Related content:

• For information about the College’s initiative to hire research faculty, see COE Research Faculty Initiative.

• For general information about research faculty, see COE: About Research Faculty.

• For College policies related to faculty research, see COE: Research-Related Policies.

See also EVPP: Hiring Research Faculty.

This page describes the process for hiring 12-month professional-track research faculty only. For guidance on hiring 9-month professional-track faculty, go to COE: Hiring Professional Track Faculty.

The key distinction between research faculty and research staff positions is evidence of engagement with the academic enterprise through teaching, mentorship, or supervision of students at some level. See COE: Comparison of Research Positions for more information.

Because the expectation of academic service typically lies beyond the scope of sponsored projects, UT requires that faculty positions are funded no more than 95% from sponsored projects (26-accounts), and that at least 5% must be funded by a non-26, less restricted source in order to account for the expected academic service. For 12-month research faculty only, IDC is an acceptable funding source for that 5%. See COE: About Research Faculty > Funding research faculty.

Research faculty must be 100% FTE unless an exception is granted by the Dean, APS, and VPR, which requires submission of justification for the reduced appointment.

Managing research faculty appointments

 All faculty positions, including those of 12-month research faculty regardless of funding source, have their primary administrative home in an academic department. Some but not all research faculty also have an affiliation with a research center. For research faculty who work in a COE research center, the table below summarizes the distribution of administrative responsibilities between the academic department and the research center.

About the PAR

For Provost’s Office guidance, see EVPP: Prior Approval Request (PAR).

For section-by-section instructions for processing a PAR in DEFINE, see COE: PAR - Electronic Document Processing Guide.

When is a PAR needed?

PARs must be processed for hires of new faculty, and former faculty whose employment has been terminated. Faculty are not hired via Workday. Once the PAR is final-approved, EVPP loads the appointment into Workday via the PAR. 

A PAR is needed in the following situations:

• New faculty member who has never taught at UT Austin.

• Rehire of former faculty member whose position was terminated.

• Faculty member whose position has been inactive for longer than three years.

• Current UT Austin faculty or staff member, who will be instructor of record or hold another faculty role in a new, different unit.

A PAR is not required in these situations:

• Professional-track faculty member who holds a current inactive faculty (F-INA) position in the correct unit. Position can be reactivated in Workday.

• Courtesy (0%) positions. Instead, use the Add Academic Appointment business process in Workday.

• Retired faculty member returning to teach. See COE: Hiring Retired Faculty for other options.

Contact COE-FacultyAffairs@austin.utexas.edu with any questions.

PAR documentation checklist

Research Faculty titles are professional-track 12-month faculty appointments and follow September 1-August 31 employment dates (see Dates for Faculty Employment Changes). Research faculty ranks are Research Assistant Professor (0037), Research Associate Professor (0027), and Research Professor (0017). In *DEFINE, the document type for tenure-track faculty PARs is FPT.

Instructions

After approving the DEFINE FPR document off the creator's desk, order materials as they are listed below and saved as a single PDF and send to COE-FacultyAffairs@austin.utexas.edu.

Offer letters

Contracts for Research faculty are normally for one year only (September 1-August 31), but can be longer if determined by the Dean to be in the best interest of the institution.

Note that every commitment of funding (relocation, early start date, TA/GRA, etc.) must be captured in both the offer letter and Section 2 Funding Commitments of the PAR. For assistance with wording of non-standard offer items not included in the EVPP template, please contact COE Faculty Affairs.

Who writes professional track offer letters?

Offer letters for research faculty hires are drafted by the hiring departments, in collaboration with any joint hiring departments.  Please contact COE Faculty Affairs with any questions.

Where do I find offer letter templates?

In order to ensure the most current template is being used, each offer letter should be drafted based on a newly-downloaded template for the appropriate hire type based on the Provost's Office current template at FA/APS ServiceNow Portal > Knowledge (top right corner) > FA/APS Knowledge Articles (top left corner) > Offer Letter Templates > Departmentalized CSUs.

What is the offer letter process?

A draft of the offer letter, including a "DRAFT" watermark on each page, should be included in the PAR packet. The draft offer letter does not represent a promise of employment or any other commitment.

Once the PAR is final-approved by the Dean, COE Faculty Affairs will email the PAR packet signed by the Dean to the department Administrative Manager, indicating that the PAR has been approved. When this email indicating approval has been received, the department can send an offer letter to the candidate. However, all PAR information is thoroughly reviewed in the Provost’s Office to ensure compliance, and if errors are found, corrections will still need to be made even if the contract has been signed by the faculty candidate.

After the offer letter has been signed by the candidate, the Administrative Manager should upload the signed letter to the same Faculty Affairs & Academic Personnel Services Portal help ticket on which they submitted the PAR. Once APS has processed the signed offer letter, they will push the hire to Workday.

The department is responsible for maintaining research faculty personnel files, including PARs and offer letters.

Can I share a draft of the offer letter with the candidate prior to PAR final approval?

The department may, if they wish, share the draft with the candidate. It must be clearly indicated via watermark that the copy is a draft, and any associated correspondence must explicitly state that the draft is “pending final modifications and approval of the Dean and Provost.” The draft offer letter should not be signed by anyone, as it does not represent a contract. 

PAR-Workday integration process

Upon final approval of the PAR, the following information is brought over to Workday from the PAR, overwriting the initial data entered on the job requisition:

• Personal information (name and contact information)

• Job Details (benefits eligibility, Job Profile, FTE, etc.)

• Compensation

• Pay Group (determined pay frequency, e.g., monthly)

• Education

• Academic Appointment

Closing the position

Immediately after the conclusion of a faculty search and/or once the posting is no longer needed,

the department should close the Interfolio position (archive) and indicate an outcome

. Online training for this step is available at the following links:

• Close a Position - Interfolio Faculty Search Institutional Administrator Training 

• Interfolio — Close a Position and Select Applicant(s)

For searches that did not result in selection of a candidate

:

1. Add a note about why no selection was made (e.g., cancelled due to lack of funding, position no longer needed, lack of qualified applicants, etc.).

Online training for this step is available at the following links:

1. Close the associated job requisition in Workday, if one was created. Use the current date as effective date, and reason “position cancelled.”