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The Essential Guide

to Moving Up

the Academic Career

Ladder

An ebook with tips and tested techniques

for making yourself promotion-ready

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Introduction

In academic life, moving up the career ladder has its perks: more

money, of course, but potentially also more time to pursue your

just a bit of luck or wiliness. While the process and criteria are

again in overseas institutions—this guide will provide you with

a useful overview, tips, and tested techniques for making yourself

promotion-ready.

Who should read this ebook?

Anyone who has taken the ﬁrst or second step on the academic career ladder, and wants

to ensure that they take advantage of opportunities for promotion to the next level.

This ebook will cover:

• Promotion pathways: the general structure of UK academic post hierarchy

• Promotion procedures

• Key activities to make you promotion-ready

• Applying for promotion

• What to expect during the selection process

• Dealing with being passed over

• Success! Now what?

Promotion pathways

Almost all UK universities utilise

the same basic hierarchy of

academic posts:

Reader

Senior Lecturer

Lecturer

Professor

At some, a lower level has been created for Assistant or Associate Lecturers

(who are often not on permanent contracts); at others additional levels

exist, such as Principal Lecturer or Chair. Clinical academic posts and

Research posts may be handled or paid slightly dierently, but are within

the same overall framework. Endowed or Named Chairs/Professorships,

however, are special posts, usually backed by an endowment, and will

have speciﬁc criteria and application procedures.

Also, quite a few universities now oer Teaching Fellow or Senior

Teaching Fellow posts, which may be equivalent in pay to Lecturer or

Senior Lecturer but, as their titles give away, require the academic to

focus primarily on teaching.

Within this basic hierarchy there will be increments, which will usually

correspond to the nationally negotiated single p

ay spine. However,

some prestigious institutions go above and beyond this baseline

agreement, and those in the capital add London weighting to their oer.

A few UK universities are not currently in compliance with the national

agreement. If yours is one of these, your union representative will be an

important ally in understanding and negotiating this situation.

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Working your way up through the increments within a single job category

(e.g. Lecturer) is generally automatic as long as you are meeting the

conditions of your employment – and most universities have special schemes

that allow you to move up an extra increment or over a certain threshold as a

reward for work that has gone far beyond what’s expected. But once you get

to the top increment within your category, increasing your pay beyond any

union-won cost of living increases means gaining promotion.

Watch out for deadlines! The promotion process usually involves

an immovable annual application date, and speciﬁc steps that

must be taken in advance of this. Keep this in mind as you plan.

2 Promotion pathways

Alternative ways “up”

Better-paid administrative or

“academic-related” roles can provide

alternative opportunities for promotion,

if they ﬁt your career plans, and the

trac goes both ways. For example, it is

not uncommon for researchers to seek

promotion to an academic post, or for

academics who discover an aptitude for

administration through top departmental

roles to enter the ranks of senior

administration. You can ﬁnd out more

in this article about lateral moves

within academia.

Teaching-only contracts

If pedagogy is your greatest passion,

a progression route via teaching-only

contracts now exists in some universities.

There have been some signiﬁcant changes

in recent years on reward and recognition

for teaching. For example, many universities

have now changed their policies for career

progression and have created promotion

pathways for teaching-focused sta that

enable promotion to Professor.

Many Senior Lecturer, Reader and

Professorial appointments still require

a strong research record, however, so a

teaching-only route could hamper your

outward mobility. Talk to your peers and

mentors to see what is the norm in your

discipline/institution.

Every single university in the UK has its own procedures for

academic promotions. Your institution’s Human Resources

department should be able to give you detailed information

and any necessary forms; in some cases personal advice and

direct support may be available—especially for academics

who have returned after a career break, taken a new direction,

or who may experience barriers due to disability, health

problems or taking time out for parenting/caring duties.

For example, Lancaster University provides well-written

examples of what a successful application for promotion

should look like at dierent levels. The University of Kent has

recognised barriers aecting female applicants by running

special events for women seeking academic promotion, and

oers very clear documents and timelines.

Your Head of Department or line manager should be your

next port of call. Y

ou can make planning for promotion the

focus of your upcoming annual review, for example. With

both of you looking at your record, and their knowledge of

candidates who have successfully pursued a higher post, it

should be much more clear what steps are likely to bring

you to your goal.

If your Head of Department or line manager are unhelpful,

this may be a clue that the only way up is out…

3 Promotion procedures

Important Tip:

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Use CPD opportunities to address anything that might be

seized upon as a weak spot. If your university has a push on

for staﬀ to achieve PGCE or FHEA status, don’t hesitate to go

for it. If research is your shortcoming, seek out short courses

on useful methodologies, join a research group, and attend

sessions on responding to tenders. You can keep track of your

achievements using the jobs.ac.uk Interactive CPD Toolkit.

Ensure that you don’t have any skill-gaps that could annoy

colleagues: for example, don’t be the person who always

submits late marks to the Board or dumps unwanted chores

on admin staﬀ because you haven’t gotten to grips with

technology. When your name comes up, you want to ensure

that what everyone thinks of ﬁrst is something positive.

Even conference attendance can be a promotional weapon.

It will appear in your application as CPD, of course, but

an enhanced public proﬁle gained through speaking or

networking can ﬁlter back to decision-makers in other ways

too, such as remarks by internal or external colleagues.

3b Continuing professional development (CPD)

Key activities to make you promotion-ready

Only you can say what your weakest and strongest points are when

compared to your peers, or to where the bar has been set by your

institution. Development in the following areas will always help your

chances—based on where you are now, prioritise accordingly.

This may or may not be someone who has been assigned to you as a

mentor when you were a new member of staﬀ. A true mentor is someone

who is senior, knowledgeable and willing to give you honest, trustworthy

advice. Watch out for “mentors” who actually see up-and-comers as a

threat, and silently sabotage their careers. Look for someone who shows

collegial qualities in how they talk about and work with others.

Mentoring becomes a chore when it’s all one way, of course. A good

mentor will push you to contribute more to the department, and may ask

you to help with projects they favour. That’s all part of the game. In return

for your support and hard work, you should receive backing for your eﬀorts

(if not, you may want to look for a more helpful mentor!)

A highly placed mentor who knows you well, and to whom you have

proved yourself, can be your most powerful ally. Whether their advocacy

takes the form of dropped hints or direct recommendations, it can make

all the diﬀerence.

3 Promotion procedures

Important Tip:

At some universities, the promotions process includes a

requirement for references from senior colleagues. Your mentor is

a natural choice for a referee. Always choose referees carefully, and

be aware that some senior academics may see you as potential

competition and act accordingly.

3a Finding an academic mentor

Important Tip:

If your department or programme group is not dynamic about

research, that can drag your career down. Fight back by joining

a strong external national or international research group,

like those in the Social Sciences Research Network, to ﬁnd

inspiration and collaborators.

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3e Research activity

This brings us around to one of the most important factors in

promotion, visibility. Perhaps the greatest factor in dashed dreams

is not already being well-known to the selection panel. Far too

many academics toil away modestly, and are better known to

students than to the higher echelons of their own department.

What can you do? Take the initiative–literally. If there’s a call for

people willing to do admin chores, take the one where you will

be seen, and by the right people. That means choices like being

Head of Research, or staﬀ rep on the departmental council, not a

behind-the-scenes role. And once you’re in place, act proactively

and very, very publicly.

Make sure your research and teaching excellence is seen. Put up

displays, send out emails, hold public events to which you invite

the top brass, and get written up in department and university

newsletters, alumni magazines, and other places decision-makers

are likely to see your name. Be sure to mention your work whenever

appropriate during committee and departmental meetings.

Enlist colleagues to help, too (and agree to help them along when

it’s their turn, too.) Be someone whose behaviour towards others

gets positive comments, not complaints.

Also, have a look at what your University proﬁle and websites say about

you. Make sure your publications, research interests, and contributions

are accurately reﬂected (see also Social networking, below).

Your employer can only value work that it knows about, so get

the word out about what you do:

You do have to be willing to boast. Managers

don’t always know what you do, and success

is not always fairly credited.

Richard Berry, University of Sunderland

3c Make yourself visible

3d Teaching excellence

Lack of research participation or a poor track record at gaining research

funding are sure career-stoppers. If you’re struggling in these areas, ﬁnd out

who in your department has the most success, and ask them directly for tips.

Better yet, attach yourself to a research star, co-authoring research tenders or

funding applications, so that their success will also be yours. But don’t expect

to be passively pulled along on someone else’s coattails. Unless you’re willing

to do more than your fair share of work, the result may be a negative report

rather than an enhanced reputation…

Publishing matters, and it’s about both quantity and quality. Have

a look at last year’s crop of successfully promoted staﬀ in your area.

How many publications did they have over the preceding years, and

how were these diﬀerent from your own in terms of journal quality,

visibility, or type? This exercise will tell you what kinds of publications

give you the most traction.

Co-authoring, whether it’s with colleagues or your own research

students, is the quickest way to beef up your list. However, the secret

of many proliﬁc academic writers is that they get more publications

out of a single piece of research. They may, for example, write an

article on their research methodology for one journal, discuss

theoretical issues in another, and submit preliminary results to a third,

before even thinking about a ﬁnal piece analysing outcomes. So look

at past projects you may have considered “ﬁnished” and projects that

are still in progress, and ponder ways you might be able to get extra

publication mileage out of them. Even research that turned out to be

a dead end can be valuable material for journal articles.

What students say about you is starting to matter more than it used to.

Ask yourself… What could you do this year to improve your student

feedback? How can you bring your fantastic student feedback to the attention

of people who matter?

What else could you do to make your teaching more visible to colleagues?

Possibilities here include ensuring that really great lessons are co-taught or

observed by senior colleagues who are likely to be on the selection panel, or

who could act as referees.

3f Publishing

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As what you’ve read already has no doubt driven home, academics who successfully pursue promotion are highly organised

and follow a clear strategy. Use this worksheet to start pulling together the paperwork and supporting items you need, and to

think through strategic moves that will help you achieve your goals. You may want to print it out or save it as the ﬁrst item in a

“promotion pursuit” folder that you can ﬁll with the forms, evidence and notes you need.

4 Activity: My promotion plan

Promotion Application Checklist

Submission deadline: __________________________________________________

ITEM URL or source List of individual items needed Completed?

University promotion regulations

and guidance

University promotion

application forms

Personal statement

Supporting statement from

Head of Department / other

References / referees

Research evidence

(funding, publications)

Teaching excellence evidence

Administrative/other

responsibilities evidence

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Promotion Planning Strategy

• Discussion with Head of School/line manager

• Find and meet regularly with academic mentor

Through these meetings and discussions with HR and other colleagues, identify and carry out actions that will improve your

chances of achieving promotion, in the year before you intend to apply:

Continuing Professional Development actions needed:

University/external visibility actions needed:

Publications/research funding actions needed:

Teaching excellence actions needed:

Administrative/other actions needed:

Notes:

4 Activity: My promotion plan

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5a Strategic moves

Make yourself a timetable that includes all elements of the process, and

think about what you’ll need to pull together. Make sure you have the

latest version of any forms that are required (see Promotion application

checklist), and that you’ve contacted relevant people.

If you need to be available for a meeting as part of the selection process,

block out the time in advance to avoid double-booking.

If your University is running events for people seeking promotion, pencil

these into your calendar as well. It can’t hurt to be seen at these, and

some are actually quite valuable in terms of tips and contacts.

Next, get your strategy going. The following section includes tips that

may give your application a boost.

5 Applying for promotion

International exposure: If you have few chances to shine in

your current role (for example, if you’ve been stuck in a series of

revolving Researcher posts, or with a massive undergraduate

teaching load), consider what you can do to change the

situation. An Erasmus transfer can be a quick and easy way to

add the cachet of international experience to your CV, while a

longer overseas or industry secondment could do even more.

But don’t just disappear—send back regular updates on what

you’re learning and how it will be relevant when you return.

Make sure these go straight to your Head of Department and

key colleagues. And then follow through on your promises

when you retu

rn.

Interdisciplinary and other cooperative work: Most

universities look very favourably on academics who are good

at making links with others. This can be in the form of setting

up interdisciplinary courses or research projects, or other

activities that link your area or department with partners

within or without the university.

It can be as simple as inviting colleagues from outside

your department who do work on related themes to join

your research group or centre, or as major as undertaking

research projects with outside partners from industry or other

universities. In a networked culture, these links look good.

Tactical role-playing: Taking on a high-proﬁle role in the year you plan to

apply for promotion is another time-honoured tip. It shows willingness to

work harder, and that’s what they want to see.

Nurture your referees: Pay extra special attention to anyone who will

be required to submit a report or reference on your behalf to the advisory

panel or selection committee. Typically this is done by your Head of

Department, but other references may be required as well. Some senior

academics are hands-on and will write the report themselves, others will

rely on the advice of one or two trusted colleagues who are mo

re likely

to know junior sta members well. Find out what the situation is where

you are, and make sure relevant individuals have accurate and complete

information about just how valuable you have been to the department.

Mind the gaps: If there’s something missing in your career trajectory to

date, think about why that is and how you can present this omission in its

best light. Perhaps caring responsibilities (part-time working for a number

of years, maternity or paternity leave) have put you at a disadvantage. Illness

or disability may have limited certain kinds of activities. It could be that

thanks to a large research grant,

you’ve been required to devote more time

to research than to teaching. It’s better to give a positive explanation than to

leave the committee guessing. Make sure you segue straight from this into

talking about all the fantastic things that you have achieved, of course.

Social networking: Find out about and use any social networking tools

that can enhance your proﬁle. These can be internal or external systems.

Start by making sure your ocial sta proﬁle is accurate, complete, and

doesn’t feature an ancient or mug-shot-quality photo. But also take

advantage of anything your employer provides that could

raise your proﬁle

internally. For example, the University of Bristol requires sta to build a

research proﬁle using the Pure system, which is accessed by HR during the

promotions process.

External tools such as Academia.edu, ResearchGate.net, and LinkedIn are

also important—as is setting up a Google+ proﬁle) and linking this to your

ocial University proﬁle and other online sources of information. Why

a Google+ proﬁle? Because being Google’s own creation, anything in it

comes up higher in Google searches. And yes, members of the promotions

committee may Google you at some point. More tips can be found in th

article about creating an academic proﬁle online.

Finally, make sure you’ve set privacy settings carefully on social networking

tools like Facebook, to avoid any drunken pratfalls from your student days

becoming part of the discussion.

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Assuming that you and any others have submitted all required documents

by the deadline, you can expect a waiting game while the decision is made.

Many universities will tell you exactly when the advisory board or selection

committee will meet and when you can expect a decision.

In the meantime: look busy, because they actually are watching!

Any decision will probably be communicated to your Head of Department

shortly before you are told directly. A positive answer will often be given

in both an email and in written form. You may be asked to sign a contract

covering changes to your terms of employment.

5b Do’s and don’ts

You must approach applying for promotion as if you were applying for an entirely

new post—because in a way, you are.

Every job has specic criteria. Read them very carefully and

be able to show how you full them all. Also, dierent levels

of the same institution might be using dierent scorecards...

your department might be really focused on certain things and

thus support your promotion for application, but the central

committee on stang may be focusing on something else.

Dr Stevphen Shukaitis, University of Essex

DO help important people with pet projects, if you think it will also help

your cause. Yes, it’s game-playing, but as long as you actually do the work,

any credit or assistance you receive will be deserved.

DO just a bit of buttering-up if necessary: everyone likes to be liked and

appreciated. Make sure your compliments are truthful, not examples

of obvious puﬀery. Kind comments about colleagues involved in the

promotions process to a third party who is likely to repeat them are

probably your best bet.

DO use your annual review as a forum for putting everything in place,

and draw attention to how you have met and exceeded the objectives

set for you over time in your application.

DO drop gentle reminders as the deadline nears if your application

depends on anyone else, i.e. if your Head of Department or line manager

need to put you forward or submit an opinion.

DON’T barrack members of the selection committee annoyingly. There’s

a ﬁne line between letting your light shine and shameless self-promotion.

If you think you’re about to cross it, ask a trusted friend ﬁrst.

DON’T act like being promoted is an entitlement. It isn’t, and this kind

of attitude will quickly result in closed doors.

DON’T be the person who grumbles publicly about how others did not

deserve to be promoted. Not having been privy to their application, you can’t

possibly know, and your words will say more about you than they do about

anyone else. Indeed, allegations of favouritism can put you permanently on

the outs with powerful individuals… especially if they are true!

6 What to expect during the selection process

Most ﬁrst-time applicants for promotion are unsuccessful, and

in the current economic climate it’s certain many deserving

academics will not be properly rewarded.

If you are passed over, ask for detailed feedback, and meet with

your Head of Department or line manager to go over it. You may

feel upset, but turn those feelings into energy to get ready for

the next round instead of letting them fester.

If there’s anything inaccurate, or if you become aware of

circumstances that may violate equalities laws, that should be

addressed directly with HR. It’s best if your Head of Department,

line manager or union rep (depending on the situation) does

this, with your co-operation.

Your university will have an appeals procedure – but think twice

before you go down this route. Make sure you have actually

been passed over for wrongful reasons, not because someone

else was more qualiﬁed, or you hadn’t hit the mark in a key area.

Most of the time it will be clear from the feedback you receive which

areas you need to develop in. So act to address these shortcomings

directly, and prepare your next application for promotion in a way

that highlights your responsiveness to feedback.

Important Tip:

Many universities insist on a waiting period of two years between

applications for promotion, unless you can demonstrate major

developments over a single year. Check the rules before re-applying.

7 Dealing with being passed over

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7 Dealing with being passed over

Repeated rejection despite surmounting hurdles is another matter.

Sometimes it’s clear that you are in a place where promotions are being

blocked for almost everyone, or where oﬃce politics or other factors have

set up an entrenched system that you can’t overcome. That’s when it’s

time to think about seeking promotion by seeking a post elsewhere that’s

at the next level.

Just a few tips on this tactic: If you are a Lecturer seeking Senior Lecturer

posts, a Senior Lecturer who wants to move up to Reader, or hoping to

ﬁnally achieve Professor status and have tried and failed more than once

with your current employer, research your options carefully.

Applying for a post elsewhere at the level you seek may be your best bet.

Make sure that you tick all the boxes for the grade you desire before applying.

Analyse the initiatives or research you’ve developed and see

how they align with the aims of another employer. Propose

similar initiatives to the target employer and outline why

you plus them is a great t... In other words, promote the

very thing that is undervalued by your current employer.

The mission statement is also priceless when trying to align

yourself with an institution, especially if they’re failing to

reach the mission statement.

Ultimately, you have to recognise in yourself what it is that

makes you an asset to your employer. That’s the very thing

they won’t want to lose, and others will want to gain.

Anonymous (Professor), England

Criteria can vary between universities, and those moving between them

may ﬁnd that when it comes to titles, it is possible to move down as well as

up. This is not uncommon when moving between new universities, which

are somewhat more likely to promote as they tend to use clearer criteria, and

older universities, some of which make promotion quite hard to attain.

I had been promoted to Senior Lecturer three years

previously, and applied for a Lecturer/Senior Lecturer/

Reader post at a ‘redbrick’ university. I got the post and was

oered a better salary—but on the provision that I came in

as a Lecturer. I accepted because the role was more aligned

with my career plans, but soon found myself stuck at the

top of their incremental scale. Beware!

Anonymous (Senior Lecturer), England

If you don’t want to move and you nd yourself

in a position where promotion is shut o to you

within faculty, do everything you are asked to do

without issue, but nd like-minded people in upper

management or the Vice Chancellors Oce to

discuss your ideas with. Get support from them, as

they are more permanent than your line manager.

Let them take credit for your ideas.

In universities agendas change as quickly as

politics. Read the game, don’t be perceived to be

playing it. Manage the managers in a way that

makes them feel good about themselves. Praise

loudly and complain in quiet. And if your initiatives

aren’t opening doors to promotion, drop them.

They’re only ideas. Not all of them will work, so

move on and only look back long enough to input

the successful aspects into your CV.

Anonymous (Professor), England

8 “Promotion” through leaving

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About the author

If you’ve gone through the process and come out of it with

the prize of promotion, congratulations are in order. Take the

time to reﬂect on your hard work and good fortune.

As you move through the next phase of your career, keep

track of developments and achievements and document

these. It will make your next application for promotion

much easier. Also familiarise yourself with when your next

opportunity to move up will present itself: next time, give

yourself much more space for preparation.

And remember your colleagues as well. You are now in a

position where you can mentor and advance the careers of

promising junior academics. It’s an important responsibility.

Having beneﬁted from the assistance of others, don’t forget

to return the favour.

Dr Mitzi Waltz has recently embarked on working

as a freelance disability consultant, trainer and

writer, based in Amsterdam. She was previously

Senior Lecturer in Autism Studies at The Autism

Centre, Sheeld Hallam University, following ﬁve

years with the Autism Centre for Education and

Research (ACER), University of Birmingham, and a

long career as a journalist and journalism educator.

She has contributed to many key pieces of autism

research and resources, including the DCSF

Inclusion Development Programmes on working

with children and young people with autism. She

has written ten books, the most recent of which is

Autism: A Social and Medical History (2013,

Palgrave Macmillan).

Success! Now what?

The Universities & Colleges Employers Association (UCEA)

provides information about national pay negotiations,

including the latest framework agreement. The UCEA also

provides quite a bit of information about academic role

proﬁles, pay and progression issues. These documents may

be especially useful to sta who feel they may be facing

equalities issues in promotion.

10 Further resources

You may like these other ebooks from jobs.ac.uk:

How to Write a Cover Letter for Academic Jobs

An ebook with tips and examples to create the

perfect cover letter.

Interactive CPD Toolkit

A step-by-step guide to progress your career

& record your continuing professional

development (CPD).

12 Further reading

From teaching and research to managerial

and administration, instantly search 1000s

of great jobs worldwide!

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