Banding and pay for professors has been assessed as a part of the next step in creating a fairer more equitable pay structure at the university.

Bringing Nottingham in line with the majority of Russell Group universities, the review into senior pay was put in place to better support the university’s values around fairness and ambition and in doing so;

• Provides a fairer and more equitable system to reward and recognise contribution and performance to research, teaching and leadership to support the strategic direction of the university.
• Implements a Level 7 Academic Framework which clearly articulates the expectations within each of the different bands, based on core and indicative criteria.
• Introduces a system which supports the university to be competitive in recruiting and retaining leading academics from the UK and overseas.
• Helps to address some of the pay gaps experienced by women, minority ethnic staff and staff with disabilities.

This follows on from the improvements and increased transparency around the academic promotion pathway, including the frameworks for levels 4, 5 and 6 introduced in 2019.

It is part of a suite of activities to improve our reward and recognition structures and follows the recent pay and condition review for levels 1-3  and changes to the maximum pay spine at levels 4-6.

Under the review professorial staff at grade 7 had the opportunity to verify or challenge their indicative banding under the new framework. The results have had a positive impact on our staff profile, shown in the tables below, particularly from a gender, ethnicity and disability perspective.

The review has successfully addressed some of the historical systemic inequalities that previously existed in senior pay, such as long service being rewarded rather than performance, and has eliminated opportunities for individuals to benefit from social privilege.

This is evidenced by the increase in the number of those staff with protected characteristics at band C and D and the decrease in number of these individuals at band A.  The new professorial reward system should see all academic staff fairly and equitably recognised for their talents and contribution to the work of the university in future.

Prior to the exercise there were no females in band D and only 9% working in band C. These have now grown to 2% and 26% respectively.

While just 4.4% of BAME staff were at band C before the exercise this has now grown to 11.1%. At the same time the number of BAME staff at band A has shrunk from 31.1% to 26.7%, moving more in line with white staff.

The number of staff with disabilities have grown substantially in bands B and C, from 42.9% to 61.9% and 14.35% to 19% respectively.

The professorial pay review is the final step in creating a transparent and criteria led reward structure for all academic grades. However, there is still more to be done across the university to make sure we are proactive in addressing the leaky pipeline and ensure all talented individuals have equal opportunity to progress their careers.

Work is planned over the next academic year to increase support for disabled staff, encourage disclosure and to provide career progression support for women and BAME staff to prevent any widening of the career progression gap as a result of the Covid pandemic.

Work is also underway to apply the banding to APM 7 Directors.

Results in full