Promotions Committee

Purpose, Membership, Schedule of Meetings

1. Purpose of Committee

The Promotions Committee is the formal School decision-making body which considers and reaches decisions on departmental recommendations for Interim Review and Major Review.  The Committee is also the decision-making body for proposals to promote members of the academic staff to Senior Lecturer, Reader and Professor.  The Promotions Committee is a sub-committee of the Appointments Committee and is chaired by the Director of the School.

2. Membership

The membership of the Promotions Committee is approved annually by the Appointments Committee and comprises:

The Director (Chair): Ex officio
Pro Director Planning and Resources: Ex officio
Vice-Chair of Appointments Committee: Ex officio

And ten professorial members nominated from the five Academic Board constituency Groups.  Two professorial members are nominated from each Academic Board Group.

Professors currently serving as Heads of Department are ineligible to be considered for Committee membership until their term as Head of Department ends.

The Committee is serviced by Human Resources.

3. Nomination Procedure

Nominations to fill vacancies arising on the Promotions Committee will be invited from Heads of Department.  It will normally be expected that nominations will carry the support of all Heads from within the Group(s) in which vacancies occur.

In the interests of ensuring that the Committee retains an appropriate balance in terms of gender, subject coverage across disciplines and representation of smaller departments, the Vice-Chair of Appointments Committee has discretion to nominate up to five professorial representatives to serve on the Committee.  The VCAC's nominees may be drawn from any of the five Academic Board Groups. 

4. Term of Office

One half of the appointed members of the Promotions Committee will normally retire from the Committee at the end of each academic session and no appointed member who has served a full term of office (which is normally two years) will be eligible for re-appointment to the Committee until three further years have elapsed. 

Casual vacancies will be filled by the appointment of a new member drawn from the Academic Board Group in which the vacancy occurs, who will serve for the unexpired period of the appointment.

5. Code of Conduct

• Committee members are expected to take a School-wide view of the issues before them and not to represent departmental views.
• As a matter of principle, Committee members take no part in the deliberations or reaching of decisions for promotion and review proposals from within their own departments.
• Committee members are expected to make themselves available to attend every meeting in view of the importance of maintaining continuity in the deliberations of the Committee.
• Committee members are expected to respect the importance of dealing with the work of the Committee in the strictest confidence at all times.  Members should not reveal the Committee's deliberations in any part outside of meetings. 

6. Schedule of Meetings

The dates of the Committee's annual schedule of meetings are published in the Calendar of Events on the School website.  The Committee meets on two occasions in the Michaelmas term, two occasions in the Lent term and once in the Summer term.  In addition, there may, on occasion, be a necessity for the Committee to convene in exceptional circumstances in vacation periods - for example, to consider an emergency promotion proposal.

Terms of Reference

To monitor quality and to act as the decision-making body for individual proposals put forward under the annual promotion and review round for academic staff concerning: Interim Reviews, Major Reviews (including award of Major Review Teaching Prizes) and Promotions, and to report annually to the Appointments Committee. 

To consider any issues referred to the Committee by the Vice-Chair of the Appointments Committee concerning the individual progress of lecturers pre-Major Review; where appropriate, to consider and implement measures to monitor and provide support towards meeting School expectations for a successful outcome at Interim/Major Review.

To have oversight of policy and procedures pertaining to the School's arrangements for promotion and review of academic staff (including promotion and review criteria); to review and report annually to the Appointments Committee on the operation of these arrangements and to make recommendations as appropriate on developments or changes to policy and procedures.

To appoint a Sub-Committee of the Promotions Committee to: consider requests put forward by Heads of Department for the extension of appointments of Visiting Professors; make recommendations concerning renewal of Visiting Professorships or otherwise, to the Appointments Committee.

To have oversight of equality and diversity issues in relation to the annual promotion and review round; to receive reports on the profile of promotion and review candidates by gender and ethnicity with a view to looking at potential inequalities and ensuring that School procedures do not discriminate.  To make recommendations to the Appointments Committee as appropriate on equality and diversity issues in respect of promotion and review procedures.

To consider and make recommendations to the Appointments Committee on policy issues relating to recruitment and retention of academic staff.

To consider and make recommendations to the Appointments Committee on any issues referred by the Vice-Chair of Appointments Committee arising from the operation of the Academic Career Development Scheme. 

To consider and make recommendations on any other policy matters or issues which have a direct bearing on its work that may be referred to it by the Director, the Vice-Chair of Appointments Committee, the Appointments Committee, and other School committees, or arising from the outcomes of the Staff Survey or the work of the Staff Consultative Council. 

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