How Short is a Short-List?

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At the end of my last blog, this was the question posed.

For the UK City of Culture 2025 its four. The Women's Prize for Fiction had six on the shortlist. Our own University teaching awards had three on most of the shortlists last year. At the end of October we headed back to the Chancellor's residence at Bagshot Park, and after a rigorous review of the candidates applying for the role of Vice-Chancellor, we now have a short-list of five people who we will be working with over the next month.

Any selection process is a two-way process. Its as much about helping candidates assess whether this is the right role, and timing for them, as much as we are trying to find the best candidate for Bath. We are giving candidates lots of opportunity to find out more about us, through visits, through calls and through documents. All of the candidates are in busy, senior roles in prestigious Universities so we have asked them to shape this process, but if you are involved in a discussion with one of the candidates, we ask that you are helpful in answering their questions, but also respect their confidentiality.  We really want them to have best experience as they learn more about us.

On the 29th and 30th of November we have the more structured part of the selection process. On the first day we are asking candidates to meet with different groups so that we can see how they operate in a range of scenarios. In an ideal world our shortlist will contain the ‘perfect candidate’ who meets all of our requirements. In the real world the aim of this day is to learn about any areas for development and the potential strengths of each candidate in relation to the person specification for the role so this information can inform the interview panel on the next day.

We are seeking interest for people to be part of Events A and B. The SU are helping us with the first of these, and you will have seen an invitation on the home page if you are interested in being part of the small audience for Event B. Anyone taking part will need to have an interest in the strategic issues which affect the University, and be ready to engage with candidates on what can be challenging topics.

The interview panel is being chaired by our Chancellor, HRH The Duke of Edinburgh and is composed of members of the Committee on the Office of Vice-Chancellor. The panel contains representatives from Senate, Council, professional services and of students. After the selection process is completed, we will then need to take recommendations to Council before a final decision.

We’ve now got to the most serious part of this process - making the final selection of a candidate to be our next Vice-Chancellor. So I’m rather struggling for jokes. And if you type ‘recruitment jokes’ into Google the jokes seem to have been recycled so many times, any humour has long disappeared. So I’ll leave you with this thought from Richard Branson “Hiring the right people takes time, the right questions and a healthy does of curiosity"

Richard

 

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