Blog – Getting yourself a Senior academic promotion

Senior academic promotions season (to grades 9 and 10) opens in autumn in many HEI in the UK. This blog entry is written for all but dedicated to women. Women are underrepresented in senior academic positions, making up only 28% of UK professors and this gap widens precisely in the transition to grades 8 and 9 (40% gender gap in grade 9 in the Institute of Neurology where I work).  I went through the senior promotion process in 2021 and my promotion to grade 9 was made effective in October 2022. Here I share some learnings and tips from my experience.

Prepare and become familiar with the process – Getting to know the promotion process will allow you to identify the gaps in your CV. A year before I applied, I told department leads I planned to apply. Then I spoke with a colleague who had just been promoted. Her CV was remarkable, I used her as a benchmark. That helped identified a gap in my CV: funding. Because I spotted it, I was able to address it and get my CV in shape.

Organise your merits according to the framework – The year before I applied started a spreadsheet. Organised in different tabs. One per each one of the four categories contained in the Academic Career Framework. I started populating them with everything I had (e.g., talks, publications, interviews, blogs), organised by dates, including hyperlinks if appropriate.

Attend the workshop – My Institute records an annual senior promotions workshop which is helpful to watch. It contains guidance about how to meet the framework criteria. Something that was highlighted in the workshop was the importance to show seniority. E.g., last author papers, proof that you can lead a team, wave your international influence. I used that information to emphasize those aspects of my application.

Download the forms – Get the CV application template (this is the main body of your application), Publication list preparation (at UCL’s it’s via the Research Publications System) & circumstances. You also need to prepare your Personal Statement, to show how you have demonstrated personal impact against the Academic Carers Framework. It’s like a mini version of your application. But very important. It´s your pitch.

Find an example of an application of someone who has recently promoted and is happy to share it with you – That was lifesaving for me, because gave me a winning example of how to organise the information, how to use the language and what was important to say.

Be aware of gender bias- If you are a woman, I recommend you watch a tutorial about unconscious gender bias. How and why women receive less support and are less credited in academia. That won´t solve the issue, but will make you more aware of it. Being educated in gender bias protects you against your own gender bias. And makes you more likely to lean in.

Personal statement – Two pages. Concise. To the point. Make sure it is a bombardment of factual merits: open with two lines about where you started and where you are now (so the panel sees progression). In the rest of the sections: number of publications, pieces of opinion, policy reports, citations, H-Index, open access. Figures in bold, make them stand out. How much funding have you been awarded? Give the full amount. Prizes, awards, size of the team you manage (figures in bold, remember). How many invited talks? How many of them international (talks are very important, they show recognition). How many as a keynote speaker (again, recognition). Have you been invited to write review articles? Served as peer-reviewer? Grant reviewer? Associate editor? Do you sit in international boards? How many PhD and MSc students have you supervised? Be pointy. And emphasize leadership.

You don´t need perfection, just the threshold … and some other bits – I scrutinised the profile of other people recently promoted before starting to write my CV. That gave me an idea of the minimum required. This is key. When you look at the Career Framework it may feel overwhelming. But remember, you are not supposed to meet all criteria in full. Just enough to enter that level. Women are easily intimidated by the imperfections in our CVs. Don´t doubt yourself, count your merits. Be confident, be brave. You lose more if you don´t try.

Secure support of people with experience and who wish you well – I asked a combination of academic colleagues of different seniority to look at my application. Most of them are friends. They helped with improving the writing and making it clear. But they also helped with moral support.  Academia can be a very lonely territory, particularly for women. Do not underestimate the power of friendship to keep you going.

Get your internal deadlines right – The deadline for submission is usually around December but your department may have an internal deadline around October to allow internal screening. Applications that receive the support of the HoD go to the main Executive Committee to decide if the candidate is strong enough to pass to the final round. Make sure you are aware of these deadlines.

I hope these tips are helpful.

Good luck with your application if you decide to go for it.

Dr Aida Suarez-Gonzalez

Author

Dr Aida Suarez-Gonzalez is a Clinical Neuropsychologist and Senior Researcher at the Dementia Research Centre, UCL Institute of Neurology at Queen Square. With many years clinical experience working in Spain, Aida now investigating non-pharmacological interventions, services and assistive technologies to support people living well with dementia – this work has included creation of the ReadClear App to support reading for people with posterior cortical atrophy (PCA).

Follow @Aida_Suarez_