University of St Andrews

Once the appropriate approval has been received you should complete a Further Particulars template and return this to the Recruitment team. 

The Further Particulars (Academic Research Grade 6) (Word, 100 KB) should be used for standard post doctoral adverts.  This template has 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 and research project. 

HR are working on standard templates for grade 7 and grade 8 research roles which will be published in due course.  In the meantime, please use the grade 6 template as a starting point, adding in additional duties, responsibilities and essential/desirable criteria relevant to the role you wish to advertise.  HR will check the remit to ensure it is being pitched at the correct grade. 

• Please do not alter the information about the University (which is standard to all templates and written by Corporate Communications and the Principal's Office)
• Please do not alter the formatting of the template
• Please do not use an old, saved template as the information on the templates is regularly updated
• 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 

If the post is a replacement, you may cut and paste your previous School/project information into the online template as this will contain the most up to date information on equality, visa, contractual and University matters.  If you do not have the previous version to hand, the Recruitment team will send this to you upon request. 

If advertising multiple posts at the same grade and remit, one set of Further Particulars may be used indicating how many posts are on offer. 

If advertising one post which may be offered at different grades depending on the experience of the successful candidate, one set of Further Particulars indicating the different remits/experience required for each grade may be used. 

If advertising several posts at different grades or with different remits, multiple Further Particulars will be required 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. 

You 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 differences, 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 may be run if required. 

Interview dates should be added to the Further Particulars at the time of publishing, but if this is not possible, the interview date must be confirmed with HR prior to the closing date.

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. 

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 (Research) 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 grant or the School (depending on how the post is funded). 

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 Convenor informed of any delays, and will send an update when the post has been published.