Should I include work from my entire career?
How big should my documentation package be?
Should I include my annual performance reviews in my package?
What counts as Research, Teaching, and Service?
What if I do interdisciplinary work?
Do I require a specific number of publications?
Should I include technical reports in highlighting my career accomplishments?
Is disciplinary expertise required?
What constitutes a conflict of interest?
What is the difference between a candidate statement and a teaching dossier?
Should I include slide show presentations to showcase my teaching?
Should student course feedback surveys be included in my teaching dossier?
Will I be notified in advance when a teaching referee visits my class(es)?
Can we request that teaching referees come to specific classes?
Should we include teaching activities from elsewhere?
What do you mean by letters of support?
What if I received unsolicited letters from students through my career?
Is it ethical to solicit letters from students?
Do I have to use the UOIT CV template?
When should I go see my Official File?
What is the difference between excellent and high quality work?
Should I include work from my entire career?
Career review processes are career decisions, and so efforts over your career should be featured and considered. You do not need to include everything you have ever done directly in your package; however, your CV should feature your career accomplishments, and then you can include selected works that best feature your work.
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How big should my documentation package be?
This is a difficult question to answer as factors such as discipline, career stage, number of years as an academic, to name just a few, can determine the most relevant kinds of information to be including. The Faculty Association has some sample packages – please contact us if you would like more information on this.
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Should I include my annual performance reviews in my package?
This is up to you; there is no obligation you have to include this, and nothing to suggest you cannot. Review committees will have access to your official file, and so may access this information regardless.
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What counts as Research, Teaching, and Service?
Definitions of which activities these may include but are not limited to are outlined in Article 16.02-16.04. It is a good idea to review these lists when preparing your application as referees and review committees will also be using these lists to assess your file.
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What if I do interdisciplinary work?
You have the right to have your work assessed by people knowledgeable in your field(s). Your referees should have the expertise required to fully access your work; if you cannot find appropriate interdisciplinary experts, efforts should be made to secure referees with the relevant knowledge in any applicable area which you work. For example, if your work is an interdisciplinary mix of English Literature, History, and Sociology, and you cannot find enough single referees with relevant expertise in all of these areas, you may opt for at least one referee from each of these respective disciplines. If you do interdisciplinary work, it may be a good idea to highlight some of the challenges this may present in how you do your work. See, as one example, National Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) guidelines for preparing and reviewing applications in interdisciplinary research.
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Do I require a specific number of publications?
There is no set number in the collective agreement; this will vary by field, discipline, and even by the specific type of research you conduct. For example, research is assessed on activity that includes peer reviewed publication and/or peer recognized creative professional practice. Some types of research may be more time consuming; for example, many forms of community-based research may require years to build the appropriate connections in a community, which in turn may lead to more time gaps before findings can be disseminated. In some fields, there is an expectation of publishing books, whereas norms are articles spanning a few pages. In some fast moving fields, conference publications are the norm as the information can change quickly in the time it takes something to move to publication. Each application must be assessed through such disciplinary norms – it may be a good idea to contextualize your publication record within such norms so that anyone assessing your file from outside your field can understand these norms.
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Should I include technical reports in highlighting my career accomplishments?
Career review processes are career decisions, so you should include work over your career. This is most appropriately included in your CV, but depending on the nature of the work, selected samples and/or more specific references may be fitting. If any of this work involved confidential information that cannot be disclosed, you may want to more generally reference the types of work you have done, focussing on the transferrable skills – for example, did this work help train highly qualified personnel? If you are unsure of how to best situate this kind of work, it may be a good idea to ask your Dean for advice.
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Is disciplinary expertise required?
External referees are likely to be closest to your area of expertise; review committees are more likely to come from a wide variety of areas. Anyone assessing your file must take disciplinary norms into account. In preparing your package, you should not assume that everyone reading it will be a disciplinary expert, and so highlighting your career accomplishments through your disciplinary norms is ideal.
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What constitutes a conflict of interest?
This is not a defined term in our collective agreement. Past practices have generally followed major granting agencies guidelines on conflict of interest. For example, if you have published with someone, this could be perceived as a conflict. Another example would be an immediate family connection. It is up to committee members assessing files to declare a conflict of interest. Candidates may submit written objections to their proposed review committee membership – we strongly encourage you to consult with the Faculty Association should you wish to submit any written objections. You can find UOIT’s Conflict of Interest in Research policy here.
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What is the difference between a candidate statement and a teaching dossier?
A candidate statement will highlight your contributions in all three areas of responsibility, organized around the central argument of how you have satisfied the criteria for your career review. A teaching dossier more specifically features aspects of your teaching. The Teaching and Learning Centre offers resources on building an effective teaching dossier.
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Should I include slide show presentations to showcase my teaching?
Your dossier may include selected works that best highlight your teaching style, philosophy, etc. While including some sample presentations and other learning materials may be a good idea, you don’t need to include everything.
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Should student course feedback surveys be included in my teaching dossier?
Committee members may access your Official File, which includes student course feedback surveys. As such, it may be beneficial to include your student course feedback surveys as a part of your package and proactively contextualize these. For example, did you incorporate student feedback to improve course delivery? If you have lower scores for some classes, are there reasons for this? Was the course scheduled at 8:00 am in an inadequate classroom? Studies also indicate that you are more likely to get poorer reviews from students if you are a woman, racialized, a person with a disability, and/or are a member of other code-protected groups; you can find more information on this in the final report and recommendations of the Student Course Evaluation Working Group.
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Will I be notified in advance when a teaching referee visits my class(es)?
This would be a good practice, and something you can confirm with your Dean when discussing your referees. If you have a teaching referee who does turn up in one of your classes without providing notice, please let us know so that we can address this issue more formally in the CA.
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Can we request that teaching referees come to specific classes?
You can certainly make this request through your Dean, or with your teaching referee should they contact you to arrange (a) classroom visit(s).
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Should we include teaching activities from elsewhere?
Yes. Career review processes are career decisions, and so you should include information from your entire career. This does not mean that you need to include every teaching material you have ever produced; rather, you should focus on featuring the best of selected works from your career. At a bare minimum, your CV should include a full list of career activities.
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What do you mean by letters of support?
The Collective Agreements allows for the collection of letters from two sources – the candidate and the Dean. The Dean should email colleagues in the relevant Faculty(ies) and may contact former students. The Dean is responsible for compiling and submitting these letters. The candidate may also contact current and past colleagues, students, etc., to request letters in support of their file. Any such letters collected by the candidate should be identified as solicited in your package and submitted along with all other documentation the candidate is responsible for providing.
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What if I received unsolicited letters from students through my career?
It is a good idea to save these unsolicited communications from students and compile them in your teaching dossier. These can be identified as such in your dossier, so as to differentiate them from the solicited letters you proactively seek specifically for your application.
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Is it ethical to solicit letters from students?
There are two routes for collecting letters of support from colleagues and former students. The first is for you to request such letters directly – these should be identified as solicited letters in your package. Secondly, your Dean should also contact former students and colleagues. If you are uncomfortable directly soliciting letters from former students, you may raise this with your Dean and request that any such letters be submitted directly to them.
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Do I have to use the UOIT CV template?
There is no collective agreement require to use a specific CV format. It is a good idea to use a generally recognized standard, and most importantly, to ensure the information can be easily surveyed by anyone reviewing your CV.
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When should I go see my Official File?
As review committees will have access to your Official File, excluding disciplinary letters, it is a good idea to review the contents and ensure you are aware of everything in there. A list of what should be included can be found in Article 18. Two days notice may be required to view your file, so please contact [email protected] in advance to arrange this.
What is the difference between excellent and high quality work?
Satisfactory performance and clear promise of continued contribution is the general standard for earlier career review processes; promotion, however, requires excellence and high quality performance. These are not defined in the agreement. The norms of excellent and high quality work have been established in previous decisions, and so you should not be held to higher standards than your colleagues. If you are preparing a promotion file, you should build in an argument as to why your work is excellent or high quality in conformity with the criteria in the agreement.
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