Sub-Committee on Technical Professional Development

• Terms of Reference: Remit and Purpose

  This entity is the vehicle for a technical staff-led approach: a standing group of technical professional and professional services representatives to steer the work of maintaining and enhancing our professional development offer:

  • Provide strategic co-ordination and sharing of best practice to help meet the professional development needs of our technical workforce, minimise duplication of effort and leverage resources across members and wider-stakeholders.
  • Collect insight, assess and highlight the professional development needs of technical staff.
  • Monitor and drive progress against our Technician Commitment Action Plan.
  • Develop position statements, policy proposals and working drafts of third-party award/signatory applications and self-assessments (e.g. Technician Commitment)

• Terms of Reference: Reserved Powers

  Drafting and dissemination of the action plans associated with external awards including the Technician Commitment.

• Action Plan

  Technician Commitment Action Plan 2024-2027

• Meeting frequency

  Quasi-fixed: Core members will be expected to meet three times each year for two hours each time.

  For time- sensitive activities, the group may spin-out smaller working groups who will dictate their own meeting rhythms and rituals.

• Core membership

  • OSDS Chair
  • Technical Professional Lead
  • Ten technical professional representatives, representing a diversity of career stages e.g. Apprentice, grade 3-grade 6 and technical focus (research and/or teaching)
    • Emily Stratton – School of Geography & Sustainable Development
    • Ryan Milne- School of Biology  
    • Patrick McCann – IT Services 
    • Chris Watson – School of Physics & Astronomy 
    • Calum Cook – School of Psychology & Neuroscience 
    • Cosmin Andrei Artimof – School of International Relations 
    • Henry Rae – School of Medicine 
    • Laurent Delavaine – School of Biology 
    • Siobhan Smith – School of Chemistry 
    • Martin Cockcroft – School of Biology
  • 1x Human Resources representative
    • Bronwen Jenkins

  Other members will be co-opted when needed. We foresee this including staff from Research and Innovation Services, Careers Service, Equality, Diversity & Inclusion amongst others

   

• Past papers and minutes

  Academic Year 2024/2025

• Role descriptions: Chair, Technical Professional lead, Representative member

  Chair role description

  • Is a member of Professional Services staff, selected and/or approved by the Director of the Professional Services Unit that leads on the area within the Remit.
  • Responsible for ensuring that:
    • A Technical Professional Lead is recruited, ideally someone who is a member of, or attends, RIIC
    • The following are written, with co-development and ownership by the Technical Professional Lead:
      • Terms of Reference, including deciding on reserved powers, meeting frequency, core membership, and member recruitment process.
      • Member Role Descriptor.
      • Member Advert.
      • Pro-active horizon scanning is undertaken from within their Professional Services unit on matters relating to the remit and purpose, ensuring the input of others outwith the Unit as required.
      • The production of papers, reports and action plans is undertaken, led and/or coordinated from within their Professional Services Unit, ensuring the input of others outwith the Unit as required.
      • The action plan is updated and presented to each meeting of RIIC
      • Ongoing secretariat function is provided from within their Professional Services unit, including organising meetings in line with the terms of reference and joint decisions of the Chair and Technical Professional Lead, and operating the member recruitment process as and when required.
    • The continued existence and Terms of Reference of the entity is reviewed, at the very least in line with the approval from RIIC (i.e. after 1 or 3 years of operation), but also on an ongoing basis: entities are strongly encouraged to emerge, disband, merge or split as and when needs change, irrespective of the next formal review point with RIIC.
  • With the Technical Professional Lead, co-opts members beyond the core membership - whether permanently or for a certain amount of meetings.
  • Attends and chairs meetings, ensuring that decisions are reached in line with the process described in the Terms of Reference.
  • Attends meetings (most notably RIIC) to which proposals of the group are being presented, and co-presents (and co-owns) those proposals with the Technical Professional Lead.
  • Attends meetings, and is an active member, of the Sub-Committee on Research Culture Coordination.
  • Co-ordinates completion of actions detailed in the action plan, and in doing so, ensures completion of relevant statutory processes (e.g. EIAs, DPIAs etc): to ensure this, Chairs are encouraged to meet with institutional leads on these areas, at the very least on EDI.

   

  Technical Professional Lead role description

  • Takes decisions on the following with the Chair, and co-owns those decisions:
    • Terms of Reference, including deciding on reserved powers, meeting frequency, core membership, and member recruitment process.
    • Member Role Descriptor.
    • Member Advert.
    • Reviewing the continued existence and Terms of Reference of the entity, at the very least in line with the approval from RIIC (i.e. after 1 or 3 years of operation), but also on an ongoing basis: entities are strongly encouraged to emerge, disband, merge or split as and when needs change, irrespective of the next formal review point with RIIC.
  • Involved in the operation of the member recruitment process as required, for example assisting in the advertising of roles, and any decision-making required within the process.
  • With the Chair, co-opts members beyond the core membership - whether permanently or for a certain amount of meetings.
  • Actively participates in the production of proposals, reports and action plans.
  • Attends meetings.
  • Chairs meetings when the Chair is unable due to absence or a conflict of interest, ensuring that decisions are reached in line with the process described in the Terms of Reference.
  • Attends meetings (most notably RIIC) to which proposals of the group are being presented, and co-presents (and co-owns) those proposals with the Chair.
  • Attends meetings, and is an active member, of the Sub-Committee on Research Culture Coordination.

   

  Representative member role description

  • Demonstrates clear interest and enthusiasm regarding, and experience of, the matters in the remit and purpose section of the Terms of Reference.
  • Attends, and actively contributes to, meetings, including actively engaging with the papers circulated ahead of meetings.
  • Actively participates in decision-making in relation to exercising the ‘reserved powers’ defined in the Terms of Reference, and the development of proposals produced for presentation elsewhere.
  • Actively participates in the production of proposals, reports and action plans, as required, including consulting with peers whom they represent.

   

• Process for recruitment of representative members

  The co-chairs of the Sub-Committee on Technical Professional Development recognise the importance of a simple application and selection process for membership to maximise engagement and reduce barriers to entry. The key objective is to recruit a membership body that is representative of the technical community at the University of St Andrews.

  A full breakdown of the recruitment and selection process used in September 2024 can be found here.