Academic and Professional Identities in Higher Education by Whitchurch Celia;Gordon George;

Author:Whitchurch, Celia;Gordon, George;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Education
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2009-11-12T00:00:00+00:00

The Formalization of Recruitment Procedures

There would appear to be an overall trend toward more formalized procedures and requirements. In many countries the advertising of a position has hitherto been very succinct, often being limited to a very short description such as “Sociology of organization. Skills in quantitative methods required”. Such concise descriptions are less common today, and each recruiting department or institution is expected to provide some detail of the specific programs on which the appointee would be expected to teach, their research interests, and also service activities. In countries such as the United Kingdom (Bessy et al., 2001), where this is common for all types of post, advertisements about academic positions are likely, also, to mention the level of salary.

Parallel with these developments is the growth of candidates’ portfolios. These tend to be increasingly specific. It has long been the custom to require a curriculum vitae and a list of publications, but many institutions now also ask candidates to provide, for instance, details of the classes they have already taught, and a teaching portfolio. A number of publications may be included in the portfolio, although these may not always be required for the first round of interviews: Musselin (2005) found that in German mathematics departments, publications were required only from the candidates who survived the first round of assessments. The appointment panel would be likely to send them for assessment to external experts rather than reading them themselves. Referees’ reports are mandatory in many countries, while in France the ‘rapport de soutenance’ (i.e. the document written by the members of the panel who attended the defense of a Ph.D. candidate) is always required. This assists the appointment panel to understand the composition of the doctoral panel (who was on it and what their background and reputation are), and the quality of the dissertation or thesis (whether the panel’s report is fair and accurate).

Beyond these changes affecting advertisements and the provision of portfolios, recruitment procedures themselves have tended to become more complex and to last longer. They are no longer informed solely by subjective criteria, as was the case until very recently in France. But even in France, with the implementation of the 2007 Act the rapid interview (lasting twenty to thirty minutes) of the candidates by a single local appointment committee is likely to be replaced by a process that is both more open and prescribed. Some French universities are already considering how appointment processes might be improved, and thinking about introducing more assessment tools. In many other countries the examination of the portfolio is complemented by an extensive assessment of a shortlist of candidates who are invited onto campus. It is no longer unusual to ask candidates to give a lecture and/or a research seminar, then to undertake interviews with different groups of people: the appointments committee, the department chair, the dean, sometimes even the president of the institution. In a Belgian university a psychological test and an interview with a human resources manager have been introduced recently.

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