Ordinance on the Appointment of Heads of Departments

Eligibility

(1)        The Vice-Chancellor shall establish a Committee on the Appointment of Head of Department which shall receive and approve recommendations from Departments for appointment of Heads of Departments.

(2)        The membership of the Committee on the Appointment of Head of Department shall be:

The Vice Chancellor or Deputy Vice Chancellor;

A senior member of the University from outside the Department who has been appointed to act as independent Chair for the consultation process;

The Registrar;

Three members of the Department appointed by the Vice Chancellor who are not themselves nominees for appointment to Head of the Department.

The Deputy Registrar shall normally be the Secretary to the Committee.

(3)        The Vice-Chancellor shall appoint a senior member of the University from outside the department to act as an independent Chair to conduct the consultation on the appointment of the Head of Department.

Eligibility to Serve

(4)        The Head of Department shall normally be chosen from amongst the professorial members of the Department.

Term of Office

(5)        The term of office of a Head of Department shall normally be five years.  A Head of Department may be re-appointed for a second consecutive term of up to five years.

Nomination and Appointment Process

(6)        In the Autumn Term of the academic year in which the Head of Department’s appointment expires, the Vice-Chancellor shall advise eligible members of the department that a consultation on the appointment of Head of the Department shall be held and of the name of the independent Head appointed by the Vice Chancellor.  The Registrar shall invite members of the Department  to submit nominations for the post of Head of Department to the independent Chair.

(7)        The independent Chair shall determine, in consultation with the Departmental Management Committee, how the consultation shall be conducted.

(8)        The independent Chair shall prepare, in consultation with the Departmental Management Committee, a report on the results of the consultation for submission to the Committee on Appointment of the Head of the Department.  The report shall contain the names of all those who have indicated a wish to go forward in nomination for appointment as Head of the Department and shall make such recommendations as may be appropriate.

(9)        On receipt of nominations the Vice-Chancellor shall call a meeting of the Committee on the Appointment of the Head of Department.  The Committee shall have the power to:

            (a)        confirm the appointment of a single nominee

            (b)        make an appointment from a number of the nominations received

            (c)        undertake further consultation with the Department with a view to making an appointment.

 (10)     Where either no nominations are forthcoming or the Committee on the Appointment of the Head of Department is unable to make an appointment as in Paragraph (9) above, the Committee shall canvass further opinions within the Department on the basis of which it shall

either

appoint a new Head of Department,

or

extend the appointment of the current Head of Department for a further twelve month period notwithstanding the fact that the Head of Department may already have served two consecutive terms of office,

or

appoint an Acting Head of Department for no longer than twelve months after which time the process for appointing a substantive Head of Department shall have been completed.

Casual Vacancies

(11)        In the case of a casual vacancy the Committee on the Appointment of the Head of Department shall appoint an Acting Head of Department, except that no Acting Head of Department shall hold continuous office for more than twelve months.