INTERNAL COMMUNICATION
Dear Colleagues,
Peer Review of Teaching for the Major Personnel Events for Professoriate and Teaching Staff from Spring 2024
Please be informed of the upcoming Peer Review of Teaching for the Major Personnel Events for Professoriate and Teaching Staff in 2024. The new requirement was part of the new teaching and learning strategy for 2021-28 as led by the Vice-President and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Teaching and Learning) and approved by the Senate in July 2021. The details of the peer review mechanism are set out in the paper ‘Enhancing Teaching Evaluation for Professoriate and Teaching Staff Undergoing Major Personnel Events’ approved by the Senate in May of this year.
2. As subsequently announced in the tenure and promotion call circular to Professoriate Staff during the 2023 Fall exercise, starting from the 2023 Fall exercise, summative peer review of teaching has been included in the evaluation process for Professoriate Staff undergoing the tenure and promotion exercise as a pilot run. A full rollout is planned for Spring 2024, and summative peer review of teaching will be required for major personnel events of Professoriate and Teaching Staff.
3. To provide you with a clear timeline, here below is the roll-out schedule for different personnel events:
i. Tenure and/or Promotion of Professoriate Staff: For the applications for tenure and/or promotion in the Spring Exercise in 2024, at least two peer review reports shall be included in the documents submitted to the University Selection and Promotion Committee (USPC) via the Promotion and Tenure Panel (PTP). To allow sufficient time for the PTP to process the comments, it is advisable that the peer reviews should be conducted well ahead of the PTP review deadline in July 2024. The review timetable for tenure and promotion applications as well as documentation for tenure and promotion applications in the Faculty Handbook will be updated in due course.
The peer review requirement (viz at least two peer review reports) will apply to following types of recommendations submitted to the Human Resources Office/ the USPC after March 1, 2024:
ii. Promotion of Teaching Staff
iii. Contract Renewal for both fractional and full-time Professoriate and Teaching Staff on a fixed term basis
iv. Initial Reappointment Beyond Retirement Age of Professoriate Staff
4. To provide further clarification on the information sharing process between the reviewers and reviewees, while reviewers are required to submit their independent reports to the Faculty Human Resource Committee (FHRC), which will make the reports available to the colleagues overseeing the categories of major personnel events, reviewees may gain access to the peer review reports through the FHRC to gather qualitative feedback on their teaching for professional development.
5. The Teaching and Learning Innovation Centre (TALIC) will guide Faculties on developing the processes and tools needed for faculties to create a functioning summative peer review system. Workshops on summative peer review of professoriate and teaching staff undergoing major personnel events will be arranged by TALIC shortly. Attendance will be required for new peer reviewers. For more information, please visit the official website at https://er.talic.hku.hk/FPeerReview/. Additionally, online tips on peer observation are available at https://er.talic.hku.hk/cetl-tips-peer-observation/.
6. For any further queries regarding peer review, please do not hesitate to contact TALIC at talic@hku.hk. For any HR-related queries (e.g., the timeline for submitting the peer review reports required for various major personnel events), please feel free to contact the HR Managers serving your faculties.
Thank you for your attention to this important matter.
Human Resources Office