Professor Ben Colburn
What was your personal experience of the Academic Promotions Process?
It is always a bit stressful gathering evidence and putting it together into a form, especially when there is so little space available. That did help me to focus on the aspects of my recent career that I really wanted to highlight, though. And I benefited from a lot of advice from my School and College leadership teams.
What advice would you offer to future applicants?
Seek, and take, advice! It can be so hard, from your own perspective, to work out what seems important and impressive in what you write about your career. Things that are obvious to us as authors can be quite confusing or obscure to a reader. It is a real gift to have feedback that makes you realise how much knowledge you assume, and how you might reframe what you say so that it is clear to others.
In terms of your preparation and timescales, what top tips can you offer?
I always kept a little file of evidence and ideas, which I could pull together for a promotion application, and kept it cross-referenced with a list of the criteria. I knew I wanted to go for Professor in the next few years; it was really helpful to be able to see where there were gaps (and therefore to identify things I might do to fill those gaps), and it made the process of writing the application so much simpler.
On timescale, start pulling things together as early as you can. That is especially important for getting high quality feedback from people: speaking as both an applicant and as a head of subject who had helped several colleagues through promotion, it makes such a difference if you can get feedback on a reasonably developed draft as early as possible.
What advice would you offer those just embarking on their academic careers?
It is good that we do not have to do everything, all the time! Work out what contributions you can make, and then focus on those. It matters that we carry out all aspects of our jobs – so, I like the fact that someone who concentrates on either research or teaching to the detriment of the other, will find it hard to get promoted under our rules – but it’s also important to see that we work in teams, and that we can play different roles within those teams. That is rewarding, in the narrow sense that the promotion criteria takes account of collegiality, and in the broader sense that it’s one of the things that makes being an academic an excellent job.
How will your promotion affect the work you are doing?
Within the University, I am planning to put more thought into how to mentor and encourage other colleagues to develop their careers and activities: the role of Professor comes with an expectation of leadership and guidance, and I think that is quite an exciting responsibility.
Outwith the University, it’s true that the title of Professor (especially at a university like Glasgow) carries a certain weight. A lot of my work at the moment is about trying to use philosophical theory to help influence law, policy and practice in areas like end of life practice, refugee education, and urban design. Already, I think, the change in title is making it easier to have my voice – and, by extension, the voices of the research community within GU with whom I collaborate – heard.
What are your development plans going forward?
I have one more year as Head of Philosophy, steering my colleagues through REF preparation and our next Periodic Subject Review. Then, I’m hoping to concentrate for a while on other dimensions of leadership: I have a book to finish, and some plans for big research projects that I’d like to put together. It’s going to be exciting!
