Balliol College, Oxford
Three-Year Fixed-Term Fellowship in Biomedical
Sciences
Further Particulars
Balliol is one of the best known of all the Oxford colleges. It combines an
outstanding academic reputation and strong sense of collective identity with a
welcoming and cosmopolitan environment. It has approaching 400 undergraduates
and an equal number of graduates, and receives amongst the largest number of
applications per place at both undergraduate and graduate level.
The successful applicant will be a full member of the College’s Governing Body of 63
Fellows, which meets three times a term. He or she will also become a full member
of the Senior Common Room.
More information about the College may be found at: http://www.balliol.ox.ac.uk
Balliol has a distinguished history in the (bio)medical sciences: two Nobel Prizewinners (Baruch Blumberg and Oliver Smithies); and Honorary and Emeritus
Fellows including Sir Peter Morris and Sir George Alberti (who held between them
the Presidencies of both the Royal College of Surgeons and the Royal College of
Physicians), Denis Noble (currently President of the International Union of
Physiological Sciences), and Oladipo Akinkugbe, John Blandy (Vice-President of the
Royal College of Surgeons), Richard Dawkins, Robert Hinde, Simon Kroll and Ivan
Roitt. The cumulative number of First Class degrees in Medicine/Physiology over the
years1997-2010 places Balliol in the top three Oxford colleges; and the College also
attracts many high-quality funded graduate students.
The College has a team of four preclinical (Anatomy, Biochemistry, Neuroscience
and Pathology/Immunology) and two Clinical Lecturers (Surgery and Cardiovascular
Medicine). It also has an association with the Nuffield Professorship of Surgery.
The retirement of one and promotion of another of its current Tutorial Fellows in
Medical Sciences means that the College is seeking to re-build. Its strategy for the
subject includes admission to the new Biomedical Sciences BA and also to the
Graduate Entry Accelerated Medical course.
The successful applicant will be offered a Fixed-Term Official Fellowship in
Biomedical Sciences at Balliol College for three years. The College might, at a later
date, consider renewing or extending this term. An Official Fellow is required by the
College Statutes to “take such part in the educational or administrative work of the
College as may be assigned him/her by the Master and Fellows”.
The Fellow will be expected to provide teaching for Balliol’s existing admissions in
pre-clinical medicine and for its new admissions in Biomedical Sciences.
Information
on
these
courses
may
be
found
at:
http://www.medsci.ox.ac.uk/study/medicine/courses/overview
http://www.medsci.ox.ac.uk/study/bms/course-structure-overview.
College teaching for undergraduates is by tutorials and classes (as appropriate);
candidates should specify in their applications which subjects on the syllabus they
are currently able to teach, and which they might be prepared to teach in future. The
tutorial load will be four hours per week, averaged over the course of the academic
year, rising to six hours per week in the second and third years of the Fellowship
(except during any agreed period of sabbatical leave). Tutorial teaching also entails
the setting and marking of submitted work and of college examinations (collections),
termly reporting on student performance, and regular meetings of Tutorial Board. In
addition, the Fellow will be involved in the selection, college oversight and pastoral
care of undergraduate and graduate students in the areas of Biomedical Sciences.
He/she will take a full part in all activities related to the teaching of students together
with the other tutors in related science subjects. Typical responsibilities include
activities connected with Admissions (such as interviewing and taking part in the
College’s Open Days); termly meetings with graduate students to discuss the
progress of their research; recommending books for their subject area in the College
library; and encouraging the activities of the Balliol Medical Society
The College currently has one Physiological Sciences Fellow (Dr Piers Nye, who will
retire in September 2011; a replacement post has already been released and is
expected to be filled in advance). There is also a Fellow in Biological Sciences, a
College Lecturer in Biochemistry and five Clinical Lecturers. In 2009-10 the College
had in residence 13 Physiology undergraduates, 13 pre-clinical students and an
equal number of clinical (graduate) students. In addition it has around 20 research
students working in a wide range of biomedical disciplines. During the academic
year 2010-11, the Fixed-Term Fellow in Biomedical Sciences will share academic,
pastoral and social responsibilities for these undergraduates and graduates with Dr
Nye; thereafter, with his successor.
Official Fellows are required to take part in the government of the College through
regular attendance at Governing Body meetings.
It is expected that the successful applicant will be supported through a research post
or other academic position in Oxford. The College post will be coterminous with the
appointee’s University contract. The Fellowship will be tenable from 1 November
2010 or as soon as possible thereafter. The stipend will be on the Recommended
Scale for Fixed-Term Fellows points 3-7, depending on experience (between £9,380
and £10,557 per annum, rising in the third year, at current rates, to between £14,070
and £15,836). USS benefits and BUPA membership are offered. There are also
allowances for entertainment and for research (at present £945 per annum). The
Fellow will have a teaching room in college, will be entitled to lunch and dinner at
common table, and will have access to postal, fax, and photocopying facilities, as
well as social facilities such as rooms for meetings and overnight accommodation for
academic visitors.
Balliol operates a small (16 place) Day Nursery, about which about which further
information is available at http://www.balliol.ox.ac.uk/about-balliol/nursery. The
College also has the right to make a nomination to the three University Nurseries.
The College conforms to the University policy over maternity and paternity leave and
on equal opportunities.
Informal enquiries may be addressed to Dr Nye (piers.nye@balliol.ox.ac.uk) or to the
Senior Tutor (nicola.trott@balliol.ox.ac.uk or 01865 277738).
Applications should be completed online at this address
http://www.balliol.ox.ac.uk/vacancies/2010/september/fixed-term-fellowship-inbiomedical-sciences by Friday 8 October 2010. Two referees should be asked to
send references to the academic.administrator@balliol.ox.ac.uk by the same closing
date.
Interviews are expected to take place in the week commencing Monday 18
October. Candidates invited for interview will be asked to supply samples of written
work, and to give a short teaching presentation at the time of interview. Further
details will be sent to shortlisted candidates. All reasonable interview expenses will
be reimbursed.
Applicants who would need a work visa if appointed to the post are asked to note
that under the UK’s new points-based migration system they will need to
demonstrate that they have sufficient points, and in particular that:
(i) they have sufficient English language skills (evidenced by having passed a test in
basic English, or coming from a majority English-speaking country, or having taken a
degree taught in English)
and
(ii) that they have sufficient funds to maintain themselves and any dependents until
they receive their first salary payment.
Further information is available at:
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/workingintheuk/tier2/generalarrangements/eligibi
lity/