Academic Promotion Guidelines For Education-Focused Candidates Levels B-E

Monash University recognises that excellence in learning and teaching is vital to its success in transforming the lives of students. Education-focused academics contribute to the achievement of excellence at Monash through scholarship and leadership in educational innovation, research and review at school, faculty, institutional, national and international level, as appropriate to their academic level. They also contribute to the dissemination of good practice across disciplines, professions and the sector.

The academic promotion process enables staff members to progress to the next academic level once they have demonstrated the capacity to perform at that level. The promotion process is available to education-focused academic staff members in order to recognise and reward their escalating contribution in learning, teaching and teaching scholarship.

Education-focused candidates for promotion

An education-focused candidate for promotion is a staff member who is employed by the University as an education-focused academic (either by appointment or via a variation of his or her initial employment contract) and who is eligible for promotion in accordance with the eligibility requirements outlined below.

These guidelines for promotion for education-focused candidates should be read in conjunction with the Staff Development Procedure - Academic Promotion for Candidates Level B and Staff Development Procedure - Academic Promotion for Candidates Levels C-E.

Eligibility requirements

Academics who are appointed to undertake education-focused roles may apply for promotion to Levels B-E.

In order to be eligible for promotion, all promotion candidates must satisfy the relevant promotion committee that he or she has:

• been a sustained high performer at the present level of appointment, at or above the ‘faculty expectation’ level of academic performance for the candidate’s current level according to the academic performance standards; and
• the capacity to perform satisfactorily at the level to which promotion is sought, at least at the ‘minimum’ level of academic performance for that level according to the academic performance standards.

As further outlined in the section Building a case for promotion below, education-focused academics are expected to meet all of the University’s academic performance standards, except the quantitative research standards (ie. the faculty or discipline-specific research metrics).

Weightings

By definition, education-focused academics are expected to place a greater focus on teaching and learning and less emphasis on research. Therefore, education-focused candidates for promotion are required to allocate weightings of:

• a maximum of 85% for education, with a particular emphasis on educational design and delivery and educational leadership;
• a  minimum of 5% for research; and
•  a set 10% for service.

As explained further in Building a case for promotion below, education-focused academics are expected to focus their research on pedagogy and teaching and learning scholarship. While a minimum of 5% research weighting is required, it is expected that the amount of research conducted by education-focused academics will escalate as they are promoted through the levels. At Associate Professor and Professor level, for example, education-focused academics are expected to be making a national and/or international contribution to best practice educational learning, scholarship and leadership which would require a greater emphasis on educational research (generally a weighting of 20 to 30%).

Referee Choice

It is recommended that education-focused candidates choose referees who are able to comment on the candidate’s outstanding contribution in learning, teaching and the scholarship of learning and teaching and who will be able to explain the candidate’s impact on the learning and teaching environment.

Application form – maximum word limits

Education-focused candidates should follow the requirements and instructions in the application form however some flexibility is permitted.  All Education-focused candidates may double the existing maximum word requirements as outlined in the education section of the application form (Part 2B).  However education-focused candidates are not expected to meet the maximum word requirements for either of their research and service statements.

Building a case for promotion

In the case of education-focused candidates, significantly greater emphasis should be placed on teaching, and learning and teaching scholarship, with a consequent reduction in expectations for disciplinary research. 

Candidates should demonstrate their commitment to teaching excellence, achievements in teaching documented by awards, peer recognition (eg. sitting on panels assessing teaching quality), excellent student evaluations, the impact of creation of educational materials, curriculum design and pedagogy innovation on student learning outcomes and an institutional, national or international reputation for contributing to pedagogical issues (as appropriate to their academic level). In certain circumstances, candidates may refer to relevant experience in other professional education sectors such as the school education and VET sectors.

Research undertaken by education-focused staff should be pedagogical in nature and focus, even when discipline-related. In some cases, candidates may not have a significant track record of pedagogical research, for example candidates who have recently been converted into an education-focused role.  In such cases, candidates may refer to their disciplinary research. However candidates must clearly demonstrate that their pedagogical research is on an upward trajectory in his or her case for promotion.

Education-focused candidates are not expected to meet the minimum level of the quantitative disciplinary research standards however candidates should refer to relevant qualitative research standards in his or her case for promotion. 

In addition to addressing his or her performance relative to the qualitative research and service performance standards, an education-focused candidate applying for promotion will be expected to provide evidence of her or his achievements as described in the Monash University Qualitative and Quantitative Performance Standards for Education. These standards include measures of both quantitative and qualitative performance at each academic level.  The quantitative education standards are based on the unit evaluations. The qualitative education performance standards are a set of education indicators that are substantially based on the teaching awards criteria.

Addressing the qualitative education performance standards

Candidates should refer to Table 1 (attached) which lists five key themes for candidates to address when commenting on their performance relative to the qualitative education performance standards. Candidates are encouraged to use these five themes as sub-headings in the relevant section of the application form and to address each theme by:

• referring to the qualitative education performance standards for their academic level; and
• following the advice outlined in Table 1 for each theme.

Please note that in assessing an application for promotion to levels B and C, significantly less emphasis will be placed on theme 5 than on the other themes listed in Table 1.

Further information

Information on the process for promotion is available from the Academic Promotion website. In addition a series of information sessions on promotion are held in approximately March/April each year.

If you have any particular queries regarding promotion as an education-focused candidate, please contact the Promoting Excellence Team on pe@monash.edu.

Related Procedures and Documents

• Academic performance standards
• Staff Development Procedure - Academic Promotion for Candidates Level B
• Staff Development Procedure - Academic Promotion for Candidates Levels C-E
• Staff Development Procedure - Academic Promotion Rehearing Process Levels B-E
• Staff Development Procedure - Performance development: Academic staff
• Staff Development Procedure - Performance development: Professional staff
• Recruitment, Selection and Appointment Procedure – Recruitment of staff to an education-focused academic role
• Recruitment, Selection and Appointment Procedure – Same-level appointment of existing staff to an education-focused academic role
• Supporting Materials: Preparing relevant personal circumstances
• The Office of Planning and Quality
• The Office of Pro Vice-Chancellor Learning and Teaching
• Examples Of Supporting Evidence For Candidates Applying For Promotion: Levels C-E

Table 1 Addressing the qualitative education performance standards