University of St Andrews

Panels are differently constituted depending on the duration and level of post which is being advertised as follows:

Temporary posts at all levels (up to 12 months duration)

3 members from within the School

Please note that the Head of School will be added as a silent panel member so that they are aware of each stage of the recruitment exercise.

Associate Lecturer/Lecturer and all temporary posts over 12 months duration

1. Head of School
2. School representative
3. Dean

Senior Lecturer/Reader

1. Head of School
2. School representative
3. Dean or Dean’s representative (with the exception of Medicine which must be the Assistant Vice-Principal Dean of Science)
4. Master or Vice Principal

Professor

1. Principal
2. Master
3. AVP Dean
4. Head of School 
5. 1-2 School representatives
6. 2 External Assessors

While external assessors must form part of the panel for professorial posts, it is also possible to appoint appropriate external panel members to panels for Lecturers/Senior Lecturers/Readers depending on their specialism and/or where the post is part of a joint project/initiative with another University or organisation. 

The School Manager/nominated senior administrator should also be added to the panel to assist with the administrative aspects of the recruitment exercise. 

All panels should be mixed gender to avoid issues of unconscious bias.  Additional panel members can be added from other Schools or HR if it is impossible to achieve this within the School.  

Please also bear in mind any conflict of interests, whether personal or business related, when appointing panel members.  Further details can be found in the Declaration of Interests policy and by seeking advice from the Recruitment team where necessary.

Due to the pressure on Principal's Office diaries, it is imperative that panels are decided as early as possible in the recruitment process to allow interview dates to be included in the advert. 

The University has a policy on mandatory training which includes training relevant to the recruitment of staff.  If not already done so, prior to becoming a panel member everyone must undertake:

1. Recruitment and Selection online training
2. Unconscious Bias training
3. Diversity in the workplace training

These courses are hosted by the Organisational & Staff Development Services (OSDS) where you will find links to the short modules under the 'all employees' section.

Even if the above training has been undertaken already, panel members may also find it useful to review this short unconscious bias video as a refresher prior to sitting on a panel. In addition, a longer, optional Recruitment and Selection training session is periodically offered by Organisational & Staff Development Services in conjunction with the HR Recruitment team. Details will be made available to staff as these sessions are scheduled. 

Instructions on how to access the e-recruitment system and review applications will be sent to all panel members when the vacancy is advertised and an email, with shortlisting instructions, will be sent when it closes. The Recruitment team can also provide one to one training on all aspects of using the system if required.

The panel will usually be chaired by the Head of School but may be delegated to another member of the School.  In such cases, the Convenor must be someone who is experienced in making appointments, who has sat on panels previously and who has completed the training.  This may be a previous Head of School who will, in addition, be available to provide guidance and support to the incoming Head of  School for the first few academic recruitment exercises following their appointment. 

The Convenor will run the long and shortlisting meetings as well as the interviews but the Principal's Office representative (Dean, Vice-Principal, Master, Principal) will chair the discussion at the end of the interviews to agree the appointment. 

The Convenor or Chair of the panel has a number of responsibilities in addition to the other panel members at various stages of the recruitment process.

At advertising stage

Write advert/Further Particulars and send to the recruitment team

Decide on where to advertise outside of the normal outlets if required and request costs from the recruitment team

Be a point of contact for informal enquiries from applicants prior to interview

Choose panel members (liaising with the Principal’s Office for academic/senior appointments if required – see checklists) and notify the recruitment team

At shortlisting stage

Decide shortlisting matrix/scoring method if used

Chair long/short listing meetings, guiding discussion and taking casting vote if necessary

Decide on format of interview and any selection exercises such as presentations or tests

With the panel, decide on interview questions

At timetabling stage

After shortlisting meeting, complete Interview Details form (Word, 223 KB) and send to recruitment team to allow them to draw up timetable

On receipt of final timetable from recruitment (following candidate acceptance), organise Teams interviews or venues if holding in person – this may be delegated to an administrator within the School/Unit

At interviewing stage

Chair interviews – make introductions/closing remarks and ask some questions

Chair post interview discussions to agree successful candidate and take casting vote if necessary

Collate feedback from panel members and provide a summary to candidates when asked (following shortlisting/interviews)

At appointment stage

Make verbal offer to successful candidate – confirm start date, salary and any other conditions of offer

Personally update unsuccessful internal candidates following interview (the recruitment team will follow this with the official regret email)

Complete Details of Appointment Form (Academic) (Word, 236 KB) with successful candidate’s details and send to recruitment team to allow them to issue written offer

While it may not always be necessary to produce separate long and shortlists due to smaller candidate pools or time pressures, when such a step is required, this may be undertaken without the Principal's Office representative’s involvement.  However, all other panel members must take part in both the longlisting and shortlisting stages. 

Schools may add up to three subject matter experts at this stage to assist with filtering applications but who are not involved in subsequent panel discussions/decisions. 

As the aim is to conclude the interviews within a single day, ideally longlists should consist of:

• 10 people if the shortlist is to be reduced to four;
• 12 people if the shortlist is to be reduced to five (or six when there are multiple posts on offer).

Notes should be retained on longlisting recommendations as these will be used to justify decisions to include/exclude candidates if challenged.  Panel members should be aware that candidates may request sight of any notes related to their application and recruitment experience so these should be written accordingly.   

The Convenor must not confirm decisions on the e-recruitment system about any candidate as this is undertaken by HR at the appropriate time.

Role of other School members in longlisting

In order to be GDPR compliant, only the panel members and chosen subject matter experts should review the applications.  However, other interested members of the School may review writing samples or other written assessments which have been requested as part of the application and provide feedback to the panel.  Written notes should be kept as they will form a formal part of the panel’s deliberations and will be shared with candidates if requested.  

Decisions on who to invite for interview will be made by the formal panel members only and without further input from the additional subject matter experts and wider School.

Instructions on how to access the e-recruitment system and review applications will be sent to all panel members when the vacancy is advertised and an email, with shortlisting instructions, will be sent when it closes.

Generally shortlists should consist of up to five people for a single post and up to six if interviews are being held for two posts on the same day.

If the quality of the candidate pool permits, it is desirable to keep one or two candidates in reserve to make up the shortlist should any of the chosen candidates pull out of the recruitment process.  These candidates will be held in abeyance until such time as the final timetable is confirmed (see Timetables and interviewing section). 

Where the quality of the candidate pool permits, shortlists should be of mixed gender.  If this is not possible, the Principal's Office may request that the post is readvertised.

Notes should be retained on shortlisting recommendations as these will be used to justify decisions to include/exclude candidates if challenged.  Panel members should be aware that candidates may request sight of any notes related to their application and recruitment experience so should write these accordingly.

If the candidate pool only yields only one or two potentially appointable candidates, you may wish to consider extending the closing date or advertising elsewhere.  HR will notify existing candidates if this is the case.  If, after extending the search, there are no further potentially appointable candidates, then it is advisable to interview those you originally identified in order to assess if they are suitable for the job or to rule them out in the event that the post has to be readvertised.

Failure to shortlist

If the panel is unable to shortlist any of the candidates, then:

• the Convenor should update HR who will formally regret the candidates
• the School may readvertise at that point considering alternative advertising outlets
• the Further Particulars should be reviewed and refereshed indicating that previous candidates need not reapply

Alternatively, the Head of School may wish to take some time to consider future strategy which may, or may not, result in a future readvertisement.  As part of staffing complement management, HR will contact the Head of School for an update as to whether the post is still required if it has remained inactive for four months.