Nomination process

How to nominate yourself for election to Senate.

Nominations will open on Wednesday 28 February. 

Eligibility

Current academic and research staff in post from 31 January of the relevant year are eligible to nominate themselves for election to Senate. ‘Academic staff’ includes all members of staff who are categorised as ‘academic’ in the University’s Human Resources records, and includes staff in the following job family: academic, clinical and veterinary clinical. 

Staff who hold an ex officio appointment to Senate are not eligible to stand for election. This includes Heads of School, Heads of College, the Provost, Vice Principals, Assistant Principals, Senate Assessors and the Academic Staff Member on the University Court. A full list of ex officio roles is appended to the Senatus Academicus (Senate) Election Regulations (see below). 

Further information for academic staff who are employed in more than one College, or who are not employed in a College, is included on the nomination form and in the Senatus Academicus (Senate) Election Regulations. If you wish to check your eligibilty to stand,  please contact SenateSupport@ed.ac.uk in the first instance.

Senate Election Regulations (260.34 KB PDF)

Nomination process

Members of academic staff can nominate themselves for election, and nominations will be submitted via an online nomination form. The nomination form will ask nominees to include a short written statement by the candidate supporting their nomination for election to Senate.

This statement and candidate details will be made available to staff who are eligible to vote in the election via the Senate website.

Nomination Form 

Please complete your nomination form here. Please note the nomination form will be available to access from 9am, Wednesday 28 February.

Please note, you must be logged in to your staff MyEd account to access and complete the nomination form. 

Deadline

The deadline for nominations is 12pm (noon) BST, Wednesday 27 March 2024. 

Positions available

The total number of positions available for nomination in 2024 is 96. The positions available for nomination in each category are below:

Early Career Academic Staff

We are seeking to enhance representation from academic and research staff at early career stages, including postdoctoral fellows and postgraduate tutors and demonstrators. To recognise the importance of representation from staff who hold early career positions, a total of nine (9) positions within the non-Professorial category (three in each College), are to be prioritised for staff who hold an early career academic position with three of these positions available for election in 2024, as indicated in the table above.

Term of office

In 2024 there are one, two and three year terms available on Senate. Terms of office will begin on 1 August. 

Successful candidates will be allocated one, two or three year terms based on the number of nominees. Voter preferences will be used to determine the terms of office allocated to candidates.

This process is to ensure that an equal balance of positions are available for nomination in future years. Further detail on the rationale and process for allocation terms of office in 2024 are available in Paper Gof the 7 February 2024 meeting. 

There is no cap on the number of terms of office for which academic staff members may stand.

Privacy notice

Senate Privacy Notice (423.82 KB PDF)

Contact

For further information or if you have any specific questions, please contact the Senate Support team at SenateSupport@ed.ac.uk