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Visiting Fellows

The School of Education and Social Work welcomes a wider community of visiting academics, colleagues and partners who enhance our research culture and participate in its collaborative intellectual environment. Appointments can be made for periods of one month to three years and must be approved by the Head of School.

The Visiting Fellowship scheme is open to academics educated to post-doctoral level and employed at another University or HEI, whereas the Honorary Fellowship scheme is open to scholars who are not employed by another University or HEI and who are leaders in a creative or cultural field. Applicants are asked to demonstrate their affiliation with the School of Education and Social Work and why they wish to undertake a project here. 

A bench fee is normally payable, to cover costs of administration, office space, access to telephone, computing, library and sporting facilities. In circumstances where visitors will make little or no demand on resources, and where the benefits to the School of their appointment are significant, the bench fee may be waived at the discretion of the Head of School, in consultation with the Director of Research and Knowledge Exchange (DRaKE).

Expectations

The purpose of appointing Visiting Fellows is to contribute to the intellectual life of the School. With this in mind, the faculty sponsor should agree with the Visitor in advance what outputs are expected. These would normally include one or more of the following:

• Giving a seminar to faculty and students or a guest lecture within an undergraduate or postgraduate course
• Production of a working paper or equivalent
• Giving advice to students (e.g. on dissertations, careers)
• Production of a collaborative research proposal with a member of faculty.

The application process

The University process to appoint a Visitor, Associate Faculty or Honorary Fellow can be found on the HR Recruitment and Employment Forms web page.

Applicants should confer first with the faculty member in the School they are interested in working with. A Visitor must be proposed by a member of faculty, who should agree to act as their sponsor for the period of their visit. All Visitors should be associated either with a Department or one of the School’s Research Centres.

The sponsor should:

• Discuss the request informally with the appropriate Research Centre lead and/or Head of Department as well as the Head of School and/or DRaKE.
• Alert the Research Coordinator [eswpgradmin@sussex.ac.uk] to any space and resource requirements to ensure these can be met.
• Complete the Request to award or extend an honorary or visitor title form
• Send both parts of the form, together with a CV, two letters of reference and a statement of the purpose of the appointment and agreed outputs to the Senior Operations Manager.            

Applications should be sent at least two months before the appointment is planned to start. Overseas applicants are likely to take longer than two months to go through the University procedures and visa process which should be considered before making the application.

Decisions on appointment to Visiting Researchers rest with the Head of School in consultation with the DRaKE and will be based on the following criteria:

• The quality of the proposed project or activity
• The fit between the applicant’s interests and those of the proposer and host Research Centre or Department
• The appropriateness of the proposed outputs.

Once the appointment has been approved, the following steps will take place:

• The appointment forms will be returned to the Senior Operations Manager to confirm the availability of resources including space if required.
• The appointment will be confirmed to the sponsor.
• The form and draft of the letter of appointment is then forwarded to Human Resources for approval.
• Letter of appointment will be sent to the Visitor.
• The Senior Operations Manager will then conduct ID checks and proceed to set up IT account/ library access.
• The Senior Operations Manager will notify the School Finance Manager for processing payment of bench fee.
• The School Finance Manager will invoice for the bench fee in accordance with instructions received from the Head of School.

Some frequently asked questions about moving to the UK - including VISA procedure, accommodation, schools and other tips - can be found on the external web pages. 

Visiting Fellows Flowchart