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1.         Divisional boards and their constituent departments should review the association for each associate professorship when it falls vacant. The starting point should be an assumption that the previous association (whether with a graduate or a hybrid college) should remain unchanged, unless there are strong academic arguments in favor of a change (e.g. teaching needs, subject mix and the need according to circumstances for a concentration or dispersal of resources).

 

2.        The procedure to be followed then depends on whether or not the department wishes to propose a change of association.

(a)     If no change is proposed, the department should report accordingly to the divisional board. If the board agrees, this is the end of the process and no reference to the joint appointments panel is needed.

(b)     If it seems to the department that there is a valid case for a change (or a change is necessary because the previous college does not wish to continue its association) the department should provide the divisional office with the necessary details about the post, which the divisional office will then circulate to all colleges. Bids should be considered first by the department using the criteria at 3 below. A proposal for association should then be put to the divisional board and the process should thereafter be as at 4 below.

In preparing details for circulation to colleges the department should define the post as carefully as possible, e.g. the branch of the subject or other specialist aspects should be set out, as should the particular undergraduate or graduate teaching needs which (at least from the University's point of view) the department has identified. Any suggestion about how from the subject area's point of view the post might fit into college needs should be put forward tentatively.

 

3. In considering bids under (b) above the department or faculty board should make its decision on the basis of a range of academic criteria, taking account of the interests on both the University and the college sides as follows:

(a) University

(i)      The role of the post and in particular the likely balance between undergraduate teaching, graduate teaching, and research;

(ii)      The characteristics of the post in the subject area in question, e.g. how specialised is the job description. (A highly specialised post may be more suitable for a non-tutorial than for a tutorial fellowship);

(iii)     Relevant academic strategy considerations for the subject area; any such considerations should normally have been made clear in the circular to colleges and in planning discussions.

(b) College

(i)      College requirements as between undergraduate teaching, graduate support, etc.

(ii)      Number of posts in the subject area or cognate areas in the college and relative strength of arguments in the circumstances of the case for concentration or dispersal of academic effort. (The latter is, of course, a university as well as a college issue but it will be the colleges which can directly state whether they have a particular plan to specialise in certain areas. The University may want in general to concentrate on certain subjects but it requires the colleges to indicate how such concentration might be achieved.)

 

4.         In the light of the proposal from the department, the divisional board will make a decision, also taking into account the above criteria. This decision will be subject to ratification by or on behalf of the central university’s joint appointments panel. The panel will itself exercise careful judgment and reach, if necessary, a different conclusion from that of the divisional board.

 

5.         The overall objective should be an association between the department on the one hand and the college on the other which best reinforces or complements the academic endeavour in both.

 

6.         The joint appointments panel is clear that it should continue to be the case that decisions on association should not be made on the basis of the additional emoluments or benefits which a particular college can provide.

 

7.         The joint appointments panel is a joint panel of the Conference of Colleges and the Planning and Resource Allocation Committee. It consists of the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Planning and Resource Allocation) (chairman), two members appointed by PRAC, the chairman of the Academic Sub-committee of the Conference of Colleges, the secretary of the Senior Tutors' Committee and the chairman of the Graduate Committee (Conference of Colleges).