96

January 2020

OPINION

Assessment and accreditation of tenure-eligible lecturers under the Serra Húnter Programme

Josep Domingo - Academic Director, Serra Húnter Programme

B96_Pla serra hunterThe purpose of the Serra Húnter Programme (SHP) is to recruit, on a level comparable to that of international standards, highly qualified teaching and research staff for positions at public universities in Catalonia. The SHP followed the adoption of the Catalan Universities Act (LUC) in 2003 and, up until 2012, its scope was confined to the co-financing of 50% of the recruitment of senior lecturers accredited by the Catalan University Quality Assurance Agency (AQU).

From 2012 onwards, following the consolidation of the contract teaching positions covered by the LUC and the accreditation system extended to include regular (civil servant) teaching positions, the SHP was changed and took on its current form. In order to be co-financed by the SH programme, contracts must have a broad profile and calls for applications are tendered at international level to increase participation and competitiveness: calls currently receive around twenty applications to each contract tendered. In addition, the tenure committees (panels) that decide the outcome of calls are set up on an equal footing between the university tendering the contract and the SHP. The committees consist of five members, of which only the secretary is from the university offering the post, with two or three members from universities in other countries to ensure that international standards of selection are applied.

Up until 2013, calls for applications launched by SHP offered permanent contracts for positions equivalent to senior lecture teaching staff. From 2015 onwards, the universities and the SHP agreed to prioritise the recruitment of teaching staff at the tenure-eligible lecturer level, which is the entry-level category to the university system in Catalonia, with a contract of up to five years. Application of the SHP to the entry-level category in the system is considered to be the most efficient method.

The contribution made by AQU Catalunya to the development of the programme has been and continues to be fundamental. The prevailing legislation (LUC) requires that all candidates to contract teaching positions are in possession of accreditation. With the increase in the number of applicants to Serra Húnter calls for applications, AQU Catalunya currently receives around 700 applications each year for tenure-eligible lecturer accreditation from unaccredited Serra Húnter candidates (most of them from abroad).

The role of AQU does not however end with the accreditation of tenure-eligible lecturer candidates. The aim of the SHP is that job stability is, as far as possible, up Serra Húnter tenure-eligible lecturers themselves, together with their work, regardless of the fact that they must take part in a competitive process to become a senior lecturer. This is why Serra Húnter tenure-eligible lecturers are named as such ("eligible for a stable position"). As a pre-requisite, an SH tenure-eligible lecturer must undergo two assessment procedures, one by the university (in which a candidate's research, teaching, integration, etc. are reviewed) and another by the SHP. In the SHP procedure, candidates are required to obtain from AQU either the accreditation of research with a score of 60 out of 100 (slightly more demanding than usual) or a favourable assessment report from Serra Húnter (applications for which have been possible since February 2019 onwards, with only SH tenure-eligible lecturers being eligible to apply for them, and with a level of difficulty equivalent to an accreditation of research with a score of 60 out of 100). In addition, the members of the international panel chosen by the SH tenure-eligible lecturer must also confirm that the candidate would be qualified for a stable position in their respective universities. If the outcome of the SHP assessment is favourable, the Programme will maintain the co-financing of 50% when the SH tenure-eligible lecturer becomes an SH senior lecturer. The reason for the increased eligibility requirements for an SH tenure-eligible lecturer to become an SH senior lecturer, compared to the requirements outside of the programme, is twofold: on the one hand, to encourage the scientific output of young teaching staff and, on the other, as an incentive for departments to enable them to work in good conditions. The incentive is that, once SH tenure-eligible lecturers achieve job stability in a position, co-financing is maintained indefinitely.

As the director of the SHP I am therefore very grateful to AQU and its review panels for their tireless work and professionalism and without which the current conception of the programme would be impossible.

ENQA EQAR ISO

Generalitat de Catalunya

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