Academic career pathways and academic probation

Local Indicators of Excellence - Academic Career Pathway (ACP) Promotions

Local exemplar Indicators of Excellence have been approved by the Council of School as set out below, further to the approval of the Report of the General Board on arrangements for the implementation of the Academic Career Pathways scheme

The local Indicators of Excellence are in addition to the more generic Indicators of Excellence at University level set out in the ACP Guidance. The ACP Guidance can be found on the HR Webpages at https://www.acp.hr.admin.cam.ac.uk/. This Guidance provides full details of the Assessment Criteria for promotion to Professor (Grade 12), Professor (Grade 11), and Associate Professor (Grade 10) and the Generic examples of Indicators of Excellence and impact.

Link to School example indicators of excellence for promotion to Associate Professor (Grade 10).

Link to School example indicators of excellence for promotion to grade 11 or 12

Academic Probation Protocol

The University's guidance on the probationary procedure for academic staff can be found at: https://www.hr.admin.cam.ac.uk/policies-procedures/probation

This should be read alongside the School's Academic Probation Protocol , which explains the annual process for the consideration of recommendations for the completion of academic staff probation within the School.

If you have any questions, please contact Emma Frampton, HR Business Manager. 

The School's Academic Probation Committee will consider recommendations from faculties and departments on academic staff probation for both academic research and teaching, and academic teaching and scholarship colleagues. Information on the academic probation process for academic teaching and scholarship staff, including on the different probation lengths, can be found in the above University procedure, section 3.8.  The School's Academic Probation Protocol will be updated to also refer to the academic teaching and scholarship pathway.

Policy on Research Assessment 

The University is a signatory to the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), in accordance with the University's commitment to fairness, rigour, and transparency in evaluating research for such purposes as recruitment, probation, and promotion. 

The School of Arts and Humanities Research Assessment Policy, approved by the Council of the School, sets out the principles that should be observed by all institutions within the School in drawing up policies or procedures that involve assessing the quality of research, and in undertaking assessments of the quality of research.