- Up to 20 April, candidates can apply for 27 positions in the categories of tenure-eligible lecturer and associate professor
- The SHP is part of the new academic staff model the Government of Catalonia is promoting to reinforce openness and internationalisation of the Catalan universities
Starting today and until the 20 April deadline, the Serra Húnter Programme (SHP) is opening the first of the two annual calls for applications to recruit faculty for the Catalan public universities, by using criteria of international excellence. This call offers 26 positions in the category of tenure-eligible lecturer and 1 in the category of associate professor. The organisation of two annual calls for applications expedites the process for recruiting staff for these positions and seeks to attract and retain talent into the Catalan university system.
The SHP is part of the new academic staff model promoted by the Government of Catalonia, through the Secretariat for Universities and Research. Its goal is to reinforce the Catalan universities' social openness and internationalisation with the aim of advancing toward a more flexible and more open teaching structure. The SHP academic director, Prof. Josep Domingo-Ferrer, explains that this programme has proven to be ‘an efficient tool for boosting the Catalan university system's quality’, as shown by the fact that it has contributed to ‘consolidating the Catalan public universities in the international rankings’.
Each year the Government and the seven public Catalan universities decide the number of new faculty to be recruited. The contracts included in the SHP are specifically co-funded by the Government, although the departments receiving the contracts are proposed by the universities. Specifically, the Government of Catalonia subsidises 50% of the basic salary of Serra Húnter fellows.
The SHP is one of the options for recruiting teaching and research staff by Catalan public universities. Since it began in 2003, it has accounted for 25% of the new faculty hirings.
Candidates taking part in the Programme can apply for positions in four different ranks. In the case of the tenure-eligible lecturer, the SHP focuses on academic excellence at the time of initial recruitment but, in return, guarantees continuity of employment if certain conditions are met.
The actual selection process is split in two phases. The first phase is eliminatory and consists of the analysis and evaluation of the candidates' specific merits. The second phase consists of an on-campus interview in which the candidates' suitability for the contract being offered is assessed.
Candidates are assessed in accordance with internationally recognised criteria for assessment of high-level academic activity and professional experience. In particular, the focus is on: significance and impact of scientific and technical publications; competitive research projects obtained; teaching quality; knowledge-transfer activities, intellectual property rights and registered patents; leadership capacity; international mobility and visibility and other outstanding academic and professional achievements.
