This document sets out the procedure for hiring new academic staff as approved by Senate at its meeting of Friday, 18 May, 2012.
- Advert/Application Process
- Departmental Appointments & Promotions Panel should meet to agree on the number of academic staff required and the area of need. This request should be forwarded to the office of the Vice-Chancellor for approval.
- It is necessary that each Department knows clearly the total number of academic staff it is entitled to. The approved ratio of students to academic staff in each Faculty should be made clear by the Academic Planning Unit based on FTE. Departments having a shortage of academic staff should be so declared at the beginning or end of each academic year.
- The Departmental Appointments & Promotions Panel should be responsible for the drafting of advertisement for the vacant positions bearing in mind the areas of need of the Department, as well as the tradition and regulations of the University in respect of staff recruitment. A signed copy of the minutes of the departmental Appointments & Promotions Panel meeting called for that purpose should accompany the draft advert sent to the Establishments Office.
- It is important that the period between the submission of a draft advertisement and its appearance in the national newspapers and the University Bulletin be made as short as possible (preferably not more than 2-4 weeks). Undue delays in the appearance of adverts in the past had made the University to lose well-qualified applicants to other Universities, especially in disciplines experiencing hardship in recruitment.
- It is recommended that all applications received be forwarded by the Establishments Office to the relevant Departments not later than two weeks after the deadline for submission.
- It should be indicated that CVs of all applicants must be in the University of Ibadan format for easy assessment. The format of the University of Ibadan CV should as such be made available on the University web page where intending applicants can have access to it.
- Short Listing Process
- The Departmental Appointments & Promotions Panel and a nominee of the Dean should then set in motion the process for short-listing candidates. The Panel should determine the number of academic staff to be shortlisted for each area of specialisation bearing in mind the overall academic balance in the Department, where many vacancies exist.
- To examine the quality and integrity of publications cited by applicants, the Panel may demand for copies from the applicants in situations where the journal articles are not readily available. A quick assessment of publications will aid shortlisting of the applicants. It is recommended that Departments should also employ standard modern web-based tools to verify the authenticity of publications.
- The relevance and strength of the reference letters is important. There should be at least two Professional/Academic referee reports among the usual three submitted. For junior positions, referees should include the candidate’s Ph.D supervisor, who should include in his comments an update on how far the candidate had gone in his postgraduate work. Referees should be requested to address the issue of teaching and research capability of the applicant.
- For senior positions, the depth of the research work listed by applicant, the spread and quality of his/her publications should be considered.
- The depth of the CV and how well it conforms to the UI format should be considered. It is important that applicants who are less qualified/less exposed in terms of qualification, training, publication, do not have undue advantage over existing academic staff.
- Quality of PhD should be assessed. If it is a recent PhD, the quality can be determined by the Department. However, if not recent, it can be assessed through the quality of publications emanating from the work.
- Scoring of Publications and Teaching Experience
It is recommended that candidates’ applications be scored using the University of Ibadan Appointments & Promotions Guidelines as appropriate for each level of appointment being sought by the applicants. Teaching experience could be scored using such parameters as years of teaching at a university or other tertiary institution(s), strength of recommendation from referees and testimonials from former students, if available. The Panel will then shortlist applicants in order of merit starting from the candidate with the highest score.
- Seminar Presentation
i. Seminar presentation should be purely interactive and made to serve the purpose of assessing the candidate’s teaching and research abilities.
ii. Shortlisted candidates should be invited to present open seminars. Candidates should choose their own research topics which must be relevant to the area of need of the Department. However, the topic for teaching seminar should be chosen by the department in order to achieve uniformity.
iii. The seminar should be attended by staff, students and other invited people.
iv. The Establishments Office should be dulynotified of the seminar though it is a departmental arrangement.
- What Should be Scored at the Seminar:
i. Appearance and comportment of candidate
ii. Relevance of research work to departmental need
iii. Quality of the research work presented at the seminar
iv. Communication skills
v. Plan for the future
vi. The candidate’s response to questions.
- Persons to Score/Assess Seminar Presenters
i. The scoring panel must be composed of members of departmental Appointments & Promotions. Professors, Readers and only Senior Lecturers of 3 years or more will be eligible to score applicants for position of Senior Lecturer, while only Professors will be eligible to score applicants for position of Reader and Professor.
ii. At least five persons should score at the seminar. Where a Department does not have enough qualified staff, suitable persons may be co-opted from other relevant departments.
iii. Because of the importance of the seminar and its role in the proposed short listing process leading to interview, it is recommended that the following pass mark at the seminar should be adopted:
o 50% for Senior Lecturer and below
o 60% for Reader
o 70% for Professor
G. Who Should Qualify for Interview
i. A candidate whose area of interest does not tally with the area of departmental need should not be allowed to proceed further.
ii. A candidate whose qualification and publication score does not measure up to University of Ibadan Guidelines for Promotion standard for the level applied for should not be allowed to proceed further.
iii. For a candidate to make the shortlist, he/she must possess basic qualification to be awarded a higher degree of the University of Ibadan.
iv. Potential to attract research grant and ability to supervise postgraduate students should be considered for senior lecturer and professorial grade.
v. Foreign degree certificates should be evaluated.
vi. Candidates with degrees from first generation universities should be given priority.
vii. Candidates who fall short of the appointability pass mark indicated above should not
proceed to the interview stage.
[1] Reference Senate Paper No 5583 (Attachment IV)
