The overall aim of the new academics’ programme (NAP) across the university is to equip newly or recently appointed academic staff to achieve their full potential in carrying out the responsibilities associated with their posts.

The Faculty of Humanities’ NAP – the HNAP - is designed to fit within the university-wide framework for the new academics programme. The NAP is designed and delivered to reflect the disciplinary and organisational contexts of the faculty in which it sits, so there are slight variations in the three faculties’ NAPs, but all three NAPs are approved by the Board of Studies.

The NAP across the university is fully aligned with Our Future. Its content covers all dimensions of the university’s vision and strategy as they translate into academics’ work, including (where applicable, depending on the contract held): research, supervision, teaching and student engagement, knowledge transfer, social responsibility, and personal development.

The Faculty of Humanities is responsible for the HNAP, but the university-wide NAP involves close collaboration, overseen by Professor Judy Williams, the associate VP for teaching, learning and students, between all three faculties to ensure as much co-ordination as possible of NAP content, delivery, and assessment.

The HNAP workshops offered for 2023-24 are available in the HNAP schedule circulated to all registered participants.

Once you receive the programme schedule and handbook, it is essential to read these two documents carefully, in order to know how to navigate your way through the programme.

The handbook will help you understand how the programme is organised and delivered, what workshops are offered, when they are offered, and how many you must select.

The HNAP workshop schedule provides overviews of the content, nature, and focus of each workshop, and, if the workshop ran in 2021-22, what some of its participants said about it. There are three strands to the programme:

• inspirational teaching;
• excellence in research;
• citizenship, leadership, and personal development.

To satisfy the attendance requirements of the HNAP – which are essential for passing probation – you must accrue credit of 18 HNAP units.

An HNAP face-to-face workshop is normally worth one credit, but some shorter workshops are worth only a half-unit. A small number of workshops will be delivered through Zoom. Each Zoom-delivered workshop is worth only a half-unit. The HNAP also includes a small number of online modules, each worth a half-unit.

Other than HNAPIT1: Introduction to the Programme, no workshop or online module is compulsory. More workshops are offered than participants are required to participate in order to accrue 18 units, so there is a considerable degree of choice in developing an individual programme of workshops to attend.

You may find that you are able to participate in 18 units within the space of one academic year, but many HNAP participants find that they need to allow two years for meeting the 18 credits’ attendance requirements.

Participation in a workshop includes post-participation reflection – which is an important element of professional development. After attending a workshop or completing an online module, you must, within one week, complete a reflective log form and submit it to Antonia Acanfora at HNAP@manchester.ac.uk in order to be registered as having completed the unit. You will not be given credit for any unit for which you have failed to submit a reflective log form within a week of participation.

Your selection of units must include at least one workshop from each of the three programme strands listed above. You should discuss your selection with your school-based mentor and/or other senior colleagues, such as your head of department or division. Whilst it is hoped that you will negotiate with senior colleagues an agreed rounded programme of units to take from across all three strands, it is important to be aware that your head of school has the right to insist that you select specific units that may best equip you for your specific responsibilities.

Once you have met the HNAP attendance requirements, to complete the programme, you must then prepare and submit a reflective portfolio. There are two deadlines per year for portfolio submission. These deadlines are listed in the HNAP handbook.

All academic staff appointed to probationary contracts on grades below reader must participate in the HNAP unless it has been agreed by their head of school (HoS) that they may be exempt from the programme.

It is essential to book a place on the workshops in which you wish to participate because once a workshop is fully subscribed, registration for it will be closed. You are not guaranteed a place in any specific workshop for which there is a participation limit; places will be allocated to HNAP participants on a first-come, first-served basis. Waiting lists will be kept, and if you particularly want to participate in a specific workshop for which you have been unable to secure a place, you may email Antonia Acanfora at HNAP@manchester.ac.uk to ask to be placed on the priority registration list for it for the next academic year. However, due to circumstances such as staff changes and research leave, we cannot guarantee that the same workshop will be offered the following year.

It is possible that a small number of places on specific workshops that are under-subscribed may occasionally be available for non-HNAP-registered colleagues, and any such availability will be shown on the HNAP webpages, along with details of how to join the participant waiting list.

Exemption from the HNAP is granted very rarely. There are two categories of exemption:

• Full exemption – this is secured at the discretion of the head of school and does not involve the HNAP team, since it precludes the colleague’s involvement in the HNAP. A head of school may, prior to or very soon after the colleague’s appointment, decide that, on the basis of prior experience and/or achievement, the colleague does not need to participate at all in the HNAP. In such cases the school must negotiate and agree with HR a probation process and duration that reflect non-participation in the HNAP. If the colleague does not have HEA fellowship, such a revised probationary arrangement may require the colleague to secure fellowship through the LEAP. Again, the HNAP team is not involved in any of these discussions or arrangements; the colleague in question is simply omitted from the list of nominated HNAP participants. If you feel that your prior experience or achievements qualify you for such full exemption from the HNAP, please do not contact the HNAP team; rather, put your case directly to your head of school. If your application to your head of school is successful, your school will then contact the HNAP team to have your name removed from our list of participants.

• Partial exemption – this is granted by the academic HNAP co-ordinator, Professor Claire McGourlay, only to colleagues who have HEA fellowship (or senior or principal fellowship). Partial exemption is not granted to colleagues with associate fellowship – many HNAP participants have associate fellowship; it is not particularly distinctive. Each exemption application is considered by Professor McGourlay on a case-by-case basis, sometimes involving discussion with the applicant’s mentor or head of department or division. Professor McGourlay will stipulate a reduced number of HNAP units that the partially exempted colleague must accrue – and, in some cases, from which of the programme’s three strands they should be accrued.

To be perfectly clear: unless you have HEA fellowship, you will not be considered for partial exemption.

Satisfactory participation in the HNAP – which is essential for successful completion of probation – is assessed through a submitted portfolio of 3,000-4,000 words. Generally, probation will not be deemed to have been satisfactorily completed until the HNAP portfolio has been submitted and assessed as having met the required standard. It is important to emphasise that, since our fellowship-awarding accreditation with Advance HE is dependent on it, portfolio assessment is taken very seriously; many portfolios are initially assessed as requiring revisions and resubmission.

Extensive information on the portfolio requirements is provided in the HNAP handbook and will be supplemented by portfolio information sessions or advice clinics offered as part of the HNAP on various dates (not yet available) throughout the year. These advice and information sessions are not credit-bearing; they do not count towards the 18 units that you must accrue.

A range of resources are available to support your successful participation in the HNAP, and several online modules – including some that are compulsory for all university employees - are offered as HNAP units and, in 2022-23, will count towards the requisite 18 units of credit that you must accrue.

Please direct all queries to the HNAP administrative coordinator at HNAP@manchester.ac.uk. Alternatively, consult the HNAP Frequently Asked Questions page.