Academic, Senior Research and Senior Teaching appointments

This page provides guidance on how to recruit academic staff to the College, along with key links to related policies and information. If you need to speak directly with the recruitment team, please utilise the contact button below.  

If you are looking to hire a someone who is currently overseas and/or needs to obtain the right to work in the UK, please ensure you read through the visa and right to work guidance.  

Guidance for hiring managers on the Work Location Framework

As the College is trialling a Work Location Framework until early 2023, please review our Guidance for hiring managers on the Work Location Framework before starting your recruitment.

Recruitment authorisation for academic posts

This guidance applies to all roles which are for 8 weeks or longer. Managers wishing to recruit an individual for short term assignment can do so going through the usual appropriate channels, but the assignment cannot be extended past 7 weeks.

  • For each role, you must obtain permission from the Faculty Dean, following your Faculty’s approval process, authorising the recruitment.
  • Recruitment can then be initiated in the normal manner through the Recruitment Hub or the Senior Appointments team.

 

Flex content - aca appointments

Helpful resources

Starting salary guidance

Salaries need to be consistent and equitable across similar jobs within departments.

Understand the guidance

Contact the recruitment team

Need more help with Recruitment? Visit the team in 321 Sherfield or drop them an email.

Get in touch with the team

Guidance

Assistant Professors, Lecturers and Senior Lecturers – Appointments Committee Membership

Membership of the Appointments Committee should be approved by the Head of Department and consist of the following:

Assistant Professors and Non Clinical Lecturers and Senior Lecturers 

A quorum of five from the following:

  • Head of Department (Chair), or a senior nominee;
  • For the Faculty of Medicine: Faculty Dean, or a Vice-Dean (Chair), or their senior nominee
  • At least three other members of academic staff:
    • one should be from a panel elected by and from the academic staff of the department
    • one or two may be from other departments
    • at least one should be non‐professorial;
  • College Consul from the relevant Faculty:
    • the College Consul should not be from the department in which the appointment is to be made ‐ where this occurs an alternative College Consul must be sought;
    • if the College Consul from the relevant Faculty is not available for the interview, an alternative College Consul must be sought
  • At the discretion of the Head of Department, other members who in his/her judgement would enhance the selection process.

 

Clinical Senior Lecturers

  • Faculty Dean, or a Vice-Dean (Chair), or their senior nominee;
  • Head of Department, or a senior nominee;
  • Head of Group/Division;
  • One or two other academic members of the Department:
    • one should be non‐professorial and drawn from the list of elected panel members;
  • College Consul from the relevant Faculty:
    • the College Consul should not be from the department in which the appointment is to be made ‐ where this occurs an alternative College Consul must be sought;
    • if the College Consul from the relevant Faculty is not available for the interview, an alternative College Consul must be sought
  • NHS Trust Representative;
  • Royal College Representative:
    • Once approval to the Job Description is given by the relevant Royal College (the Department should seek this approval prior to the advertisement of the post), a copy of the approval letter/email should be sent to  the AAC Administrator at that Royal College asking them to provide names of their representatives so that they can be contacted by the Department in order to secure a rep to attend the AAC (Advisory Appointments Committee). Normally, the Department should fix the AAC date before contacting the representatives.
  • Independent External Assessor in the area being recruited.

Clinical Lecturers

  • Head of Department (Chair), or a senior  nominee;
  • Head of Group/Division;
  • College Consul from the relevant Faculty:
    • the College Consul should not be from the department in which the appointment is to be made ‐ where this occurs an alternative College Consul must be sought;
    • if the College Consul from the relevant Faculty is not available for the interview, an alternative College Consul must be sought
  • NHS Trust Representative;
  • Postgraduate Deanery Representative (if the post requires a National Training Number (NTN) and will count towards specialist training).

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Chair, Professor, Reader, Associate Professor, Senior Research Fellow and Principal Research Fellow – Appointments Committee Membership

  • Dean of the relevant Faculty
    • The Dean of the relevant faculty will act as Chair of the Advisory Committee, or his/her nominee.
  • Other Internal Members
    • A College Consul from relevant Faculty
      • the College Consul should not be from the department in which the appointment is to be made ‐ where this occurs an alternative College Consul must be sought;
      • if the College Consul from the relevant Faculty is not available for the interview, an alternative College Consul must be sought
    • The Head of Department
    • One other senior member of the Department
      • other senior representatives of the Department may also attend, as required
      • the Committee should have female representation
      • every possible effort must be made to have members with varied backgrounds
  • Named/Sponsored post – Representative(s) from the Sponsor  should also be invited to attend
  • External Experts
    • At least two people external to the College (without association with the College) who have expertise in the discipline concerned.
    • Externals should be of appropriate seniority, be able to express an independent view, and be familiar with the criteria for professorships and readerships of research-based universities in the UK.
    • The names of proposed External Experts should be provided by the Department/Faculty.
  • For Clinical Posts
    • Representatives of the NHS Trust(s) where the appointee will have the appropriate Honorary Contract with should be invited to attend:
      • normally the Chief Executive, particularly with regard to the Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust (CNWL), Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) and the West London Mental Health NHS Trust (WLMHT).
      • Medical Director and the Divisional Director of the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust (ICHNT), or their nominees.
      • If more than one Trust is involved, representation must be agreed by the Trusts in consultation with the Head of Department.
    • A representative from the relevant Royal College – the Senior Appointments team will arrange for the appropriate representative to attend.

Appointment of Chair, Professor, Reader, Associate Professor, Senior Research Fellow and Principal Research Fellow

Guidance for Chair, Professor, Reader, Associate Professor, Senior Research Fellow and Principal Research Fellow appointments

Principal Lecturer / Professor of Teaching in X [Teaching Fellow (Level 6 and 7)], Learning and Teaching Job Family - Appointment Committee

1. Dean of the Faculty or their nominee (e.g. Vice-Dean for Education) – Chairs the panel
2. Head of the Department or senior nominee
3. One other senior member of the Department
4. Consul
5. At least one external expert, and ideally two, of appropriate seniority

With regard to the external experts, it is expected that these will be from another UK university and have appropriate standing and expertise in teaching and educational management, but they may well be academics rather than learning and teaching staff. If there is only one external expert, then a second member of staff from another Faculty in the College must join the panel.

Please note: it is College policy that at least one member of the panel must have been trained in recruitment and selection and that individual departments/divisions are responsible for ensuring compliance with this. It is also expected that the Committee will comprise female membership and that every possible effort must be made to have members with varied backgrounds.

 

Appointment of Assistant Professors, Lecturers and Senior Lecturers

Appointment of Professor of Practice

The process

Step 1

Department/Faculty determines need to recruit

Step 2

Department/Faculty prepares paperwork - this includes Further Particulars (JD, person specification)

Public Advertisement

Draft advertisement and complete Request to Recruit email

Nomination

Justification must be written and signed by the owner of the proposal explaining why the appointment is to be made via nomination rather than advertising (the College’s preferred method). The CV of the nominated individual must be included.

Step 3

Dean gives their approval – following their faculty internal process

Step 4

Department/Faculty emails the above paperwork to:

Senior Appointments Team:

Maria Monteiro, Senior Appointments Manager

m.monteiro@imperial.ac.uk Tel: +44 207 594 5498;

Nina Tailor, Senior Appointments Coordinator

nina.tailor@imperial.ac.uk Tel: +44 207 594 7529

Step 5

If advertisement, the Senior Appointments Team places the advert in TalentLink and any other relevant media.

Step 6

If nomination, the Senior Appointments Team seeks approvals from the Associate Provost (Academic Promotions), Senior Consul and HR Director for the appointment to proceed via the nomination procedure.

Step 7

Advisory Committee (Interview Panel)

Following on from approvals, the Senior Appointments Team organises panel composition in liaison with Department/Faculty. The interview panel should comprise (considering equality and diversity): Dean (Chair), Associate-Provost (Academic Promotions) may attend, if he wishes to do so, Senior Consul, Head of Department, at least one other senior member of the Department/Faculty and two external experts (Two Professors outside Imperial College in the field which is being recruited to). Senior Appointments Team then send invitations out, fix interview date, book venue and catering and so forth.

Step 8

Shortlisting (if post was advertised)

Senior Appointments Team sends applications for shortlisting to the Advisory Committee

Step 9

Shortlisted candidates or Nominated Candidate

Senior Appointments Team invites shortlisted candidate(s) or nominated candidate (as the case may be) to interview, rejects other(s) no shortlisted, takes up references, sends paperwork to Advisory Committee

Step 10

Interview

Shortlisted / Nominated candidate(s) are interviewed. Advisory Committee recommends successful candidate(s) for appointment.

The Senior Appointments Team attends interviews, takes notes, checks & photocopies candidate(s)’ passports.

Step 11

Offer of appointment

Department/Faculty offers post to the candidate, negotiates salary in line with College’s procedures, moving costs, with Senior Appointments Team’s assistance, as necessary.

Department/Faculty emails Senior Appointment Team the offer details.

Step 12

Contract

The Senior Appointments Team does pre-employment checks, prepares contract of employment, sends contract out to candidate.

Step 13

Signed contract

Senior Appointments Team sends copy of the signed contract to Department, retains a copy for staff file and announces the acceptance and sets up the new starter on College database (ICIS).

Step 14

First day of new member of staff

Department, with help of the Senior Appointments team, as necessary, arranges induction programme for new staff – Department receives joining forms and sends copy plus signed contract to Payroll. HR or Department checks passport first thing on first day (before any commencement of work) and photocopies main page and prepare RTW checks (if not done on interview day or before start date).

Step 15

For extension of Professor of Practice's appointment

In order to extend Professor of Practice's appointment (members of staff/employees), the following procedure will need to be followed: 

  • Professors of Practice in their final year will be asked for an account of what they have contributed to the College in terms of teaching, research, clinical achievements, other measures of esteem as well as wider contributions (e.g. outreach and EDI). 
  • The application will be first vetted at the Departmental level. 
  • The application will then be vetted by the Dean of the Faculty. 

These approvals should be sent to the Senior Appointments Team (Maria Monteiro, at m.monteiro@imperial.ac.uk and Nina Tailor, at nina.tailor@imperial.ac.uk) who will then seek the approval of the Associate Provost (Academic Promotions). 

  • The Associate Provost (Academic Promotions) will make the final decision based on the recommendation by the Dean of Faculty while ensuring consistent treatment across College. 
  • Once it is approved by the Associate Provost (Academic Promotions), the Senior Appointments Team will process the extension of the contract.
 
 
 

Role of the Academic Adviser

All new Lecturers should be assigned an Academic Adviser. Within the Faculty of Engineering only, Academic Advisers are not compulsory for Senior Lecturers. For more information on the role of the Academic Adviser, please click here.

The responsibilities of an Academic Adviser can be found here. 

Accessible versions

Some of the downloadable documents linked to on this page are not accessible, please contact recruitmenthub@imperial.ac.uk for an accessible version.