POLICY AND GUIDELINES. Research and Study Leave. FOE Academic Staff

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1 POLICY AND GUIDELINES Research and Study Leave FOE Academic Staff FACULTY GRANTS AND LEAVE COMMITTEE This policy applies only to Academic Staff of the Faculty of Education on the VUW Academic Staff Collective Agreement. University-wide policies are accessible through: Contents: I. Oracle Use... 2 II. Eligibility... 2 III. Applications... 3 IV. Leave Variations... 3 V. Leave Reporting... 4 VI. Funding... 4 VII. Payment of Grant... 5 VIII. Travel... 6 IX. Split Leave... 6 X. Annual Leave... 7 XI. Further Information

2 I. Oracle Use The Oracle Grant Management System is a self-managing process. The applicant and/or recipient of the grant will self manage and maintain the grant online, through Oracle. The Oracle Grants Management System (GMS) is used for the recording of all grants. Please ensure that you quote and note the grant number, award and cost centre (detailed in the Decision Notification on approval) when completing anything to do with the accounting process, ie. When booking travel or making a claim against a grant. If you have any queries on the Oracle system, please refer initially GMShelp@vuw.ac.nz or ext. 6723, Grants Administrator. Individual training sessions can be booked. Please refer to the Managing your grant documents on the website for further help. Otherwise contact Grants and Leaves Committee Administrator ext Please keep a note of your password. You can add the GMS system into your password synchronization and so always update your password to be the same as your normal login. If you have lost your password or have trouble logging in please oracle-help@vuw.ac.nz To find the Oracle login page: Go to myvictoria Scroll down to staff links on left hand side Click on Grants Management System Or Please note that Oracle Grants Management system can only be accessed on University property, not remotely. II. Eligibility Staff on the VUW Academic Staff Collective Agreement accrue RSL at a rate of 2 months leave for every year of service (on full time contract). The minimum leave period recommended by the Leave committee is 6 months (3 years service) to include the months of January and or December. The maximum eligibility to be accrued is 12 months leave. More details about eligibility are in the collective agreement on the HR website in Schedule 5. If in any doubt about your eligibility please contact the Committee Administrator. Staff on ASTE and NZEI contracts are not eligible for RSL. 2

3 III. Applications Applications are made at least six months in advance of the intended leave. Deadlines for applications are: Deadline June meeting: for applications starting the following January or later (first half of year). Deadline: December Meeting for applications starting July of the following year of later (second half of year). Applications are submitted to the committee for the two deadlines listed. Each application will be reviewed by the committee and assigned a committee member to shepherd the application through to approval. If the Head of School has approved the leave the committee is responsible for making sure that the application is detailed with planned activity, outcomes and expectations to ensure the applicant can be fairly held accountable to the application proposal at the end of the leave. The shepherd will meet with the applicant and review all the application details and requirements and ensure that all options and possibilities have been discussed to make sure that staff are able to make the most of their Research and Study Leave time. The application will then be resubmitted to subsequent committee meetings until the shepherd, applicant and committee are confident that the plans for leave are completely and thoroughly documented, and then finally approved. Application checklist: Provide as much information as possible on the objectives of the Leave, including collaboration colleagues, other academic activity or research work; Provide clear information on the publication outcomes planned from the leave included targeted journals; Upload a copy of the any access or invite letters form other Universities where you would be working; Upload a basic itinerary which shows plans for times and activities in each location; Make sure there is clear information about how supervision of PG students will be handled and how the HoS is planning to cover teaching loads; Upload any extra justification for budget not outlined on form; Upload a travel quote form the University preferred travel provider if appropriate; Upload a current CV or bibliography; Upload any document which supports your application with information which has not been covered adequately on the form or on other uploaded documents. IV. Leave Variations Research and Study Leave is approved on the basis of the application submitted to the Faculty Grants and Leave Committee, in respect of dates, arrangements for travel, access to other institutions, research programme and anticipated outcomes. Throughout the process it may be necessary to vary one or more of these; any substantial variation requires the approval of the Faculty Grants and Leave Committee (FGLC) and all variations need to be notified to the Committee Administrator in writing. With the approval of your Head of School, you may vary the start and finish dates by up to one week at your own discretion. Variations to start and finish dates of more than one week must be approved by the FGLC. Please notify the Committee Administrator as early as possible. 3

4 With the approval of your Head of School, you may vary your overseas travel by up to one week at your own discretion. Substantial variations to overseas travel of more than one week must be approved by the FGLC. All variations should be notified in writing. Satisfactory arrangements must be made with your Head of School for coverage of any teaching or administrative functions in your absence. You are expected to ensure there is continued supervision for thesis students during your leave. V. Leave Reporting At the end of the Research and Study Leave period the applicant has three months to provide the committee with the required reports. From the due date of the reports until they are accepted or approved by the committee the applicant does not accrue further leave or have any eligibility to apply for other funding. Please discuss concerns of the reporting with the committee shepherd. A draft should be submitted to the shepherd before In Oracle a Performance report is required to describe the outcomes of the project in terms of any funding, how it was used and any variation from intended objectives for the funding. A separate Leave report (Word document) is required by the committee to outline clearly the outcomes and achievements of the leave period. This should be 2 to 5 pages and detail actual activity, variations to plans and specific outcomes towards PBRF. A Leave Report guidelines document is available. The reports will be submitted to the committee for approval or accepting. Based on this decision the accrual of further leave may begin, be suspended or have conditions for reinstating placed on the applicant. The reports can be accepted by the committee. This indicates that the committee acknowledges the work of the applicant but believes there should have been a better outcome from the leave and any further leave applications will have higher expectations placed on them. If the committee feels the outcome was unsatisfactory they can impose conditions on the applicant in order to reinstate or just restart accrual of further leave. If a report is approved it indicates the committee is happy with the achievements of the applicant and acknowledge this by making the report public in the Education-Intranet folder. VI. Funding Funding is available for Research and study leave as per the AUS collective agreement allowances. This is worked out on the basis of a monthly Sustenance allowance. Funding is only available if the RSL has a minimum period of 28 days Overseas. If the entire RSL is spent in NZ specific request for funding support can be made for research purposes on a case by case basis. 4

5 If the minimum of 28 days is spent overseas funding is calculated as: MSA(monthly sustenance allowance as per collective agreement, $1422 in 2013) MSA per month overseas + ¼ MSA for each month in NZ Or Maximum OSCL allowance Whichever calculation is the higher. eg. 7 months RSL 4 months OS and 3 months NZ (4 x MSA) +( 3 x ¼ MSA) in 2013 this = $ OSCL in 2013 this = $5841 Therefore RSL funding would be = $ If in any doubt please contact the Committee Administrator. Normal salary will continue to be paid during the period of approved leave. If subsequent variations to leave necessitate a recalculation of your grant, you will be required to repay any excess. This may be done (at your choice) either by a lump sum repayment to the Cashier or by salary deductions over an agreed period. (Note the original application included a signed declaration authorising re-imbursement in the event of variations or resignation.) Unfunded RSL can be taken but uses the same application form, requirements and process. Unfunded leave does use eligibility. VII. Payment of Grant In order to claim reimbursement, original receipts must be produced as evidence of expenditure. Ensure the currency on the Reimbursement Form is in NZ dollars and that all receipts from NZ are GST inclusive. Please reconcile the Reimbursement Form yourself; it is not to be delegated to the School or Committee Administrator (conflict of interest). Retain a copy for your records (required for final reporting) and get HoS sign off and forward to Tony Arnold (FoE Finance Advisor) for approval or send direct to: Tony Arnold Education Finance Adviser Room 308 Tennant Building Tel: Tony.Arnold@vuw.ac.nz Funds for airfares will be paid directly only to the approved VUW travel provider. Special arrangements for payment in advance may be made in the case of applicants going overseas to conduct research. In such cases, all receipts should be submitted immediately after return. Contact Committee Administrator for more information on advanced payments. If the Project End Date is reached and there are unspent funds the applicant cannot use these funds for alternative reasons. All residuals come back to the Faculty to redistribute to other applicants. 5

6 VIII. Travel As mentioned above, all University funded or administered travel must be booked using only the University s approved Travel Management Company (TMC). Please refer to the VUW webpage for the updated travel policy. Travel bookings and arrangements are your own responsibility or are made by arrangement with your school administrator. If you require advice regarding travel bookings, please see your school administration assistant first. Insurance Travel Insurance is automatic for all VUW staff members travelling internationally on authorised university travel. It is not necessary to complete any forms. Also covered are family members and/or spouses travelling with the staff member. Please check with Facilities Management for any information regarding Insurance. Copies of the insurance policy document are available at the following web site: Personal Security International Travel The University provides security information via SOS International. For an update on the security for the area of your intended travel log on to the website to access information using the membership card received with your travel documentation. IX. Split Leave Split leave can be taken where an applicant has full or near full eligibility (12 months leave) and it is not suitable for school management to release the staff member for that period of time in one go. Split leave also allows staff to take two periods of leave without having to accrue the minimum of 2 years service in between. The committee recommends that both halves of the leave should be a minimum of 6 months and include January and or December. The intension to take split leave must be included in the first application. Plans for the second split must also be indicated. A separate application will be required for the second half of the leave. An interim report is required within a month of the end of the first split of leave. It is necessary to provide the FGLC with an update of what you have achieved to this point and what is proposed for the second split. The second part of the leave requires the Committee s approval before that period of leave commences. Funding for split leave needs to be calculated separately. Please see the Committee administrator for advice. 6

7 X. Annual Leave As part of the RSL application the time should include a period of annual leave equal to what would be accrued during that period. Eg. for 6 months leave 10 days are typically accrued. Details of annual leave to be taken during the RSL are required as part of the leave report. Please note that the GMS system does not link to HR Kiosk and so does not register your request for annual leave days. It is the responsibility of the applicant to ensure any annual leave days are booked through HR Kiosk as per normal. The committee will review this with HoS after the RSL period. XI. Further Information For more information, contact any of the following: Convener of FGLC: FGLC Administrator: Sue Balandin Elizabeth Morris Professor (Research) Faculty Academic Administrator Sue.Balandin@vuw.ac.nz Elizabeth.Morris@vuw.ac.nz Phone: Phone: Room GR 309 Room TE 306 Gray Building Tennant Building Karori Campus Karori Campus 7