University of St Andrews

Once the appropriate approval has been received you should complete the Further Particulars (FPs) template and return this to the recruitment team. 

HR are currently working on a suite of Education Focused templates with the Principal’s Office which will be published in due course. In the meantime, you can either start with a blank template or you may find it useful to use the standard templates for Education & Research Lecturers and Senior Lecturers as a starting point, removing reference to research and other activities which do not form part of an Education Focused role.

Further Particulars (Lecturer) (Word, 99 KB)

Further Particulars (Senior Lecturer) (Word, 100 KB)

These standard templates have been written in conjunction with the Principal’s Office and can be amended to suit individual vacancies in terms of additional information about the School, discipline, projects and modules. 

• Please do not alter the information about the University (which is standard to all templates and written by Corporate Communications).
• Please do not alter the formatting of the template
• Unless otherwise stated, applications will consist of the online application form only. Convenors who wish candidates to provide additional documentation such as CV, covering letter or writing sample must make this clear in the 'How to Apply' section of the Further Particulars
• The desired start date should be included.  Where this is non negotiable (eg due to funding end dates or the return date for a member of staff on leave), this should be clearly stated on both the Advert and the Further Particulars (FPs)

If advertising multiple posts at the same level and working to the same remit, one set of Further Particulars (FPs) can be used indicating how many posts are on offer. 

If advertising one post which may be offered at different levels depending on the experience of the successful candidate, one set of Furhter Particulars (FPs) indicating the different remits/experience required for each level will be used,

If advertising several posts at different levels or with different remits, multiple Further Particulars (FPs) will be used although these can be cross referenced to ensure candidates are aware that more than one post is on offer. 

Please contact the Recruitment team for advice if you are unsure how best to proceed. 

Heads of School may also wish to consider holding open online presentations/Q&A sessions via MS Teams prior to the closing date.  These provide candidates with more information about the job, the School and life in St Andrews and gives them the chance to ask anonymous questions via the chat facility to help them decide if the job is a good fit.  This also eases the pressure on the named contacts for informal enquiries and may result in a more focused candidate pool.  Due to time zone differentials, HR advise setting up two hour long sessions and including the link and times in the advert at the time of publishing.

While there is no longer a minimum requirement for advertising academic posts, it is recommended that adverts run for a minimum of 2 weeks with 4 weeks being the norm.  Longer adverts can be run if required.  Before the closing date is reached, HR will contact the Convenor to confirm if the advert is to be extended. 

In some instances, it may be desirable to run a rolling advert with no firm end date.  Please seek advice from the Recruitment team if you wish to explore this option.

Unless your post is for less than 12 months, you will need to secure a PO representative on the panel (see Panels and shortlisting), therefore it is imperative that the School liaise with the Principal's Office  (ap-facdeans@st-andrews.ac.uk) as soon as possible in order to confirm an interview date.  Usually interview dates will be added to the Further Particulars (FPs) at the time of publishing, but if this is not possible, the interview date must be confirmed with HR prior to the closing date.

Depending on the urgency, duration and specialism of the post, jobs may be advertised

• internally to the School only;
• internally to the University;
• externally from the outset.

All routes can be hosted on the University’s e-recruitment system, Engage, although it is possible to run an offline School only recruitment exercise in some instances. Please seek advice from the Recruitment team or your HR Business Partner as to whether your vacancy is suitable for an offline process and how to do this. 

All academic (Education Focused) posts being advertised externally, will be posted on the University jobspage, on jobs.ac.uk and on LinkedIn with the cost to be met by HR.  Convenors are free to circulate job details to their own networks/contacts and the recruitment team will obtain costs for advertising elsewhere upon request.  Additional advertising will be charged to the School or grant.

When the advert is received by HR, it will be allocated to a member of the recruitment team who will be the key contact for the vacancy. 

A number of steps are required before the post is published depending on whether a new post number is required and if external funding needs to be confirmed by Finance.  In line with the redeployment policy the University also has a duty to support employees facing redundancy, therefore the post may need to be flagged to them prior to advertising. This will depend on who is on the redeployment register and the type/grade of post being advertised.

Please bear in mind that the post will be in a queue of vacancies prioritised by closing date.  HR will endeavour to post the advert within three working days where possible and subject to having complete information from the Convenor.  The recruitment assistant will keep the School informed of any delays, and will send an update when the post has been published.