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LTC Away Day. Support for probationary staff . Chris Pearce School of Engineering, Convenor of Research. Periodic Subject Review: Success of Mentoring System. School of Engineering recruited 23 probationary staff since 2010:
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LTC Away Day Support for probationary staff Chris Pearce School of Engineering, Convenor of Research
Periodic Subject Review: Success of Mentoring System • School of Engineering recruited 23 probationary staff since 2010: • 12 lecturers, 10 research fellows (6 are tenure track), 1 UT – 40% from outside UK • Aim is to develop this large cohort into academic leaders of the future • PSR reported unanimous support from the probationary staff for: • the allocation process [of work] ; • the link to the probationary process; • the formal appraisal meetings; • General support provided to them by their mentors. • The mentoring system allows for effective management of the workload of probationary staff who all agreed that they were assigned tasks appropriate to their skill set.
Probationary staff and Mentoring • All probationary staff are assigned an experienced academic mentor (usually line managers) • Workload is carefully managed to permit the rapid establishment of research activities: • Teaching in Year 1 is restricted to 10 credits (20 hour lecture course), increasing to 20 credits in Year 2. Administration in Year 1 is minimal. • Annual research grant-writing workshop: • Illustrate good practice, practical advice, funding opportunities, key support mechanisms, feedback on draft proposals and facilitating mock panels (with ECRs chairing and speaking to the proposals of their peers) • Annual new staff induction event: • Social interaction, introduction to key people in School, School plans and objectives, research environment, L&T environment • This year we ran a parallel event for last year’s new starts
Further support for probationary staff • Start-up package to help them establish their independent research activities: • A targeted infrastructure/equipment fund (£365k since 2011) • Offered at least one PhD studentship (UK or possibly EU) • Flexible budget of £8k (£5k year 1 and £3k year 2) to support travel, networking and maintaining and developing international collaborations. • Promotion of opportunities: College and Scottish Crucible, RSE Young Academy, Royal Society equipment grants, travel grants, etc. • More to be done: • Balance between research and teaching • Improve culture of collegiality • Developing broader contribution of staff