Periodic Reporting for period 1 - INTAC (The International Register of Academic Job Categories. Facilitating Careers in the European Research Area)
Reporting period: 2017-11-01 to 2019-04-30
Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project
The INTAC online register, which has now been renamed APAC (“Academic Pathways Across Countries”), is a pilot online platform that systematically lists, explains and compares formal job categories and status positions of research- and teaching staff in higher education institutions in France, Germany and Great Britain.
Responding to a demand from academics, employers, unions, associations and organisations in the higher education sector, APAC is aiming to facilitate academic mobility and recruitments, make national and international academic job markets more transparent and help academic career planning in the European Research Area. The project created the APAC platform: https://academiccareermaps.org(opens in new window).
Specification
The objective is to provide users with the following services in English and in each academic system’s language:
- Visualisation of major positions existing in each national academic system on career maps representing different career tracks: Research, Teaching and Research/Teaching focused.
- Career path within each national academic system
- Searching any position’s name (major or minor, fixed term or permanent) by typing either the official name, alternative names, old names or acronyms
- Detailed information on any position
- Location of any position on the academic system’s career map (comparison of a position against its own country)
- Indicating to which level a given position corresponds in the 2 other systems (comparison of a position against another country)
- Definition of any specialised term used.
For being able to locate and compare the positions on the career maps 4 career’s levels have been established based on the level of education required to hold a given position:
- The Bachelor’s level (or equivalent) corresponding to 3 years of study
- The Master’s level (or equivalent), corresponding to 5 years of study in total
- Doctorate’s level (or equivalent), corresponding to at least 8 years of study in total
- The highest academic grade’s level (recognised with an Habilitation in France and Germany), corresponding to 13 years of study (on average).
Data collection
It has encompassed the different categories of information available for searching positions on the online platform and the collection of data to be edited on it.
Categories of information collected include:
- All positions available in the 3 countries (France, Germany, UK), from major to minor ones
- Details on each position
- Organisation of careers in each academic system
- Definitions of specialized terms used in the 3 academic systems and languages.
The data has been gleaned from public institutional websites (universities, research centres, Ministries, national governments…) as well as on European organisations websites (NARIC, ERA…), and then on online job boards for academic careers, for information not available from institutions. Information on major well-known positions has been easy to find out but information on some positions that are less known, temporary, but of major interest for users searching on APAC, has been often difficult to collect.
Web development of the APAC platform
The APAC platform (website) https://academiccareermaps.org/(opens in new window) is the major output of the project. It provides:
- A map per country displaying the different career paths (research, teaching and research/teaching focused) with location of major positions in the academic system
- A map showing job equivalents (at the same level)
- The possibility, through searching, to locate any position within its academic career ladder in the same country and in regards to the two other countries’ career paths
- A listing of 77 academic positions existing in the 3 countries: with official names, acronyms, alternative names and old names
- A full description (in the country’s language and in English) for each position including: the conditions to hold this position, the positions at the same level in the country and in the 2 other countries, the natural next position and other possible next positions, as well as other necessary information about the position (Status, Duties, Rights, Grade, Salary range…).
- A glossary giving definition for each term used in any of the 3 national academic systems that may not be know or understood in the other countries: 100 definitions of terms
- A Search functionality allowing to searching any position or glossary term.
In November 2018, the platform was opened to the outside world for testing and feedback - see Work package 2(opens in new window). In February 2019, the promotion phase was launched (Work package 3). The stakeholders from the higher education have since been contacted and ideas for future collaboration have been discussed with about 100 people and organisations. The business plan has been developed and a plan for a self-sustainable business solution - The Academic Technologies Hub - was initiated with Open University in summer 2019. Between February and June 2019, the platform generated 1376 visits from 64 countries. 164 users signed up from five continents (Europe, Americas, Asia, Africa). 300 personalised emails were sent to experts and stakeholders in order to discuss opportunities for collaboration from universities, research centres/research projects, professional associations, funding agencies, foundations, evaluation agencies, higher education unions, press & media, job portals, academic social networks. It has resulted in numerous email exchanges and a dozen skype/zoom meetings. Dissemination on Social Media has been done on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn. The communication campaign resulted in news articles in specialised media (such as in Agence éducation et formation https://www.aefinfo.fr/(opens in new window)). APAC has succeeded in building up a community of higher education professionals; it will be the core unit generating small-, mid- and large-scale projects we'll pursue with the partners found.
Responding to a demand from academics, employers, unions, associations and organisations in the higher education sector, APAC is aiming to facilitate academic mobility and recruitments, make national and international academic job markets more transparent and help academic career planning in the European Research Area. The project created the APAC platform: https://academiccareermaps.org(opens in new window).
Specification
The objective is to provide users with the following services in English and in each academic system’s language:
- Visualisation of major positions existing in each national academic system on career maps representing different career tracks: Research, Teaching and Research/Teaching focused.
- Career path within each national academic system
- Searching any position’s name (major or minor, fixed term or permanent) by typing either the official name, alternative names, old names or acronyms
- Detailed information on any position
- Location of any position on the academic system’s career map (comparison of a position against its own country)
- Indicating to which level a given position corresponds in the 2 other systems (comparison of a position against another country)
- Definition of any specialised term used.
For being able to locate and compare the positions on the career maps 4 career’s levels have been established based on the level of education required to hold a given position:
- The Bachelor’s level (or equivalent) corresponding to 3 years of study
- The Master’s level (or equivalent), corresponding to 5 years of study in total
- Doctorate’s level (or equivalent), corresponding to at least 8 years of study in total
- The highest academic grade’s level (recognised with an Habilitation in France and Germany), corresponding to 13 years of study (on average).
Data collection
It has encompassed the different categories of information available for searching positions on the online platform and the collection of data to be edited on it.
Categories of information collected include:
- All positions available in the 3 countries (France, Germany, UK), from major to minor ones
- Details on each position
- Organisation of careers in each academic system
- Definitions of specialized terms used in the 3 academic systems and languages.
The data has been gleaned from public institutional websites (universities, research centres, Ministries, national governments…) as well as on European organisations websites (NARIC, ERA…), and then on online job boards for academic careers, for information not available from institutions. Information on major well-known positions has been easy to find out but information on some positions that are less known, temporary, but of major interest for users searching on APAC, has been often difficult to collect.
Web development of the APAC platform
The APAC platform (website) https://academiccareermaps.org/(opens in new window) is the major output of the project. It provides:
- A map per country displaying the different career paths (research, teaching and research/teaching focused) with location of major positions in the academic system
- A map showing job equivalents (at the same level)
- The possibility, through searching, to locate any position within its academic career ladder in the same country and in regards to the two other countries’ career paths
- A listing of 77 academic positions existing in the 3 countries: with official names, acronyms, alternative names and old names
- A full description (in the country’s language and in English) for each position including: the conditions to hold this position, the positions at the same level in the country and in the 2 other countries, the natural next position and other possible next positions, as well as other necessary information about the position (Status, Duties, Rights, Grade, Salary range…).
- A glossary giving definition for each term used in any of the 3 national academic systems that may not be know or understood in the other countries: 100 definitions of terms
- A Search functionality allowing to searching any position or glossary term.
In November 2018, the platform was opened to the outside world for testing and feedback - see Work package 2(opens in new window). In February 2019, the promotion phase was launched (Work package 3). The stakeholders from the higher education have since been contacted and ideas for future collaboration have been discussed with about 100 people and organisations. The business plan has been developed and a plan for a self-sustainable business solution - The Academic Technologies Hub - was initiated with Open University in summer 2019. Between February and June 2019, the platform generated 1376 visits from 64 countries. 164 users signed up from five continents (Europe, Americas, Asia, Africa). 300 personalised emails were sent to experts and stakeholders in order to discuss opportunities for collaboration from universities, research centres/research projects, professional associations, funding agencies, foundations, evaluation agencies, higher education unions, press & media, job portals, academic social networks. It has resulted in numerous email exchanges and a dozen skype/zoom meetings. Dissemination on Social Media has been done on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn. The communication campaign resulted in news articles in specialised media (such as in Agence éducation et formation https://www.aefinfo.fr/(opens in new window)). APAC has succeeded in building up a community of higher education professionals; it will be the core unit generating small-, mid- and large-scale projects we'll pursue with the partners found.