Pathway 2 comprises five role profiles. They set out the levels of contribution by academic staff whose roles are focused wholly or mainly on research-related activity.
These role profiles were developed locally in consultation with the AUT (now UCU) and the research community within the University, and were based on models offered at the time by Hay, the AUT (now UCU) and the JNCHES national role profiles. The profiles have been subject to minor updating from time to time to reflect more general changes in academia, language, etc. but have not been fundamentally changed.
There are separate role profiles for staff whose roles are focused on both teaching and research (Pathway 1) or on teaching and scholarship (Pathway 3).
Each level within the researcher role profiles subsumes the competencies of any lower levels. These profiles set out, first, the general qualifications and experiences needed for entry into a particular level and, second, the generic competences and responsibilities expected of role holders at each level. It is unlikely that any single member of staff will be applying all these competencies at any one time but he or she would be expected to display most of them over a period of time. It is also recognised that the complex nature of the University means that not all these descriptors are necessarily relevant to researchers in every School.
Care must be taken by academic managers to ensure quality of opportunity in relation to the allocation of opportunities and responsibilities to ensure that the appropriate competences and experience can be acquired for progression to the appropriate higher level post.
The appropriate form of research output will differ from discipline to discipline, encompassing writing software to writing substantial monographs. In some disciplines, high quality research may involve the collection of disparate published materials, and then systematically and analytically reviewing them; in others intellectual property may be protected through patents.
