Appointments to Established Chairs and Readerships Tenable at UCL
AB
Academic Board
ABWG
Academic Board Working Group
HR
Human Resources
UoL
University of London
1 Introduction
1.1 All appointments to Professor and Reader positions at UCL are formally
appointments of the University of London. Although the process of appointing to such
positions was delegated by the UoL to UCL (and other UoL colleges) in the mid-1990s,
the relevant UCL regulations continue to be circumscribed by the relevant UoL
Regulation (Regulation 3)
(http://www.london.ac.uk/fileadmin/documents/about/governance/Professors_and_Read
ers.pdf). UCL’s Regulations for Professors and Readers are available at
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ras/acs/chairs/regulations-professor-reader-positions).
1.2 There are three main categories of appointment to Professor and Reader positions
at UCL:
(i) conferment of the title of Professor or Reader through the annual senior academic
staff promotions process;
(ii) appointment to an established Chair or Readership on the recommendation of an
Academic Board Working Group;
(iii) appointment to an established Chair or Readership or conferment of the title of
Professor or Reader through section 4 of the Regulations for Professors and Readers (ie
through transfer of a member of UCL staff or, exceptionally, a member of staff elsewhere
in the UoL who already holds an equivalent appointment [see section 11 below]).
1.3 Within the UCL Professional Services, the Human Resources Division is responsible
for administration and co-ordination of the annual senior academic staff promotions
process. The HR Division is also responsible for administering and/or advising Heads of
Departments on the appointment of Emeritus Professors and Readers, Honorary
Professors and Readers, Visiting Professors etc.
1.4 Established Chairs are considered by UCL to be essentially institutional rather than
purely departmental appointments. Within the UCL Professional Services, the Academic
Services Department within Student and Registry Services is responsible for
administration and co-ordination of the processes of recruitment, selection and
appointment to established Chairs and Readerships. Academic Services is also
responsible for administering an appointment to an established Chair or Readership or
conferment of the title of Professor or Reader through section 4 of the Regulations for
Professors and Readers [see section 11 below].
1.5 The term ‘personal Chair’ (or ‘personal Readership’) is frequently used. This is an
informal term, synonymous with ‘conferred title of Professor’ (or ‘conferred title of
Reader’).
1.6 This note describes the processes for making appointments to established Chairs
and Readerships on the recommendation of an Academic Board Working Group. For
information about the senior academic staff promotions process, please refer to the UCL
Academic Manual and/or Human Resources web pages.
1.7 For the sake of brevity ‘Chairs and Readerships’ are referred to hereafter in this note
as ‘Chairs’.
2 UCL’s Recruitment and Selection Policy
2.1 UCL’s Recruitment and Selection Policy is available on HR web pages.
2.2 Subject to the provisions of section 4 of the Regulations for Professors and Readers
[see section 11 below], appointments to all established Chairs and Readerships at UCL
should be advertised externally, in accordance with UCL’s Recruitment and Selection
Policy.
3 Academic Board Working Groups
3.1 On receipt of approval from the appropriate UCL authorities to proceed with an
appointment to an established Chair, the Dean of Faculty concerned, following
consultation with the Head of Department concerned, will submit to the Director of
Academic Services proposals for membership of an Academic Board Working Group to
conduct the appointment process. The membership of the ABWG will normally comprise:
Ex officio



President and Provost (Chair)
Dean of Faculty in which Chair is based
Head of Department in which Chair is based
Nominated by the Provost

An appropriate academic Vice-Provost
Appointed by AB on the recommendation of the Dean of Faculty concerned, following
consultation with the Head of Department concerned



at least one member of non-professorial academic staff of Department in which
Chair is based
at least one other member of academic staff, normally but not necessarily a
Professor, of Department in which Chair is based
at least two other members of academic staff, normally but not necessarily
Professors, of one or more Departments interactive with that in which Chair is
based
2

at least two persons external to UCL, expert in the discipline concerned and of
appropriate seniority and familiar with the criteria for professorships and
readerships of research-based universities in the UK.
3.2 The President and Provost (‘the Provost’ hereafter), as Chair of Academic Board, is
ex officio Chair of all ABWGs. However, the Provost may request the nominated
academic Vice-Provost or the Dean of Faculty concerned to take the chair, on behalf of
the Provost, of any ABWG. Where the Provost does not chair the ABWG, he/she will not
normally be a member of the ABWG.
3.3 UCL’s Recruitment and Selection Policy requires that ‘All UCL recruitment panels
must comprise of at least 25% of women, including those for senior positions.’ In the
case of ABWGs established for appointments to established Chairs and Readerships,
this refers to the appointed (ie not ex officio) membership. Representatives of eg NHS
Trusts or Royal Colleges (see 3.5 below) are not counted for this purpose.
3.4 The discipline experts external to UCL who serve on ABWGs are known as External
Advisers. Their essential role is to provide an informed and objective view as to whether
a particular candidate satisfies the criteria for appointment to a Chair at an internationally
excellent research-based university such as UCL. Nevertheless, the External Advisers
are full members of the ABWG: as such, they are expected to participate fully in
discussions at ABWG meetings and will be entitled to vote in cases where a vote is
needed on the selection of candidates for short-listing and/or appointment to a Chair.
3.5 In cases where the person appointed to a Chair will also hold Honorary Consultant
status in the NHS: (i) the membership of the ABWG shall normally include also at least
one representative of the NHS; (ii) the relevant Royal College shall be invited to
nominate a representative to attend, in the capacity of observer, interviews conducted by
the ABWG.
3.6 Additional persons may be appointed or co-opted to membership of ABWGs, as AB
deems appropriate. For example, where a Chair is sponsored by an external body, up to
two representatives of the sponsoring body will normally be invited to serve as co-opted
members of the ABWG.
3.7 UCL’s Recruitment and Selection Policy requires that all members of an interview
panel have received training in fair recruitment. Before submitting the proposed
membership for approval on behalf of AB, the Director of Academic Services will (i)
confirm that all proposed UCL members of ABWGs and (ii) ascertain whether proposed
External Advisers to ABWGs have received training in fair recruitment.
3.8 The Director of Academic Services will ask the Provost to approve on behalf of AB
the Dean of Faculty’s nominations for membership of the ABWG.
3.9 On receipt of the Provost’s approval, the Director of Academic Services2 will write to
prospective UCL members of the ABWG inviting them to serve, enclosing with this
invitation a copy of this procedure note and drawing attention to UCL’s Recruitment and
Selection Policy.
3
3.10 The Director of Academic Services will write separately to prospective External
Advisers to the ABWG, inviting them to serve, enclosing with this invitation a copy of this
procedure note and drawing attention to UCL’s Recruitment and Selection Policy.
4 Meetings of the Academic Board Working Group
4.1 It is expected that there will usually be three meetings of the ABWG. The first
meeting (the ‘planning meeting’) will normally discuss where and when to advertise the
Chair; the second meeting (the ‘short-listing meeting’) will take place after the Chair has
been advertised and applications received and will aim to draw up a short list of
candidates for interview; the third meeting will comprise formal interviews with the
candidates, following which it is expected that the ABWG will decide which candidate
should be offered the Chair appointment.
4.2 Where the Dean of Faculty concerned considers, following consultation with the
Head of Department concerned, that the recruitment and selection process needs to be
activated as a matter of urgency, he/she may request the Director of Academic Services
to make arrangements for the Chair to be advertised immediately – ie without a prior
planning meeting. In such cases, the first meeting of the ABWG is therefore the shortlisting meeting.
4.3 The External Advisers will not normally be invited to the planning meeting of the
ABWG but will be invited to short-listing meetings and interviews and any subsequent or
other meetings. However, the Head of Department concerned, if he/she sees fit, is
welcome to ask the Director of Academic Services to invite the External Advisers to the
planning meeting also.
4.4 In the event that the current holder of the Chair is still in post when the appointment
process is activated, the Head of Department concerned may request the Director of
Academic Services to invite the incumbent Chair to attend the first part of the first
meeting of the ABWG. Having given a statement on the future of the Chair and
responded to any questions or other points raised by ABWG members, the incumbent
will withdraw from the meeting and will take no further part in the ABWG’s discussions.
4.5 Dates for a short-listing meeting and for interviews will where possible be agreed
before the Chair is advertised – so that the interview date can be indicated in the further
particulars sent out in response to enquiries about the appointment.
4.6 It is common practice for there to be preliminary discussions within the academic
department concerned about potential candidates for a Chair appointment. However,
once the ABWG has been convened, its members should not disclose the identity of
candidates to departmental or other colleagues who are not members of the ABWG. The
make-up of the ABWG is designed to allow for a sufficiently wide range of perspectives
among the members to mean that it adequately 'represents' the department as a whole.
Once the ABWG has drawn up a short list of candidates for interview, it is frequent
practice to invite the short-listed candidates to give a seminar or presentation ahead of
their formal interview with the ABWG. Subject to the agreement of the candidates, the
audience for such a seminar or presentation may be a larger group than the ABWG and,
at this stage, the identity of the short-listed candidates therefore ceases to be
confidential to ABWG members. Other members of the department who attend the
4
seminar or presentation normally have an opportunity to give feedback on the
presentations to their Head of Department; that feedback is then conveyed to the ABWG
as part of its discussions following the interviews. Otherwise, however, the proceedings
of and all documentation seen by ABWGs should be regarded as strictly confidential to
their members.
4.7 Notes of meetings of ABWGs will be kept by the Director of Academic Services. The
Chair of the ABWG will be asked to confirm and sign the notes as a true record of the
meeting. The notes will not normally be issued to other members of the ABWG but will
be retained on file for at least one year, according to the UCL Recruitment and Selection
Policy.
5 Advertising the Chair
5.1 The Head of Department concerned will prepare a draft advertisement and further
particulars (including a job description and person specification) for the Chair. (The
Director of Academic Services can provide sample material for reference on request.)
The draft advertisement and further particulars will be submitted to the Director of
Academic Services, with a note of where and when the advertisement is to be placed
Academic Services will submit the advertisement through UCL’s online recruitment
system (‘ROME’) with a request for the advertisement to be placed in the relevant
publications.
5.2 In some cases, the ABWG may agree at its planning meeting (or, where there is no
planning meeting before advertising the Chair, the ABWG Chair may agree, at the
request of the Head of Department concerned) that certain individuals should be invited
to apply for the Chair. Where such an approach is made, the Head of Department must
make clear to the individual(s) concerned that the appointment process is competitive
and conducted according to UCL’s Recruitment and Selection Policy – and that the
invitation to apply does not constitute either an offer of appointment or an invitation to
interview.
5.3 All applications for the Chair should include a current curriculum vitae, details of
current salary, and the names and addresses of three referees, at least one of whom
shall normally be resident in a country other than that in which the candidate is resident3.
In the case of applicants who are not applying via ROME, Academic Services will
request that an equal opportunities classification form be completed.
5.4 Where an application is received after the deadline indicated in the Chair
advertisement, the ABWG Chair will be asked by the Director of Academic Services to
rule on whether a late application can be accepted and issued to the ABWG for
consideration.
5
6 Short-listing
6.1 Once the closing date for receipt of applications for the Chair has passed, the
Director of Academic Services will issue the applications received to members of the
Working Group, including the External Advisers.
6.2 The short-listing meeting will normally take place as soon as possible after the
closing date for applications and the issue of applications to ABWG members.
6.3 Wherever possible, short-listing will take place at a meeting of the full ABWG. Where
the Chair of the ABWG considers that a different approach is preferable in a particular
case, he/she is empowered to agree to short-listing taking place through a process of
correspondence, involving either the full membership of the ABWG or a subset of
members sufficient to meet the requirements of UCL’s Recruitment and Selection Policy.
The Director of Academic Services will be responsible for co-ordinating the short-listing
process, whether this is conducted by the full ABWG (either in session or through
correspondence) or by a subset of ABWG members.
6.4 Following a short-listing meeting, the Director of Academic Services will write on
behalf of the ABWG both (i) to short-listed candidates inviting them for interview and (ii)
to unsuccessful candidates informing them of the outcome.
6.5 Except where candidates have explicitly requested that one or more of their referees
not be contacted until further notice, AS will write to seek references for short-listed
candidates4.
6.6 Where a candidate is not short-listed for interview, the Director of Academic Services
will make a record of the area(s) in which the candidate failed to satisfy the requirements
of the person specification for the Chair.
7 Interviews
7.1 The Director of Academic Services will write to all members of the ABWG in good
time before the interviews, enclosing the references received.
7.2 Where the ABWG wishes short-listed candidates to give a presentation in the
Department concerned as part of the selection process (but not as part of the formal
interview with the ABWG), the Head of Department concerned will make arrangements
with the candidates as appropriate [see also paragraph 4.6 above]. Where the ABWG
wishes candidates to give a presentation as part of the formal interview, the Director of
Academic Services will inform candidates of this when writing to invite them for
interview, ask candidates to confirm in good time whether or not they require audiovisual equipment for their presentation. Where they do, the Director of Academic
Services will arrange with UCL Media Services for this equipment to be provided at the
interview.
7.3 The Director of Academic Services will attend throughout the interviews. In order to
satisfy the provisions of UCL’s Recruitment and Selection Policy, the Director of
6
Academic Services will take notes of the meeting and will prepare a written record of
how the ABWG arrived at an informed decision based on the content of the interviews.
7.4 UCL’s Recruitment and Selection Policy provides: (i) that the structure of interviews
should be decided by determining what areas of questioning are required to cover all of
the elements of the person specification; and (ii) that the same areas of questioning
should be covered with all candidates and that assumptions should not be made
regarding the expertise or abilities of candidates because of their employment history.
The Chair of the ABWG will remind other members of the ABWG of this at the start of
the interview session. Before beginning the interviews, the ABWG will agree areas of
questioning for all candidates to be interviewed.
7.5 Interview notes made by ABWG members will be collected by the secretary at the
end of the session. These notes will be retained until the Chair of the ABWG has
confirmed the secretary’s note of the meeting as a true and correct record. The secretary
will then destroy the notes taken at the meeting by other ABWG members.
7.6 Following the interviews, the Chair of the ABWG (or person nominated by the Chair
of the ABWG) will contact the candidate to whom it has been decided to offer the
appointment, explaining that, if the candidate wishes to take the discussion further, the
Dean of the Faculty concerned will then contact the candidate to discuss the terms of the
offer of appointment [see section 8 below].
7.7 Other candidates interviewed for the Chair/Readership will not normally be contacted
pending the outcome of discussions with the successful candidate. Once the latter has
indicated acceptance in principle of the offer of appointment, the Director of Academic
Services will write on behalf of the ABWG to the unsuccessful short-listed candidates.
The standard wording of such letters may be varied in cases where the candidate
concerned, although unsuccessful, has made a particularly favourable impression and
the ABWG wishes this to be conveyed to the candidate.
8 Negotiations with the preferred candidate
8.1 It is essential that there is consistency across UCL over the negotiation of the
appointment ‘package’ with the preferred candidate – to include the salary to be offered,
any relocation support, and any departmental ‘setting-up’ package. Given the financial
responsibilities of Deans, these discussions should normally be undertaken by the Dean.
If involved in these negotiations, Heads of Department, Divisions or Institutes must only
negotiate salaries within the pay band parameters or the parameters clearly established
by the Dean in cases where paragraph 8.3 applies. It should be made clear to the
candidate that the discussions are subject to formal contract and that the final package
requires the approval of the Chair of the ABWG before inclusion with the formal contract.
A ‘Professorial appointments – negotiation toolkit’ is available to Deans from HR
Division.
8.2 Prior to any appointment package discussions the Faculty Deans within the relevant
School will consider the CV of the prospective appointee against the pay banding criteria
for new professorial appointments
(https://www.ucl.ac.uk/hr/docs/professorial_pay/band_criteria.php). The Faculty Deans’
consensus will be recorded on the form at
7
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/hr/docs/professorial_pay/New_Recruit_Banding_Form.doc and
forwarded to the HR Division with the appointment documentation. The pay band
assigned will set the parameters of the appointment package negotiations. A
recommendation to assign the appointee to pay band 3 must be confirmed by the
Provost, who will require a detailed case from the Faculty Deans within the relevant
School for each of the band 3 criteria deemed to have been met.
8.3 In cases where the appointee is from the professions, industry or commerce it will
not be possible to assign a pay band on the basis of the banding criteria which require
evidence of academic performance. The banding will be deferred for two years to
provide the appointee with the opportunity to meet the criteria. The negotiation with the
candidate will be conducted with the required consultations and approvals.
8.4 In cases where negotiations between the Dean and the successful candidate are
prolonged, the Chair of the ABWG may wish to advise the Director of Academic Services
to send letters to the other candidates still under consideration, explaining that
negotiations with a particular candidate (who should not be named) are taking place.
8.5 The Dean should take responsibility for preparing a note for Academic Services,
summarising all aspects of the agreed package, the justification for each element and
the account codes from which each will be met. The Dean is responsible for forwarding
this summary note to the HR Division for the appointment record along with all other
relevant paperwork, copied to the Head of Department and to Planning and
Management Accounts.
9 Confirming an appointment
9.1 The Dean of Faculty responsible for negotiating terms with the preferred candidate
will invite the candidate concerned to confirm in writing that he/she accepts in principle
the offer of appointment. On receipt of a positive response from the successful
candidate, the Dean will copy this to the Director of Academic Services, who will then
ask the HR Division to prepare a formal contract of employment with UCL for the
successful candidate, via SiP5. The Director of Academic Services, in making this
request to HR Division, will supply a copy of: (i) the advertisement for the post; (ii) the
job description and further particulars; (iii) the successful candidate’s application,
including curriculum vitae; (iv) the references received for the successful candidate; (v)
letter from the successful candidate to the Dean concerned, indicating acceptance in
principle of the offer of appointment.
9.2 Once the successful candidate has formally accepted the Chair appointment (ie by
signature of the formal contract issued by HR Division), the Director of Academic
Services will normally write to members of the ABWG, including the External Advisers, to
confirm this.
10 Travel and accommodation costs
10.1 Travel and accommodation etc costs incurred by External Advisers in attending
meetings of the ABWG and by candidates attending for interviews are met 50:50 by (i)
the academic department concerned and (ii) a central budget administered by the
Academic Services Department in consultation with Finance Division.
8
10.2 Claims for expenses incurred shall be submitted to the Academic Services
Department, either directly by External Advisers or candidates or via the department,
and be subject to the terms of the UCL Policy and Procedures regarding Travel,
Subsistence and Other Expenses which may be accessed at:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/finance/secure/finregs/Trav/travpol.htm. A summary of this
procedure will be provided by the Academic Services Department to External Advisers
and candidates attending interview in advance of their making travel arrangements. On
receipt of claims for expenses, Academic Services will process and authorise these in
accordance with the above policy.
11 Appointments to established Chairs of staff already holding a professorial
appointment at UCL or elsewhere in the University of London
11.1 UoL Regulation 3 (paragraph 8(3)) includes provision for appointments to Chairs
which do not involve application and interview. Since UCL’s Recruitment and Selection
Policy provides that all appointments to posts at UCL will be made following external
advertisement, UCL does not normally make use of these provisions in the UoL
Regulation. However, appointments to established Chairs may be made through the
provisions of this Regulation where the person whom it is proposed to appoint already
holds a professorial post at UCL or, in exceptional cases, where the person it is
proposed to appoint holds a professorial post elsewhere in the UoL. For further details of
the procedure operated in these cases, see section 4 of the UCL Regulations for
Professors and Readers.
May 2013
__________________________
1
For further information about this procedure note, please contact Nick McGhee, Academic
Services Officer (telephone 020 7679 8877, internal extension 28877, e-mail –
n.mcghee@ucl.ac.uk).
2 Once
the ABWG membership has been approved, the Director of Academic Services may
request another member of Academic Services staff to act as secretary to the ABWG.
References hereafter to the Director of Academic Services should be understood as meaning,
where appropriate, the member of Academic Services staff who is servicing the ABWG.
3 In
the case of applications for Readerships, the three referees shall preferably include at least
one resident in a country other than that in which the candidate is resident.
4A
person serving as a member of the ABWG (whether a UCL member of staff or an External
Adviser) may not also act as a referee for a candidate for the Chair or Readership in question.
Where a candidate has nominated as a referee a person who is also serving as a member of the
ABWG, the situation will be explained to the candidate, who will be asked to nominate a different
referee.
5 For
clinical chair appointments the details will be submitted through SiP by the School of Life
and Medical Sciences. For Readership appointments the details will be submitted by the
Department concerned.
9