Faculty and related roles

Preface
The number of roles needs to be kept to a practical minimum. To reduce their number, persons may have multiple roles; for example, a faculty member may supervise research and be a local mentor. In these cases, the higher level is the persons' position title. However, some reasons for extra roles are as follows:
• The teacher of record, is the person who is qualified to sign off that a unit as satisfactorily taught and assessed. This role is defined as oversight of the delivery and assessment of units with responsiblity for their educational quality. As the person responsible for the final assessment decisions on each unit, the teacher of record must approve all final assessment results. Not all personnel are qualified to be a teacher of record.
• Roles follow organisational structure.
• Roles follow appointment status, with adjuncts being impermanent.

Appointment

For all faculty positions, candidates need to have committed to the WU mission statement, institutional goals, and educational philosophy. In its minutes, the Board shall record appointments to the role of Professor, Associate Professor, and Assistant Professor, after which those roles may be used as formal position titles.

Faculty positions

1. Professor
2. Associate Professor
3. Assistant Professor
4. Adjunct faculty
5. Adjunct faculty (advisory)

Non-faculty positions

1. Graduate teaching assistant
2. Graduate research assistant
3. Cohort coordinator
4. Local support

Professor

WU has four different roles of professor:

• Senior faculty serve the whole University by overseeing the development and administration of programs, writing materials, writing policies and procedures, and/or serving on degree committees that confer qualifications.
• Head of school or department oversees the academic organization of a school or department and responsible for the quality of all its academic programs.
• Head of cohort oversees the academic organization of a cohort, and is responsible that the delivery of all units is integrated to achieve the educational objectives of the qualification. The head of cohort also oversees the cohort coordinator to ensure the creation of a good learning and teaching environment for students and faculty.
• Research supervision oversees research programs.

All professorships require a doctorate and relevant professional competencies.

All professors have the role of teacher of record. and are responsible for the quality of academic instruction and assessment, and ensuring that students achieve the relevent course objectives, as follows:

1. Ensuring that students receive the necessary instruction to achieve unit and program objectives, and are on track to achieve them and graduate on schedule.
2. Ensuring that the local support-student relationship is functioning well.
3. Ensuring that relationships with the church (or ministry organization) are working well.
4. Ensuring that the local personnel and students are responding well to any limitations or weaknesses that have arisen.
5. Answering any questions directed to them.
6. Reading and responding to reports from cohort coordinators and local support personnel.
7. Deciding what to do if a local mentorship ends prematurely.
8. Approving any student extensions or leave of absence.
9. Recommending any needed improvements or updates to the procedures and materials.

Associate professor

Associate professors have the role of teacher of record, and oversee the delivery and assessment of units. The postion requires a doctorate and relevant professional competencies.

Assistant Professor

Assistant Professors assist in the delivery and assessment of units, and require the competencies of the qualification taught.

The teacher of record provides supervision to ensure that the Assistant Professor meets the the degree's academic standard. The teacher of record must personally attend enough sessions of the unit to ensure that it meets the WU standard, and be available to teach some sessions.

Adjunct faculty

Adjunct faculty provide their expertise to WU a visiting or sessional basis, and have the role of a teacher of record. Their roles may include: teach or supervise specialist courses, participate in forums as subject matter experts, assist in planning and mid- term review, contribute to the assessment of researches or projects, supervise research or projects, and contribute to WU’s quality assurance.

Adjunct faculty (Advisory)

Adjunct faculty provide their expertise to WU a visiting or sessional basis, but do not have the role of teacher of record. Their roles may include teaching or supervising specialist courses, participating in forums as subject matter experts, assisting in planning and reviews, supervising research or projects, contributing to the assessment of researches or projects, and contributing to WU’s quality assurance.

Graduate teaching assistant

A Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) is a doctoral student doing the teaching practicum unit(s) in a doctoral degree. It involves a teaching and/or assessing role assigned by the professor as an assessable activity.

Graduate research assistant

A Graduate Research Assistant (GRA) is a doctoral student doing the research practicum unit(s) in a doctoral degree. It involves a Research Assistant role assigned by the professor.

Cohort coordinator

The role of cohort coordinator is administrative, with the reponsibility of ensuring that the activities of the cohort run well.

Local support

The local support personnel provide local guidance and advice so that students can achieve the goals of their academic programs. They need to work closely with the faculty and support them in their roles.

1. While they do not need formal qualifications they must have relevant professional skills.
2. Local support personnel should be competent to carry out their support role, but are not expected to act as supervisors or instructors. They should resist any pressure to act as instructors and refer the student back to the supervisor where necessary.
3. They may not accept any payment or gratuity from students.
4. If the student has not satisfactorily met required outcomes, the adviser may only help explain what is further required, but may not help the students in such a way that their work cannot be considered as independently completed.
5. As different support people have different skills, a student might want or need more than one support person.

Local support personnel have the following responsibilities:

1. Monitor student progress. For example:
   1. Interpret unit requirements.
   2. Discuss with the student how the student is processing and monitor their progress against semester schedules and assignment deadlines.
   3. Encourage students to follow a proper working schedule so that they can submit assignments and reports on time.
   4. Monitor assessed assignments and feedback given by the faculty member.
2. Liaise with the faculty member as necessary, keeping them updated on student- and program-related issues and refer students experiencing difficulties to them. Mediate with the faculty member on language and cultural expectations.
3. Confirm that the student’s submitted work is authentic.
4. If asked, help gather evidence needed to assess the student.
5. If asked, give feedback to WU on materials, and attend planning and training workshops. Mediate with the faculty member on language and cultural expectations.
6. The local support person may also act as mentor or coach:
   1. Contact students regularly, listen to them, and encourage them. As a more experienced person, act as a guide, a role model, a personal advisor, and a confidante with whom the practicum student can share joys and burdens.
   2. Act as a sounding board, asking the right questions and navigating students so that they can find their own answers.
   3. Provide one-to-one practical training in required skills.
   4. Help students to recognise their individual strengths and weaknesses.
   5. Identify resources that will help the student with personal development, such as recommending books or other learning tools or introducing them to new contacts.

Faculty contribution to different areas

WU expects its faculty members to make wider contributions to WUs achievement of its mission and goals in the following areas:

1. Student learning: Equip students to achieve in the educational objectives of each degree program.
2. Program: Contribute to syllabus and program development.
3. Scholarship: Contribute in the area of their specialist expertise.
4. Institutional development: Support the development of WU by making recommendations and missional decisions according to their role.
5. Professional skills: Maintain and develop their own professional skills in the fields where they teach or conduct research.
6. Community service: Contribute practically to serving the community of churches and schools with which WU is afilliated.