Case Study 5 - Academic, Research and Teaching Fellow Promotion and Reward Structures

The 2013 Staff Survey showed there was confidence (80% positive) that UCL gives sufficient priority to research but less confidence (57%) that UCL gives sufficient priority to teaching.

There were also high levels of neutrality surrounding performance management, whether this is how it is managed, the process of promotions or how good performance is rewarded.

From this feedback and linking to the emerging themes for UCL 2034, the Provost asked the Vice-Provost (Education & Student Affairs) to undertake a full review of UCL’s promotion and reward structures for staff on academic, teaching fellow and research fellow contracts. The aim of the review was to identify ways in which the promotions framework might be revised to reward staff appropriately for activities across the full spectrum of academic endeavour – including enterprise and institutional citizenship – and, in particular, to ensure that UCL exemplifies its commitment to parity of esteem between research and teaching in the promotions process.

We wanted to make sure that all staff on academic and teaching or research fellow contracts had an opportunity to contribute to the review, by sharing their experiences and suggestions. ORC, the external agency responsible for managing the UCL staff survey were therefore commissioned to manage an initial survey of those staff. This was designed to identify those areas which the community felt required urgent action. A programme of focus groups followed, to enable the consultants to explore particular survey findings in more detail, and to speak to groups of staff within the university who are traditionally under-represented at higher levels, or who reported particular concerns with the existing process. We were delighted by the response and the levels of engagement with our consultation, and feedback from staff has enabled us to identify a number of options for change, both to promotions criteria and to the support that is available to those seeking and those managing promotions.

The information obtained from the survey and the focus group has informed work over the summer by a small team, led by the Vice-Provost (Education & Student Affairs), to develop a new framework for promotions for staff in academic, teaching or research fellow roles. This will be published in draft towards the end of the autumn term, so that we can receive feedback and revise the proposals further before the university moves to formal consultation. We will publicise the draft proposals widely across UCL as soon as they are available (including through The Week and Exchange) and warmly encourage staff to participate in this final stage of the review.