Career Development for
Academic & Research Staff
•
•
•
Margaret Ayers - Director of Human Resource
Professor Janet Krska - Professor of Clinical &
Professional Practice
Professor Elizabeth Mansfield – Professor of
Mathematics
Agenda for Today
• Career development for researchers –
support and resources available
• Personal case study – Janet Krska from
Medway School of Pharmacy
• The internal career ladder for academic
(and research) staff – how promotion works
at Kent
• Questions and discussion
What is the Athena SWAN Charter?
•
Commitment and action from everyone, at all levels of
the organisation
•
Change cultures and attitudes across the organisation
•
Examine the absence of diversity at management and
policy-making levels
•
Address the high loss rate of women in science
•
Recognise the consequences of short-term contracts
for retention and progression of women
•
Active consideration of personal and structural
obstacles to making the transition from PhD to a
sustainable academic career
What are Athena SWAN awards?
•
Supporting and advancing women’s careers
•
Key career transition points
– Appointment and promotion processes
•
Career development
– Provisions for career development and career development
activities
•
Organisation and culture
– Management structures and organisational values and ethos
•
Flexibility and managing career breaks
– Flexibility and sustainable careers and managing career
breaks
External Support and Information for Researchers
Researcher Development Framework
What about Kent?
Internal Resources
 Pathfinder: http://www.kent.ac.uk/hrlearninganddevelopment/documents/pathfinde
r/researcherdevelopment2.2.12.pdf
 Early Career Researcher network – part of the
grants factory programme starting in October
 New appraisal process coming on stream this
year
 Improved redeployment process
Case Study:
Professor Janet Krska
Professor of Clinical & Professional Practice
Promotion for
Academic &
Research Staff
VC’s talk to the University of Kent Women’s Network Group
University of Kent promotion success rates
2008 for academic staff (all categories)
Female
Male
48
42%
Total applications
24
58%
Total applications
Success rate
Success rate
University of Kent promotion success rates
2011 for academic staff (all categories)
Female
Male
36
51%
Total applications
33
49%
Total applications
Success rate
Success rate
Kent’s approach to Promotion
 Research, teaching and “other” not treated as
separate categories
 Framework designed to be more holistic
 Improved application documentation – more
structured and concise
 Increased guidance to referees (helpful for people
outside of academia)
 Guidance for “repeat” applicants
Background
 Needed to recognise breadth of work being done Reader
 Group(s) did work in 07/08
 3 sub-groups:



Teaching
Practice-based research
Enterprise, innovation &CPD
 More structured application process helpful to all
 Refinements made since then
Promotions Framework
 Three Broad Categories:



Excellence in practice/activity
Leadership, within and/or beyond the discipline and the
University
Impact and recognition, within and/or beyond the discipline
and the University
 Examples given are for guidance only
 Candidates should ensure they focus their
application on what’s important
Paperwork & Process
 All the documentation is available here:
http://www.kent.ac.uk/hr-staffinformation/promotion-salaryreview/index.html
• Each application must use the template &
include 3 elements:



1 Page summary
“CV” template – up to 6 pages
Publications list template (KAR also used)
 Candidates request own reference
 Applications need to be submitted to HR in Dec.
What Happens Next
 January - Head of School’s Report
 February – Faculty meetings (make
recommendations)
 March – 1st Mtg of UPC (6 Professors + SDVC &
VC)
 March/April – external references requested
 May – UPC meetings to make decisions
 June – remaining cases reviewed and decisions
reached
University Promotions
Committee
Julia Goodfellow (chair)
David Nightingale
Humanities:
1. Ray Laurence
2. TBC
Sciences:
1. Mick Tuite
2. TBC
Social Sciences:
1. Toni Williams
2. TBC
Questions
&
Discussion
VC’s talk to the University of Kent Women’s Network Group