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Rice University announces new platform for faculty recruitment, advancement

Private research university adopts Interfolio software to achieve data security, process consistency and effective data collection

Rice University, a premier private research university, ranked among the top 20 national universities by U.S. News & World Report, announced the launch of a new software platform that will make faculty recruitment easier and enable efficient, standardized processes for faculty review, promotion and tenure.

Partnering with Interfolio, Rice University will implement Interfolio’s Faculty Search module to facilitate all stages of faculty recruitment and Interfolio’s Review, Promotion and Tenure (RPT) module to digitize the process for all faculty promotion and tenure reviews.

With this investment, Rice will streamline its faculty hiring process with a trusted system used by faculty around the world. Moving from a general software to one purpose-built for faculty will ease the administrative burden on hiring committees, while also improving the experience for the applicant.

Rice will use Interfolio’s electronic workflows and automations to ensure consistent review procedures across campus. Additionally, administrators can use Interfolio to easily check the stage of reviews, which increases transparency and saves time.

“We chose Interfolio because we wanted a system specifically built for the unique needs of faculty, and we realized the need for technology that supports the full lifecycle of faculty actions,” says Dr. C. Fred Higgs III, Rice University’s Vice Provost for Academic Affairs. “With Interfolio’s Faculty Search and Review, Promotion and Tenure, we will effectively be providing an intuitive interface for our faculty from their first experience with Rice as an applicant to the important milestones throughout their careers.”

Rice University administrators also appreciate that the new system will allow them to gather data in a centralized location. “Before, we couldn’t easily answer questions about particular trends in faculty promotion because the data was scattered across paper files,” explains Brad Blunt, Rice University’s Director for Academic Process. “Now, we can easily query and report on important information, such as diversity data in our promotion and tenure process.”

Interfolio’s suite of products, collectively referred to as their Faculty Information System, is designed to bring to campuses the kind of digital dexterity and data agility that the most sophisticated corporations have with their enterprise software.

“The world has gone digital, and we created our Faculty Information System to give faculty and administrators the digital capabilities they need to effectively operate,” said Andrew Rosen, CEO of Interfolio. “Whether your institution is a top research university like Rice or a small liberal arts college, attracting and supporting great faculty is central to institutional success.”

Source: PR Web