Statute XIV: Employment of Academic and Support Staff by the University

Approved with effect from 1 October 2002 (Supplement (1) to Gazette No. 4633, 9 October 2002)
Amended with effect from 28 June 2005 (Gazette vol. 135, p. 1250, 30 June 2005) and with effect from 1 December 2009 (Gazette, Vol. 140, p. 329)

Authority to employ and dismiss Staff

1. No official of the University or any other person employed by the University or working in or in connection with any department of or under the control of the University shall have authority, except with the express consent of Council and subject to sections 2-5 of this statute:

(1) to offer any person employment as a member of the University's academic-related or support staff, or to sign letters of appointment for such academic-related and support staff;

(2) to dismiss such support staff; or

(3) to dismiss such academic-related staff in circumstances other than those which fall within the provisions of Parts B-E of Statute XII.

2. Any offer of employment shall be on the appropriate terms and conditions of employment for the category of staff concerned.

3. Any dismissal shall have complied with the appropriate procedures for the dismissal of the member of staff concerned.

4. No consent given by Council under the provisions of sections 1-3 above shall be operative until a copy of the resolution of Council, certified by the Registrar, has been delivered to the official or other person concerned.

5. Council may delegate its powers under sections 1-4 above to its Personnel Committee, or to the chairman or to an officer or officers of that committee, as it may deem appropriate and on such conditions as it may lay down; and a consent signed by the Chairman of the Personnel Committee or by a designated officer shall have the same effect as a certified resolution of Council.

General Conditions of Service

6. The numbers of persons employed by the University, their conditions of service, and their method of appointment shall be determined from time to time by Council, subject to sections 7-14 of this statute and to the other provisions of the statutes and regulations.

7. The three main categories of academic staff shall be professors, readers, and lecturers.

8. The holders of all academic posts shall be paid under standard arrangements to be determined from time to time by Council, except that this shall not prevent the payment of additional emoluments, which may be pensionable:

(1) in the form of such allowances in respect of administrative responsibilities as may be prescribed by regulation; or

(2) in the form of awards in recognition of academic distinction or contribution to academic work of the University in accordance with arrangements to be determined from time to time by Council.

9. Arrangements shall be made by Council under which all professors, readers, lecturers, and holders of other posts approved for this purpose by Council shall be entitled to apply for one term of leave for every six terms of service.

10. Every holder of a professorship or readership, or of any other post approved for this purpose by regulation, and every holder of a lecturership who has been appointed to that lecturership until retirement age, shall be entitled to hold a fellowship in a college or society, except that the offer of a fellowship to any person who is entitled under this statute, or to any person who would become so entitled on reappointment to the retirement age, shall satisfy any obligation of the University in respect of that person's entitlement to hold a fellowship.

11. (1) Every professorship shall be allocated from time to time by Council to a college or society, and the successive holders of that professorship shall be fellows of that college or society.

(2) The college or society of allocation shall have the right to have two representatives on the board of electors for the professorship.

12. (1) All persons employed by the University shall be subject either to the Universities Superannuation Scheme, or (if they are not eligible to become members of that scheme) to either a pension scheme established by the University or a pension scheme in which the University has made arrangements for specified categories of staff to participate, and shall be entitled to the benefits of any arrangement for the supplementation of superannuation benefits that may be applicable to universities generally.

(2) Council shall determine in any cases of doubt, but having regard to the practice of universities generally, and the rules of the Universities Superannuation Scheme, the pension scheme to which a person shall belong.

(3) Council shall exempt from the need to be subject to a pension scheme any person who is excluded from membership of the appropriate pension scheme by virtue of age or who is already in receipt of pension from one of the pension schemes or who submits a written request for exemption.

(4) Council may exclude any person from membership of a pension scheme if he or she is subject to an alternative pension scheme approved by Council.

13. Every employee of the University who is subject to the jurisdiction of the Visitatorial Board under the provisions of Statute XII, other than the holder of a professorship to which a canonry is annexed who is exempt from membership of the appropriate pension scheme referred to in section 12 of this statute, shall retire not later than the date applicable to that employee as laid down by Council by regulation.

14. (1) Any employee of the University who is not subject to the jurisdiction of the Visitatorial Board under the provisions of Statute XII shall, in the event of dismissal in a case in which the dismissal arises from disciplinary action, have a right of appeal to a panel consisting of two members of the Personnel Committee of Council appointed by the chairman of that committee (or his or her deputy) and one member of Council, not being a member of the Personnel Committee, appointed by the Vice-Chancellor.

(2) Pending the outcome of any appeal, the employee will be regarded as suspended without pay.

(3) On the hearing of an appeal, the panel may confirm or revoke the dismissal or may make such order as it may think just, and Council shall pay the appellant the sum, if any, ordered by the panel to be paid to him or her.