Associate Professor at The Admiralty University of Nigeria

Job Type: Teaching Staff

Summary
Candidates will have access to 100 and 200-level courses in the Undergraduate programmes of:

• B.Sc. Economics,
• B.A. English,
• B.A. History and International Studies,
• B.Sc. International Relations,
• B.Sc. Tourism Studies,
• B.Sc. Accounting,
• B.Sc. Business Administration,
• B.Sc. Biology,
• B.Sc. Physics,
• B.Sc. Forensic Science,
• B.Sc. Computer Science,
• B.Sc. Cyber Security,
• Industrial Mathematics,
• B.Sc. Software Engineering

Overall Purpose

• The environment will become even more competitive in the future in terms of attracting and retaining students, with an increased and important emphasis on student satisfaction with the overall student experience.
• Student satisfaction levels is the most crucial performance indicator in University evaluations, branding and customer service feedback mechanisms. There is increased public demand for this information. The University intends to set high satisfaction levels to further demonstrate the quality of the student experience, improving academic outcomes as well as enhancing our reputation, both nationally and internationally. The University recognises the anticipated challenges for a private university student enrolments in the future and that there will be more demanding nature of student expectations which will be both stimulating and challenging for our staff.
• The University needs academic staff who are at the ‘cutting edge’ of their subject and are able and willing to build and then continuously improve their individual reputation and expertise in teaching, research and scholarly activity.
• The University expects that all academic staff will take responsibility for achieving and maintaining consistently high standards in the three areas outlined below, recognising that the range, level and balance of expected contribution will vary depending on their experience, seniority and current role. All junior academic staff are expected to have or be working towards a doctorate level qualification. Our probation and promotion systems underpin and support these expectations.

Role Specification
Faculty will be expected to develop their teaching materials and to deliver their lectures based on the following 5 principles:

• Teaching standards at ADUN will reflect the University’s moto - ‘Excellence in Education’.
• Faculty is expected to focus on developing high quality course content which would be grounded in current research and aligned to the requirements of relevant Professional bodies.
• Faculty is expected to develop and deliver their courses based on a flipped-classroom approach.
• This entails that teaching resources will be adaptable to an asynchronous eLearning environment and accessible through a self- paced learning platform.
• Furthermore, course content and its delivery will be configured towards maximising student engagement and face-to-face class time will mostly be used to run faculty-led tutorials.

Contribution to learning, teaching, knowledge of the academic subject area and scholarship in the subject:

• Academic staff are expected to be experts in their field and to strive to be excellent teachers and facilitators of learning. It is axiomatic that academic staff should have an up-to-date knowledge of their subject/discipline, with appropriate breadth and depth so that they can create a high quality experience for students at all levels by:
  • Seeking out and responding to student feedback in positive, timely and professional ways
  • Planning their teaching in ways that allow appropriate learning outcomes to be achieved and preparing students appropriately for their working lives
  • Facilitating learning through a variety of means appropriate to the student, the level and to the discipline
  • Providing appropriate academic guidance and support to students
  • Designing and managing appropriate assessment and feedback schemes
  • Reflecting critically on their teaching performance, making continuous improvements to their practice and taking an interest in pedagogic issues
  • Responding to developments in their subject so that the academic portfolio remains attractive and current
  • Ensuring that they keep abreast of the use of technology, to aid learning and their ability to respond to the rapidly changing skills and expectations of the student body.
• Teaching and support activity extends beyond taught programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate levels to include research and doctoral programmes. The University needs to gather a critical mass of research portfolio in each Faculty and to support this by a skilled and committed cadre of researchers. Academic staff are expected to develop their skills and expertise as research supervisors in order to improve our supervisory capacity and to enable an increase in the number of research students.

Contribution to research, consultancy, professional practice and knowledge transfer:

• All academic staff should be at the forefront of knowledge in their disciplines by taking part in its creation and dissemination. Academic staff are expected to contribute to the development of knowledge, application of knowledge and/or to the development of pedagogy in their discipline at an appropriate level.
• The University’s Research and Scholarship Strategy defines scholarship as producing outputs and not just keeping up-to-date with a subject for teaching purposes, although this is very important. The University has established a range of mechanisms which recognise and reward excellence in research and scholarship.
• The University values a broad range of research and acknowledges that peer reviewed outputs in high ranking journals are very important in evaluating the quality of our research and individual researchers will be encouraged and supported in producing such work. However, other outputs such as textbooks, articles in good professional as well as academic journals, the presentation of conference papers, the design and creation of artistic works, artefacts and patents are also valued and encouraged. Pedagogic research is a field of considerable interest to us and some colleagues may wish to concentrate on this area of enquiry.
• The definition of appropriate contributions to consultancy, professional practice and knowledge transfer is wide-ranging. The University expects all academic staff to be engaged in research as well as ensuring that, where appropriate, they ‘practise their craft’ to ensure the currency of their professional skills. Academic staff should be able to make a distinctive and scholarly contribution to the dissemination and application of new knowledge in their profession, public service or in commerce. Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) are an excellent vehicle for combining professional and academic contributions.
• The University values highly contributions to the academic and policy development of professional bodies at local, regional, national or international level. There should be reputational as well as financial benefits to the Admiralty University of Nigeria and to individuals from knowledge transfer or consultancy work undertaken resulting in income generation. A whole range of other outputs in relation to industry and the public sector are viewed as contributions to professional practice and the nature of these will vary from Faculty to Faculty.
• Many of the University’s staff will be teaching in areas that relate directly to a profession, public or industry sector. Insights gained from research, contributions to professional practice and consultancy activity should feed back into teaching. Staff should be able to reflect critically on their performance in research, external income generation and/or contribution to their profession.
• They should strive to continually improve the volume and quality of contributions and outputs. They are expected to seek external as well as internal funding to support their research. Academic staff are also expected to produce research and scholarly activity action plans to discuss and agree outputs as part of their appraisal. Evidence of research or agreed innovation in professional practice is a requirement within our revised appraisal process.

Contribution to the academic community and to professional standards:

• The academic role is a professional one and the academic community extends beyond the narrow boundaries of any University. Academic staff have a considerable degree of autonomy in the conduct of their teaching and research; but they must also manage their workload, build relationships of trust and respect with academic and support staff colleagues and discharge their responsibilities in a professional manner. This expectation of professionalism, support for colleagues and response to feedback from students and colleagues, is a significant and important part of the academic role.
• All members of staff should be prepared to take on a reasonable share of the academic management and leadership load within their Faculty, attending departmental meetings and Open Days as required and acting as personal tutors, module and course leaders, meet with parents to name but a few. The type of role will vary depending on the experience, expertise and interests of the individual concerned.
• The University’s curriculum management structures emphasise the importance of academic development and leadership activity, and strives for structures which are as ‘lean’ as possible, consistent with good student support. It is expected that for academic staff to be outwardlooking and to play an active part in the wider academic and professional community.
• Each academic member of staff should seek to engage with external networks via activities such as, working as an external examiner, as a course approval panel member, as a member of editorial boards, participating in the work of their academic or professional body, attending conferences etc. These activities will be recognised and valued by our promotion processes.
• The regional, international and community aspects of the University’s vision are very important as well and some ambitious growth targets have been set in these areas. All academic staff will be expected to make an appropriate contribution to the work of our partner institutions (overseas) and other community partners and stakeholders. This may include: visits to partner institutions; the development of appropriate distance learning materials and increased awareness when interacting with students and staff from different cultures and backgrounds.
• All staff are required to abide by relevant rules and policies in relation to equality and diversity, ethics and Health & Safety legislation as part of their commitment to professional standards.

Person Specification (Qualifications, Experience & Knowledge)
Candidates for the role will be expected to demonstrate evidence of the following knowledge, skills, and attributes:

• Candidates should possess a Ph.D. degree from a recognised University with at least eight (8) years teaching, research and administrative experience in a tertiary institution.
• Candidates must have evidence of scholarly publications in both local and international reputable learned journals, plus membership of relevant professional bodies where required.