as a referee for journals in the area of teaching; sitting on editorial boards of appropriate journals; advising relevant professionals / professional bodies; publishing on practical, conceptual and theoretical aspects of own work

Leadership of widening participation initiatives in the faculty and on behalf of UCL

Leading on equality action initiatives related to teaching and learning in the department/faculty

Proven track record of co-ordinating / drafting bids for both internal and external funding

Contribution to national conferences in relation to the pedagogy of own work and that of others and involvement in bodies such as the HE Academy

Undertaking and overseeing a range of enabling and administrative tasks necessary to support the above duties

ANNEXURE 2

REQUIRED ELEMENTS OF A CURRICULUM VITAE SUBMITTED IN SUPPORT OF A PROMOTION CASE FOR TEACHING STAFF

A CV can be presented in any style, and contain whatever information the candidate feels will assist the assessors in coming to a decision. Attention should be paid to providing the relevant information in the most concise way; it should be formatted in single line spacing and double-sided.

The following nine elements are considered to be mandatory, if appropriate, in the subject area of the candidate. The material in the CV must be presented in the order below.

1 Personal history:

The usual personal details including qualifications.

2 Professional history:

A full professional history, i.e. a complete account of all previous professional appointments held, with dates and in chronological order.

3 Appointments and Awards:

A complete list of membership of professional bodies, learned societies, peer review committees, etc., and any prestigious awards or prizes received.

4 Grants:

Details of any grants on which the candidate's name is listed (including values and dates), together with the names of co-investigators where applicable (the candidate's role in the funded research should be defined); other awards (e.g. travel grants) should be listed wherever possible, but a rough indication of the number and total value would also be acceptable.

5 Teaching career summary:

Concise outline of teaching career to include an overview of course management / co-ordination roles, presented chronologically and not exceeding four sides of A4 12pt.

6 Publications / scholarship:

A full list of publications (see note below), and/or a full list of equivalent academic/professional output as appropriate to the discipline

7 Academic supervision:

A list of research students and/or research assistants supervised with dates and including, where appropriate, a record of their higher degree awards.

8 Knowledge transfer activity:

A summary of past and present knowledge transfer activity.

9 Administration:

An account of administrative duties carried out in Department, UCL, University or externally in the academic field.

Publications are to be divided into the following sections:

A Books:

Books, chapters in books, contributions to books.

B Refereed Articles:

Articles in refereed journals, including Letters journals if refereed.

C Other publications:

Other published work, including Conference Proceedings and commissioned reports.

D Reviews:

Reviews by the candidate of professional work, e.g. exhibitions, buildings etc, but not book reviews unless they can be classified as making major contributions to the subject.

E Lectures

Invited lectures and media presentations.

NB:

Within each section the entries are to be in date order and numbered

If some of the body of published work cannot be quoted because of confidentiality or contractual obligation, the broad area covered should be specified together with an indication of the volume of such publications and the time period over which they were accumulated

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Teaching achievements

It is expected that the detailed evidence of teaching achievement will reside in a teaching record. Such a record is normally termed a "portfolio", the contents of which are records kept and owned by the member of staff for him or her to select from to make different presentations according to audience and purpose.

It is expected that academic / teaching staff will have maintained such a continuous record throughout their careers.

This is considered to be a normal part of a staff member's duties in many universities. It does not require an unacceptably large extra burden of work and should be seen, and accepted, as an important component of any case for promotion. Documentation of this kind will, in any case, normally be required to inform your career review and development interview.

The important and difficult question is how a candidate can provide evidence of teaching achievement, including both competence and innovation. For research achievement, such evidence is available in many forms; publication records and grants awarded being obvious examples, neither of which is necessarily available to attest to teaching achievement. The best evidence available to those in a judgmental position is the recognition that has been received (both internal and external to UCL) of teaching competence or excellence.

It is the responsibility of the candidate, to seek evidence by requesting documented evaluation of teaching activities by peers or students from time to time, or participation in teaching activities which are openly visible to the Head of Department and colleagues, such as leading (or initiating) a joint staff/student seminar or discussion session or by publishing a textbook or other teaching materials, to give two very different examples, or by any other method likely to bring recognition. Similar examples can be found for enabling and knowledge transfer activities.

The promotions process therefore requires a candidate to include in the CV, a summary of the evidence available which includes how the individual meets the promotion criteria, together with an explanation of the significance of claims where appropriate, but not the portfolio itself. This is much the same as submitting a list of research publications, together with a statement of their importance in the field, but not the publications themselves.

The following procedure is envisaged: -

1 If the Department supports the candidate, then the complete portfolio must be made available to the Head of Department and, by agreement, the appropriate summary should be constructed.

2 The Dean will also call for sight of the portfolio should he/she deem it necessary, or if the Academic Promotions Committee has so requested, and may wish to discuss the submission with the Head of Department.

3 If the candidate is making a direct route submission, then the decision on what to include in the CV perforce has to be a personal decision, or a decision reached in discussion with colleagues but, in any case, the complete portfolio, or relevant extracts, must be made available on request to the Dean (or to an appointed member of the Academic Promotions Committee in circumstances where the Dean feels unable to form an unbiased opinion) to support the summary provided in the CV.

The following provides an indication of those features of teaching activities a member of academic staff should bear in mind as the portfolio is built up. This is not intended to be prescriptive; it is more in the nature of an aide mémoire.

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ELEMENTS OF A TEACHING PORTFOLIO

The contents of a portfolio will vary considerably from teacher to teacher and discipline to discipline. Nevertheless, there can be defined a short list of categories in which evidence could be required in a situation where assessment of performance is the issue. Such a list might look like: -

  1. Contributions to teaching and learning
  2. Outcomes
  3. Recognition

Within these categories, there are many possible forms of evidence to attest to the excellence of teaching performance and teachers will no doubt be creative in providing them. Obviously, the emphasis throughout should be on quality, not quantity.

The following is a list of examples within each of the above categories. It is completely open-ended, non- prescriptive and non-prioritised. It is given solely to stimulate creativity in building a personal teaching record.

1 Contributions to teaching and learning

(a) For each course taught (undergraduate or postgraduate)

(i) Course details:

  • title, level and nominal contact hours
  • average student numbers
  • years taught
  • course text (if any)
  • lecture, laboratory, fieldwork, seminar, other
  • project, essays or dissertation required

(ii) Documentation produced for students:

  •   course aims and objectives
  •   supplementary material
  •   coursework definition (e.g. problem papers, essay topics, etc.)
  •   written examination papers, or other assessment paper

(b) General contributions

(i) Innovation

  • In curriculum and/or course development
  • In use of special teaching methods and/or special learning resources
  • In assessment methodology

(ii) Self-improvement

  • Account of times teaching observed by peers and of peer observations done
  • Account of quality assessment observations by external agencies
  • Record of courses and conferences attended
  • Involvement with teaching support activities
  • Service as a teacher or facilitator in the local community
  • Self-assessment of teaching performance

(iii) Teaching and learning research and development

  • Involvement with local, national or international activity
  • Research and development publications in the area of teaching and learning conference presentations
  • Production of teaching materials, e.g. video tapes, learning packages
  • Publication of textbooks

2 Outcomes

3 Recognition

GENERAL GUIDANCE

1 There is no intention to formalise the process of compiling portfolios, although it is strongly recommended that the guidance should be followed as far as possible. The value of having the above reference list of features is to make teachers aware of the spectrum of activities and forms of recognition that could contribute to a case for promotion.

2 As a staff member's career develops, the portfolio could become quite bulky depending on what it was felt suitable to include; moreover, the evidence testifying to teaching achievement will differ significantly from discipline to discipline, hence the involvement of the Dean at an early stage in the normal procedure. It must be emphasised again that the portfolio is the basic evidence from which a teaching summary in the CV can be constructed. It is completely reasonable that referees should be able to consult the more complete documentation, should they so desire, in a way analogous to consulting published papers to confirm the research performance of a candidate.

3 For a staff member well into a teaching career, who wishes to prepare a case for promotion, there arises the question of how far back in the career the record should stretch. The Appraisal, Review and Development Scheme has been running for some years now, so it would not be unreasonable to expect that members of academic staff will have paid some attention to recording their teaching activities for at least a few years. It is therefore suggested that the comprehensive record documents achievement for about five years prior to presenting a promotion case for those in post for longer than this. Obviously, achievements before this date will also be taken into account in the promotions process and, conversely, cases will not be immediately rejected if full evidence is not readily available.

4 For those appointed relatively recently, it is strongly advised that the mentor should be fully involved in initiating the portfolio, and that the candidate should attend the induction courses provided which will give training in how to build a relevant portfolio.

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