Department: Geography
Vacancy ID: 008001
Closing Date: 27-Jan-2021

The Senior Academic Leadership Initiative

Ireland recognises that for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to perform to their full potential, they need to address the persistent under-representation of women at senior academic levels and increase the numbers of women involved in decision-making processes in HEIs. Ireland aims to be a ‘world-leading country for gender equality in higher education by 2026’ as stated in the government’s Gender Equality Taskforce Action Plan 2018-2020.

Now, Ireland is leading the drive to accelerate gender balance at the highest point of the academic career path through a government-backed scheme, focused on attracting outstanding female academics in Ireland and globally to avail of this unique opportunity to experience working within the higher education sector in Ireland.

The Senior Academic Leadership Initiative (SALI) aims to help achieve equality of outcome in the higher education sector. New and additional senior academic leadership posts have been funded in areas where:

• there is clear evidence of significant gender under-representation;
• where this appointment will have significant impact within the faculty/department/functional unit and the HEI;
• where they would be a proportionate and effective means to achieve accelerated and sustainable change within an institution.

These posts are new and additional to the sector and they will be funded through new and additional funding provided specifically to help progress gender balance among academic staff at senior levels.

The key objective of this initiative is to attract outstanding female applicants both nationally and internationally. The initiative will also assist in increasing the number of women involved in the decision-making processes in the institutions, as advocated in the EU Commission Strategy on Promoting Equality in Decision Making. In securing posts under this initiative, Maynooth University has demonstrated its commitment to gender equality. Our institution has demonstrable plans for future developments in this area and has outlined the organisational and cultural initiatives in place to support the newly appointed staff.

In line with the objectives of the Higher Education Authority SALI Call 2019, applications from highly qualified female candidates will be prioritised within the boundary of what is legally permissible, in order to address their underrepresentation. In exceptional circumstances, applications from candidates who are in a minority or protected under Irish social legislation, or who also belong to an underrepresented minority in academic posts may be considered if the institution can clearly articulate reasons worthy of legal protection as to why they should be considered.

Professor A (Post 1995) salary scale: €120,273 – €154,505 p.a. (6 points)

Appointments will be made in accordance with the Department of Finance pay guidelines.

Application Procedure

As this is a dedicated Call under the Senior Academic Leadership Initiative it is an open competition for which both internal and external candidates will be eligible to apply.

Applicants will be required to submit a statement, not exceeding 300 words, outlining how they meet the stated objectives of Senior Academic Leadership Initiative, or detail any exceptional circumstances as to why they should be considered for this post, see section 3 of Appendix 1 for further details. The statement provided will form part of the initial eligibility screening process for this particular post.

Applications must be submitted by the closing date and time specified below. Any applications which are still in progress at the closing time on the specified closing date will be cancelled automatically by the system.

A complete application requires the following to be submitted by the closing date:

• Applicants personal details;
• Curriculum Vitae;
• Cover letter;
• Statement, not exceeding 300 words, articulating why the candidate should be considered under the Senior Academic Leadership Initiative;
• A statement of proposed research (5 pages max)
• Qualification details;
• Reference details.

Closing Date: 23:30 hrs (local Irish time) on Wednesday, 27th January 2021.

Maynooth University reserves the right to extend this deadline if necessary.

Late applications will not be accepted.

Maynooth University is an equal opportunities employer

The position is subject to the Statutes of the University