Report of Discussion: Tuesday, 6 March 2018

Tuesday, 6 March 2018

A Discussion was held in the Senate-House. Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor David Yates was presiding, with the Registrary’s deputy, the Senior Pro-Proctor, the Deputy Senior Proctor, and two other persons present.

The following Reports were discussed:

Joint Report of the Council and the General Board, dated 20 February and 14 February 2018, on arrangements for academic recruitment

(Reporter, 6496, 2017–18, p. 398).

Professor E. V. Ferran (Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Institutional and International Relations, and St Catharine’s College), read by the Deputy Senior Proctor:

Deputy Vice-Chancellor, this is the first step in changes to the recruitment process for established officers. The work is being undertaken as part of the People Strategy.1 This proposal has arisen from recommendations from the Working Group formed in 2016 to review and address particular concerns that the University’s current processes do not enable it to recruit the best candidate for a role in a timely fashion, nor to be competitive with other universities.

The proposed new process establishes an overall procedural framework which ensures academic standards are maintained, whilst retaining flexibility for the individual Schools to recruit in a timely way. It recommends that Appointments Committees are replaced with Selection Committees and that each Council of the School establishes the process for the appointment of established academic officers.

I strongly support this proposal as it will allow the University to continue to recruit the world’s best academics in a robust, transparent, fair, and agile way in an increasingly competitive market.

Professor V. Gibson (Chair of the Academic Recruitment Working Group, Department of Physics, and Trinity College), read by the Deputy Senior Proctor:

Deputy Vice-Chancellor, as Chair of the Academic Recruitment Working Group, and in my capacity as University Gender Equality Champion (STEMM subjects) and member of Regent House, I recommend to you in full the approval of the Joint Report of the Council in the General Board on the arrangements for academic recruitment.

These proposals constitute a significant advance on the current procedures, whose implementation are variable across the Schools, and lack the flexibility and immediacy to attract the very best of candidates to the University. In contrast the proposals presented provide a means to constitute Selection Committees that are fit for purpose, with the Head of School retaining overall responsibility for the recruitment process. At the heart of the proposals lies an open, transparent, and fair process, with all involved undergoing the necessary equality, diversity, and recruitment essentials training that includes the mitigation of any gender and general inclusion biases. This is supplemented by a redesign of the further particulars for the University and the School/Faculty/Department to provide essential information for candidates, both internal and external to the University, and to showcase what the University has to offer them in a contemporary manner.

I believe that these proposals will provide a significantly more effective, reliable, and less time-consuming means to attract the best of candidates to academic posts in the University. I also believe that all candidates will experience a fair and transparent selection process that presents a very positive image of the University as an employer.

Professor D. Cardwell (Member of the Academic Recruitment Working Group, Head of the Department of Engineering, and Fitzwilliam College), read by the Deputy Senior Proctor:

Deputy Vice-Chancellor, I am happy to recommend approval of the Joint Report of the Council and the General Board on the arrangements for academic recruitment. These proposals represent a significant improvement to current recruitment practice across the University, which is variable from Department to Department and from School to School. The proposed changes are driven, at least in part, by the need for consistency, transparency, and fairness in our recruitment processes. At their heart, they ensure that the best candidates are encouraged to apply for academic positions and that every effort is made to ensure the greatest possible diversity in ethnicity and gender in the long list of applicants. The new recruitment arrangements make provision for monitoring and approving the various processes at senior levels within Schools, and should ultimately be significantly more reliable and effective in attracting the best possible candidates to academic posts.

Report of the General Board, dated 14 February 2018, on the establishment and re-establishment of certain Professorships

(Reporter, 6496, 2017–18, p. 408).

Professor C. Broodbank (Director of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, and Gonville and Caius College), read by the Senior Pro-Proctor:

Deputy Vice-Chancellor, the McDonald Professorship of Palaeoproteomics in the Department of Archaeology will be fully funded from resources available to the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, and will be a single tenure establishment, for a ten-year period from 1 October 2018. The post-holder will be a world-class leader in palaeoproteomics, the now emergent field of the analysis of ancient proteins, which is widely identified as the next major biomolecular frontier after ancient genomics. The post-holder will also demonstrate a strong engagement with current themes in interpretative archaeology, an outstanding profile of published research, and a track record of success in large-scale funding, as well as the forging of major international collaborations and projects.

It is expected that the post-holder will work closely with Departmental colleagues, including the recently appointed Pitt-Rivers Chair, to create a world-leading new profile for archaeological science at Cambridge.