Principle 6 of the KE Concordat (which it is likely your HEI will have signed) focuses on recognition and rewards: universities should recognise and reward staff and students who deliver high-quality knowledge exchange. For people doing extensive partner-facing work, this is a useful lever because it points to accepted good practice for recognition including:
- Promotion and reward: KE explicitly recognised within promotion criteria and reward processes.
- Workloads/time allocation: a published approach to how KE is recognised in workloads and rewarded with time.
Reviews of institutional action plans have found Principle 6 is often self-scored lower than other principles – suggesting recognition/reward is a common development gap for institutions.
What will you take forward?
One thing to consider: How visible is the KE Concordat in your institution? In what ways is principle 6 supported and how might you use the expectations of principle 6 to ensure your KE work is recognised?
“Audit your workload. Deprioritise service that is low in visibility or misaligned with progression.”
Jiao Ji, Lecturer in Finance, University of Sheffield. Read more from Jiao.
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