Hiring blitz as QMUC seeks title

Queen Margaret University College has created four new posts as part of a recruitment drive ahead of its bid to become a fully fledged university.

More posts are expected to be announced shortly.

The university college, which hopes to win the title by 2006, said it is boosting its key academic strengths a year before moving to a purpose-built campus on the outskirts of Edinburgh.

In this week's Times Higher , the college is advertising 13 posts in its faculties of business and arts, and health and social sciences. This includes new posts in health psychology, physiotherapy and public-sector management. Research is a major element for the new positions because all Scottish universities do research as well as teaching.

QMUC has started Scotland's first clinical doctorate in health psychology, and it wants a reader or professor to take this area forward. The doctorate will be submitted for British Psychological Society accreditation next year.

The college is seeking a reader or professor in physiotherapy specialising in exercise. It wants to promote collaborative projects in the discipline, where staff are already very research active.

And it is making two appointments in public sector management, one lecturer's post and one at reader or senior lecturer level.