PURPOSE
This policy details Global Leadership Institute’s (GLI) commitment to ensuring academic staff are effective, relevant, and current in their disciplines and in the field of higher education learning and teaching.
SCOPE
All staff and students
PRINCIPLES
GLI ensures that:
- all permanent and sessional academic staff engage in scholarship to maintain currency in their disciplines, as well as higher education learning and teaching in those disciplines;
- relevant internal professional development workshops are provided for all academic staff;
- appropriate resourcing is allocated to research and scholarship;
- academic staff are encouraged to apply for competitive external research grants;
- research and scholarship data is collected, collated, and analysed for impact within and outside academia. The findings are included in the Annual Academic Report for Academic Board and Governing Board;
- all human research by academic staff or students must adhere to the Research Ethics Policy;
- all research raw data is stored securely by GLI for at least five (5) years;
- research adheres to the of Conduct Policy and Nations People’s Education Policy;
- Research and Scholarship Committee carries out its responsibilities as listed in the Board Terms of Reference Policy.
DEFINITIONS
- Research: systematic and rigorous investigation aimed at the discovery of previously unknown phenomena, the development of explanatory theory and its application to new situations or problems, and the construction of original works of significant intellectual merit.
- Scholarship: analysis and interpretation of existing knowledge aimed at improving, through publications, teaching or by other means of communication, the depth of human understanding.
SCHOLARSHIP ENGAGEMENT
Scholarship engagement of GLI permanent and sessional academic staff is directly related to their discipline expertise, including:
- peer reviewed research publications and conference presentations;
- contributing to course developments and reviews;
- synthesising and communicating innovations in discipline knowledge, practice, or teaching (e.g. presentations, podcasts, feature articles);
- contributions to communities of practice (e.g. development of resources, codes, or standards; engagement in academic societies; editorial roles; peer review or moderation);
- undertaking a Higher Degree Research (HDR) course or supervising HDR students;
- professional development associated with informing higher education learning and teaching in a relevant discipline, including disciplinary knowledge;
- undertaking advanced specialist practice or scholarly secondments.
RESEARCH ACTIVE STATUS
GLI academic staff who achieve at least five research points in the past five years may be listed on the Academic Staff Register as “research active” (pro-rata for early career or part-time academic staff). This includes:
- peer-reviewed monograph (5);
- editing a peer-review collection of essays in a book or journal (2);
- peer-reviewed journal article, book chapter, or conference paper (1);
- research or professional industry grant (1 point per $10,000 to a maximum of 2 points);
- external peer reviewer or examiner e.g. HDR examination, competitive research grants, peer review of research articles, manuscripts, or book reviews (0.25 to a maximum of 1)
- Plant Breeder’s Rights (1)
- Patent (1)
A publication, grant, or patent with multiple authors counts as one point for each author. Objective indicators of the quality of research output are considered including, but not limited to, number of citations.
SPECIAL RESEARCH LEAVE
Subject to budgetary constraints, the Institute provides opportunities for permanent academic staff to undertake Special Research Leave (SRL) for a maximum of six months. Applicants must meet the following criteria:
- have usually been employed by the Institute continuously for at least seven (7) years on a permanent academic contract;
- have produced high quality research publications within the previous five (5) years;
- the SRL proposal demonstrates tangible benefit to the research and GLI;
- the applicant has not been on probation due to unsatisfactory conduct, performance, or misconduct;
- no period of SRL may exceed six (6) months.
Conditions
The SRL researcher shall:
- agree to return to GLI after completing SRL and remain in its service for at least one more year;
- not be permitted, while on SRL, to accept remunerative employment outside of GLI (excluding external research grants)
PROCEDURES
FUNDING AND WORKLOAD ALLOCATIONS
GLI funds research active permanent academic staff to maintain membership in relevant academic societies, present papers at academic conferences and/or receive a research workload allocation where appropriate. Applications for research workload allocation are negotiated with the relevant supervisor. An academic staff member, HDR student, or postgraduate capstone student may apply for competitive funding to present papers at academic conferences. All applications are submitted to Research and Scholarship Committee for approval subject to budget constraints.
SPECIAL RESEARCH LEAVE PROCEDURES
Application
The applicant should submit the Special Research Leave Proposal Form, including:
- endorsement from the relevant supervisor;
- benefits to the researcher and GLI;
- potential high quality publication outlets for research;
- detail delegation of duties while on SRL;
- any additional internal or external funding that will be allocated;
- a signed statement indicating that the applicant is aware of and agrees to all conditions of SRL.
Approval
- In line with the budgetary cycle, Research and Scholarship Committee will consider all SRL applications received for the following year;
- If recommended by Research and Scholarship Committee, the application is then tabled at Academic Board and Executive Management Team for approval;
- The awarding of SRL leave is a benefit not an entitlement and is at the discretion of Academic Board and Executive Management Team. No appeal will be considered.
- No substantial variation to the approved SRL can be made without approval by Research and Scholarship Committee, on the recommendation of the relevant supervisor.
Reporting
Within one month of completion of SRL, the researcher shall submit a written SRL Report to Research and Scholarship Committee.












