Contract templates

Recruitment processes are run at local, departmental level but University employees are employed by the ‘Chancellor, Master and Scholars of the University’. Contract templates are therefore standardised and departments should not alter the template contract wording.

Departmental HR teams are responsible for producing standard employment-related correspondence for support and academic-related posts, including offer letters, contracts, contract cover letters and contract amendments and extensions.

Contractual documentation should be drafted through PeopleXD.  Off-system templates, and guidance notes, below are provided for information. 

See the guidance on variants, below, for additional information about extensions over the EJRA, apprentices, RSIV and ALC6, Departmental Administrators, regraded posts, Marie Curie fellows, E64 clinical training fellows, and Market Pay supplements.

 

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  • November 2023 - offer letter updated to clarify previous employment with University to be checked, and updating the attachment summarising benefits to reflect updated induction resources from POD.
  • September 2023 - casual letter of engagement and casual teaching contract for services - various updates
  • August 2023 - offer letter updated with new optional para for depts using the online University card management system
  • October 2022 - updates made to academic-related and Marie Sklodowska Curie templates to reflect revisions to the EJRA.  Notice and retirement paragraphs updated.  Fixed term contract notice period also updated to reference Global Talent Visa expiry date.
  • October 2022 - offer letter updated with additional induction materials
  • September 2022 - new variant of Marie Sklodowska Curie fellowship set up under UKRI guarantee scheme.  Supplied to relevant departments directly and not published here.  Please contact kate.butler@admin.ox.ac.uk if you need this template but have not received it.
  • August 2022- support and academic-related contracts probation wording updated
  • July 2022 - Support staff contracts updated to include option of open-ended externally funded
  • April 2022- Academic- related contract and E82 contract, update in line with PeopleXD templates, including adding annual leave table to the E82 template
  • September 2021 - academic-related contracts and Marie Sklodowska Curie templates updated regarding changes to USS contribution rates wef October 2021
  • March 2021 - Academic-related, Support staff, casual letter of engagement and casual teaching contract for services, E82 (Senior clinical research fellow) and Marie Sklodowska Curie templates updated with clarification of Governing Law
  • February 2021 - support and academic-related contracts header updated to University rather than departmental letterhead, in line with CoreHR templates
  • December 2020 - Casual letter of engagement updated to reflect Tier 4 visa being replaced with  'Student visa'.  As both remain in circulation for the time being, the wording reflects both 'Tier 4/ Student visa'
  • September 2020 - support staff contract templates - amendment to tier of entry for new entrants to OSPS ('Enrolment into University Pension Scheme' annexe)
  • April 2020 - Marie Sklodowska Curie templates updated
  • February/March 2020 - substantial changes are being made across all templates to take account of legislative changes due from April 2020.  Revised templates will be published here as they are ready. CoreHR templates will be updated as soon as possible
    • Casual letter of engagement and casual teaching contract for services - now available
    • Support staff contract templates - now available
    • Academic-related contract templates  (clinical and non-clinical departments) - now available
    • E82 (Senior clinical research fellow) template - now available
    • Apprenticeship contracts - now available
  • June 2019 - updates to the Pensions annexe, reflecting changes to contributions rates
  • May 2018 - updates to the Data Protection terms, reflecting the introduction of the GDPR. The casual letters also include a new declaration and a minor clarification made to the pensions notice for OSPS members
  • September 2017 - the revised EJRA, changes to OSPS salary exchange, and clarification of calculation of day's pay

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Employment contracts for academic staff are issued by divisional offices.

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If no offer letter is to be used, contracts must be accompanied by the list of documents confirming entitlement to work in the UK

 

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(last updated Aug 2017)

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Apprenticeship agreement and terms and conditions (November 2021)

Other apprenticeships templates can be found on the templates page

UKRI Horizon Europe Guarantee MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship awards

Wef September 2022, please note that fellowships awarded through the UKRI guarantee scheme require a new contract template reflecting that the funding comes from UKRI and not the EC.  Templates will be provided directly to departments hosting these fellowships.  If you have not received the template please contact kate.butler@admin.ox.ac.uk 

EC awards

ERs and ESR non-student contracts are not draw up in PeopleXD, templates are given below.

(Contracts last updated October 2022, pensions document updated March 2024)

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Contracts for HAFs / departmental administrators in academic departments are signed by the Divisional Registrar for the relevant division.  

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RSIV and ALC6 appointments may only be made once the Senior Appointments Panel has given approval (contact your HR Business Partner for details).

RSIV and ALC6 appointments are academic-related and the standard academic-related contract should be produced through PeopleXD. The only difference is that none of the standard salary paragraphs apply since there is no incremental scale but instead a personal salary is applied. Once the contract document has been completed please replace all the optional paragraphs under ‘Grade and salary’ with the following wording:

“Grade and salary: this appointment is at grade ALC6/RSIV. Your salary is payable at the rate of £ XX,XXX a year, pro rata for part-time appointments.”

Paragraph 4.2 of the terms and conditions clarifies that the salary quoted is subject to any general increases applied to all salaries of that grade and therefore no additional wording is required.

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When a letter is received from the EJRA panel confirming that a request to extend employment beyond the EJRA has been approved, a new fixed-term contract should be issued. Only ONE of the standard contractual paragraphs needs amendment: the first of the two paragraphs for fixed-term contracts on expiry and notice should be replaced with the following:

“Expiry date and notice period: this is a fixed-term appointment. Unless it is terminated earlier either by notice, or under the provisions of Statute XII, Part C or Statute XII, Part B or D of the University’s Statutes, it will expire on DD/MM/YYYY, which becomes your retirement date as agreed under the University’s procedure for considering requests to work beyond the Employer Justified Retirement Age (EJRA). This carries with it no commitment to a subsequent career appointment within the University. Vacancies for such appointments are open to competition from within and outside the University.

Your appointment may be terminated…  ”

The Statement of Terms does not need amendment: all the terms, including those relating to pensions and the normal retirement date, should be left as they are since they only refer to standard terms and are equally applicable to those given permission to stay beyond the EJRA.

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Apprenticeships templates can be found on the templates page

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Where a post has been successfully regraded a new contract must be produced and issued. In cases where the regrading is to be back-dated the contract should be dated with the current date, and a side letter drafted including the following words:

"Your post has been regraded with effect from DD/MM/YYYY.  Your new contract is attached and a back-payment will be made in your [month] payment for the period DD/MM/YYYY to DD/MM/YYYY."

 

 

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Those engaged on E64 Clinical training fellowships, where

  • the purpose of the fixed-term engagement is to complete a course of training
  • the reason that the fixed-term contract would not be renewed at its completion is because the training has been completed, and
  • the fellows might be replaced by new training fellow

should be issued with a standard CMS fixed-term appointment academic-related contract. 

The accompanying contract cover letter must include justification number 4: “the post to which you have been appointed is intended specifically to provide a time-limited period of training or development [provide brief details]”. (If the individual is a limited-term visa holder, also include paragraph 6).

When such contracts reach their completion date, as long as the reason for non-renewal is that the training has been completed the reason for employment ending is not redundancy but ‘some other substantial reason', and therefore no redundancy payment is due.

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Contracts for Marie Sklodowska Curie fellows should not be produced in PeopleXD and can be downloaded as word documents above.

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For Market Pay supplements contact the Reward Team for advice and contractual wording.

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Where a contract needs to be issued for a Global Talent visaholder the 'Expiry and notice period' paragraph in the Fixed-term contract should be replaced with the paragraph below 

For fixed-term appointments

Expiry date and notice period: this is a fixed-term appointment. Should it [be confirmed on completion of the probationary period and] (delete wording if no probation) not be terminated earlier either by notice, or under the provisions of Statute XII, Part C or Statute XII, Part B or D of the University’s Statutes, it will expire, therefore, on DD/MM/YYYY (or the date that your Global Talent Visa expires, if this is sooner and you are unable to present further original documentation to establish your right to work and remain in the UK, which the University requires in order to comply with its duties under the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006)  and carries with it no commitment to a subsequent career appointment within the University. Vacancies for such appointments are open to competition from within and outside the University.

Your appointment may be terminated prior to this date by either party giving to the other not less than three months’ written notice, save that if termination is sought on grounds that fall within Statute XII of the University’s Statutes and Regulations any dismissal shall be in accordance with the provisions of Statute XII and, in the case of a dismissal under Part D of Statute XII, may be without notice.

 

 

More information about who has authority to sign contracts and use of electronic signatures can be found in  the section who can hire and dismiss

 

This letter of engagement should be used only for casual student ambassador roles. 

It offers casual work, rather than employment and all parties must be clear that there is no obligation on the part of the University to offer work, and there is no obligation on the part of the student to accept work. The Department should ensure that it acts accordingly.

The letter of engagement should be for the minimum period required and to an absolute maximum of 11 consecutive calendar months, and covers no more than 30 days work within that period.

The hourly rate of pay set out in clause 4.2 should relate to an appropriate point on the casual pay spine and must not include any element of ‘rolled-up pay’: accrued, untaken holiday should be paid in lieu at the end of the engagement only.  

 

Student ambassador casual letter of engagement

PeopleXD guidance


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