Teaching and Scholarship

Evidence of teaching and scholarship contribution (to the extent relevant in each case) should include: 

  • A record of all under and postgraduate courses taught over such a period as to demonstrate evidence of fulfilment of the teaching criteria (normally not less than one year of evidence at Cambridge/its Colleges). 
  • Details of course developments and pedagogical innovation.
  • The annual number of hours of teaching undertaken in your Institution (stint) and details of administrative work that the Institution has agreed to be equivalent to part of the annual teaching stint (maximum of 1,000 words). 
  • Details of any grants, as applicable. Please note, student awards cannot be classed as grant capture.
  • Details of Invited or Contributed Talks/Seminars, or other research presentations. You will also be asked to indicate if you were the keynote/plenary speaker at any of your talks. Generally, keynote speeches are considered the primary speech, which sets the central theme of a conference, whereas plenary speeches cover a broad range of topics. However, in some disciplines, the term keynote and plenary are used interchangeably.
  • Details of any regular and substantial contribution to the teaching programmes of other Institutions. 
  • An up-to-date list of any postgraduate students formally supervised, including results, since your last promotion/appointment.
  • Summary of examining duties.

Samples of course descriptions, hand-outs, bibliographies, summary evidence of student feedback may be included, up to a maximum of five sides of A4. Please add annotations to any supporting evidence you include in your application, to provide commentary and explanation of why you have included it, and how it demonstrates your achievement of the assessment criteria.

Scholarship

Scholarship involves the synthesis and presentation of knowledge, as opposed to research which is the discovery of new knowledge. A particular strand of scholarship involves a systematic practice which enhances and improves the student experience, as well as outcomes.  All scholarship should, in as far as is possible, be subject to critical review and any materials developed should be made available for others to use.

At Cambridge, the Frascati definition of research is used, which can be reviewed here. For the avoidance of doubt, research conducted by T&S academics will be considered and assessed as scholarship.

Examples of evidence of scholarship may include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Textbooks for teaching aspects of the subject matter/discipline, which may be used in Higher Education or other sectors, or in professional/training contexts.
  • Online teaching or learning materials (i.e. either for exploitation by educators or directly by students/learners) which teach aspects of the subject matter/discipline, for use in Higher Education or other sectors, or in professional/training contexts.
  • Original research of an applied nature, e.g. pedagogic research into ways of teaching a particular subject/discipline, possibly but not necessarily derived from applied research into one’s own practice of teaching it in Higher Education.
  • Original research of a more traditional nature.

Further examples of evidence of scholarship can be found in the Indicators of Excellence.

Evidence of the above should be captured in your publications list as applicable (see below). However, you may wish to provide further details on your scholarship in the section of the application form named “Teaching and Scholarship Contribution” (this section must be a maximum of 1,000 words) or include them as one of the key achievements you would like to highlight in your personal statement (see here).

The impact of your scholarship

A key aspect of your application is the evidence of the impact your scholarly activities have had on your teaching. You should ensure that you explain the relevance of your scholarship and scholarly outputs to the teaching you do for the University, and how the discipline is taught elsewhere, and the impact the resulting changes have had.

College Teaching 

If you undertake any College teaching and work undertaken as a College Director of Studies, these details can be included. You should also provide the name and College of the Senior Tutor so they can be contacted to provide a statement regarding your College teaching.

Clinical Work and Postgraduate Medical Teaching and Training 

If you hold an Honorary NHS consultant contract, you should provide details of your contribution to postgraduate medical education and training.  Information provided in relation to teaching will be considered under the teaching criteria and information provided in relation to clinical duties will be considered under Service to the University and Academic Community. 

Clinical Veterinary Work and Postgraduate Veterinary Teaching and Training 

If you are engaged in veterinary clinical work, you should provide details of your contribution to postgraduate veterinary teaching and training. Information provided in relation to teaching will be considered under the teaching criteria and information provided in relation to other clinical duties will be considered under Service to the University and Academic Community.

Publications (scholarly outputs, textbooks and online resources)

Details of scholarly outputs should be provided as follows:

  • The publications list must be structured into sections, including a section for peer-reviewed publication and a section for pre-prints and author accepted manuscripts which have a persistent Digital Object Identified (DOI). 
  • Within the sections referred to above, the publications list must be in a clear chronological order, stating for each publication (including any books) the year of publication, and page numbers (where available). Where relevant, you must clearly mark publications since your last promotion/appointment with an asterisk.
  • The publications list must include only outputs which are publicly available* for consideration.  Publications which have been “accepted and are in press” but are not yet publicly available must not be included in the publications list. However, if you would like to refer to an in-press publication in your personal statement (see here), you can do so. 
  • Indicate which publications are open access (free to read and reuse at no cost) by marking as ‘(open)’. 
  • Work in progress but not yet completed must not be included.
  • Copies of publications must not be included.

Note: citation data is not a direct indicator of research quality. In line with the University’s guidance on the Responsible Use of Metrics in Research Assessment, while citation data may be included, applications will be assessed on the quality and the impact of the research itself, and not on the quantity or range of citations received. Consideration of an application will not be prejudiced if citation data are not included.

The points noted on this page are intended as guidance only. You are encouraged to follow disciplinary norms when preparing your publications list, which may differ from the above.

Online learning and teaching resources

Links should be provided, clearly demonstrating how the resource is publicly accessible, e.g. via relevant web portals and/or licences. Where available, download data or access statistics should be provided or other evidence of take up or adoption.

Outputs which can be included

All research and research-led publications that are publicly available* for consideration (i.e. copies are obtainable at the time of application, or at some previous time, by members of the public through normal trade channels) can be included in your publications list.

Non-standard contributions

For disciplines where the communication of research results is not, or is only partly, in the form of conventional scholarly publication, other forms of contribution should be listed. 

Co-authored and multi-authored publications

You should provide details of your role and contribution in co-authored and multi-authored publications, as referred to in the section on the personal statement.

*It is recognised that in certain circumstances, a publication/output may not be publicly available, for example due to data confidentiality or ethical reasons. If this is the case, please explain briefly why the material is not publicly available and, if relevant, note any protocols by which others in your community might be able to access it.