GUIDELINES	
	EVIDENCE REQUIRED FOR
ACADEMIC PROMOTION	
Contact Officer	Director, Human Resources	

Purpose	
To provide advice and guidance to staff considering applying for academic promotion as to the evidence and range of skills and experience required to be demonstrated in an application. In providing this advice, the University is acknowledging that it values the range of contributions made by its academic staff. It recognises that these contributions take a variety of forms, will vary over the course of an academic career and be relative to opportunity.

In developing these guidelines for staff, the University is not indicating that all staff must meet all criteria, nor is it indicating that the list is exhaustive. The information is provided for guidance only.	
Guideline	
Who Should Apply for Promotion?
There are minimum eligibility requirements, in terms of length of service and current appointment status, that must be met in order to be eligible to apply for promotion.

It is acknowledged that experience will be subject to workload allocation, opportunity and the relevant requirements of the discipline area. 

In addition, staff must actively reflect on their academic performance across the three elements of scholarship – research, learning and teaching, community engagement. In doing so, there are a range of questions to consider: 

Am I effectively working above the expectations and criteria of my current level?
Am I able to demonstrate that I have met, or have the capacity to meet, the criteria of the level to which I seek promotion?
How does my performance and its impact compare with staff already working at the level to which I seek promotion?
Do I have sufficient evidence of the impact of my performance within my academic portfolio?
Am I actively engaged in all three elements of scholarship – research, learning and teaching, and community engagement – if I am not in a research-focussed position?
If I am in a research-focussed position, am I actively engaged in both research and community engagement?
Am I able to provide evidence to demonstrate the impact of my performance?

Application
Scholarship embraces the three elements of academic endeavour – research, learning and teaching, and community engagement. All elements are required to be demonstrated in an application for promotion.

It is recognised that the weighting of the elements are dependent on a number of factors, not least workload allocation, opportunity and nature of appointment.

In indicating the relative contribution of each of the elements, you must indicate how the proportions were determined and what influenced that determination.

The application has two parts – Part 1 requires factual information related to activities undertaken; Part 2 is where there is the opportunity to indicate, with evidence, the quality and impact of your performance. In requiring evidence, the Promotions Committee is looking not so much for quantity of material, but rather the significance of your activities. It is in your interest to be selective remembering that less is more. For example, if you have had a book published, rather than provide the book, provide some general information about the book and the book reviews.

Part 1 – Details
This is a factual summary of the activity you have undertaken.

Part 2 – Sources of Evidence and Evaluation of Performance
This will form the greater part of the application.

In providing a list of criteria, it is not expected that applicant’s will address each criterion. The list is provided to indicate the vast type and range of evidence that different staff may wish to include in their application, recognising that the range will vary depending upon level, experience, workload allocation, opportunity and nature of appointment.

The aim is to provide each applicant with the opportunity to best demonstrate the quality and impact of their performance.

It is recommended that staff considering applying for promotion speak to and seek advice from their colleagues, referees and Head of Department.

Discipline Report
Each application will need to include a Discipline Report. This should be prepared by the Head of Department (except where there are specific discipline-related matters that make it more appropriate for a member of staff more familiar with the discipline to prepare). In preparing the Report it may be useful to review industry standards, requirements of professional bodies, accreditation requirements and/or the discipline profile (albeit recognising that this latter document is no longer current).

The following are indicative types of evidence that could be used to support an application for promotion. Note that the expectation is that there will be an increase in the authority and impact of your performance as your progress through the levels:

LEARNING AND TEACHING

•	a statement of your philosophy of, and approaches to, teaching including teaching goals and methods
•	an indication of how your performance corresponds with the expectations relevant to teaching, as appropriate to your discipline

Leading and Promoting Learning and Teaching
•	evidence of your leadership within the learning and teaching of your discipline
•	examples of how you have implemented your approach, whether you have made any substantive changes and evidence of the outcomes
•	reflective evidence of what action you have taken following feedback received from peers / colleagues (both formal and informal) (e.g. written comments received from colleagues indicating that they are trialling your initiatives within their own learning and teaching activities)
•	evidence of the activities undertaken to improve your knowledge of current teaching pedagogies
•	rationale for your current teaching practices, including:
- teaching innovations
- program, curriculum and/or departmental development
•	evidence of the increasing impact of your teaching rationale

Student-focussed Learning and Teaching
•	demonstrated examples of where your contribution has significantly enhanced the student learning experience
•	reflective evidence of what changes you have introduced on the basis of feedback received from students (both formal and informal)
•	rationale behind student consultation availability
•	evidence of a contribution that significantly enhanced student learning outcomes
•	active contribution to the student learning experience (e.g. development of a peer assisted learning program for students)

Leadership in Curriculum Design
•	evidence of leadership in curriculum design (e.g. leading the review and redesign of all undergraduate programs within your discipline such that they all received professional accreditation)
•	reflective statements on the reason for your unit construction
•	evidence of how you revamped the unit curriculum to more clearly incorporate the University's agreed Graduate Capabilities
•	rationale for assessment practices and assignments; changes made on the basis of reflection regarding outcomes

Research-enhanced Learning and Teaching
•	the benefit teaching qualifications and/or professional development has made to your teaching scholarship
•	mentoring staff about how they can incorporate research into their teaching 	
•	evidence of research-enhanced teaching (e.g. designing assessment tasks to specifically address student concerns with large research components; developing ways for student research to develop sequentially between units and across degree programs; developing a way in which students can show-case independent problem-based or case study research, either by in-house or online publication or mini-conferences)

RESEARCH

Leadership in Research
•	demonstrable capacity for research leadership of direct benefit to the University (e.g. leadership within the University, or leadership in the generation of collaborative research and development programs with other institutions including universities, government agencies, industry and commerce of research teams) (the expectation is that your leadership role will increase as you progress through the levels)
•	recognition of research performance through Esteem Factors (see below) (the expectation is that this will increase as you progress through the levels)

Research Mentoring
•	evidence of research impact, including but not limited to, engagement and/or knowledge transfer with research end users
•	evidence of capacity to attract Postdoctoral Research Fellows or mentor more junior staff (the expectation is that this will increase as you progress through the levels)

Research Collaborations
•	evidence of capacity to collaborate a) within University, b) within Australia, and c) internationally
•	evidence of capacity to consistently acquire external research income (the expectation is that this will increase as you progress through the levels)

Sample Esteem Factors
-	appointment as a prestigious Fellowship or Professorship (e.g. Federation Fellow, Australian Professorial Fellow, etc)
-	appointment to prestigious professional, governmental, international body
-	award of academic Prize by peer body
-	invited membership of programme committee, or invited Convenor of prestigious international/national conference or symposium
-	invited Expert Advice (e.g. Chair/Member of Community Advisory Committee, Expert Witness activity, etc)
-	high category of membership of professional societies and associations
-	leadership in professional societies and associations as demonstrated by the holding of executive office
-	membership of nationally and internationally recognized honorific societies
-	membership of government advisory bodies, committees of inquiry and boards of management
-	membership of international delegations in the candidate's area of expertise
-	invitations to serve as a referee or adjudicator by major national and competitive grant awarding or award-granting schemes or organizations
-	invitations to serve as external examiner in other higher education institutions
-	invitations to speak at major international conferences
-	invitations to serve as visiting Professor in other higher education institutions or as visiting academic in government departments and agencies
-	invitations to edit special issue journals, books
-	opinion sought by other institutions for their research
-	chair of a major (international) conference
-	invitation to serve as external member on high level selection committees
-	appointments to international journal editorial board

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Contributions to the University, Faculty and/or Department Community
•	impact of your various contributions to the University community (e.g. took a major role in the Faculty at a time of a significant drop in student numbers; member of Working Party that reviewed the Grading Appeals policy and procedure to streamline the process and improve consistency and efficiency; chaired the University Committee that was responsible for reviewing the different admission criteria in use across the institution to remove inconsistencies and to more closely match entry requirement with program level; undertook to review practices in laboratories following a spate of accidents with the University’s OH&S officer)

Contributions to the Wider Community
•	evidence of the impact of  your involvement in high-level public discussion
•	evidence of the impact of your various contributions to the wider community
	
Related Policies / Procedures	
Policy – Academic Promotion
Procedure – Academic Promotion
Procedure – Applying for Academic Promotion
Procedure – Appealing against an Academic Promotion Decision
	
Links	
	
Keywords	Promotion, Academic Promotion, Application	

Date Approved	Draft – 1 August 2008	
Approval Authority	Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Provost)