Secondary occupations

A secondary occupation is an assignment or activity that an employee has alongside their employment at the University.

Most secondary occupations are permitted and can contribute to collaboration between the University and the surrounding community. At the same time, the University’s activities must be characterised by objectivity and impartiality. To maintain public trust, it is therefore important to ensure transparency regarding employees’ secondary occupations. This reduces the risk of suspicion of conflict of interest, conflicts of interest or undue influence, and helps safeguard both the individual employee’s integrity and the University’s reputation.

What is a secondary occupation?

A secondary occupation is an activity or assignment that an employee has alongside their employment at the University.

This may include, for example:

additional work or assignments
self-employment or business activities
research or development assignments outside the University
board assignments or consultancy work.

A secondary occupation may be either paid or unpaid.

What is normally not considered a secondary occupation?

Private activities, such as hobbies or voluntary engagement without connection to the professional role, are normally not considered secondary occupations.

For teachers and researchers, certain assignments are included in the employment at the University and are therefore not considered secondary occupations, even if they provide remuneration. Examples include:

academic assignments, such as acting as opponent, external reviewer, or member of an examining committee
minor assignments, such as work for academic journals or participation in academic debate in the media
lectures, seminar participation or presentation of research at other higher education institutions
assignments as a representative of the University, for example on boards, foundations or industry organisations, where participation has been decided by the University.

Secondary occupations are generally permitted

The starting point is that employees are allowed to have secondary occupations.

However, a secondary occupation must not:

undermine public confidence in the University
adversely affect the performance of duties
compete with the University’s activities.

Unacceptable secondary occupations

Secondary occupations may be deemed unacceptable if they are considered to be:

Confidence-damaging

A secondary occupation is deemed to undermine trust if it risks undermining confidence in the university, affecting the impartiality of the employee or other staff members, or damaging the university’s reputation. The mere existence of a risk of undermining trust is sufficient. For example, where there is a risk of bias or conflicts of interest, financial links to the university’s activities, or where the boundary between the employee’s role at the university and their secondary employment becomes unclear.

Examples of secondary occupations that may undermine trust include

selling consultancy services within one’s field of expertise whilst using one’s role as a university lecturer for marketing purposes or to secure assignments
holding a board position at a company that may benefit from, or benefit a company that may benefit from, decisions you make in your capacity as a university employee.

Work-preventing

A secondary occupation is considered work-preventing if it affects your ability to carry out your duties at the university. The secondary occupation must not take up so much time or require such a high level of commitment that your work, availability or performance are adversely affected.

Examples of secondary occupations that prevents with work include

extensive other work that means teaching, meetings or supervision need to be rescheduled, cancelled or given lower priority.

Competing

A secondary occupation is considered competitive if it involves an employee carrying out or participating in activities that compete with the university’s commissioned activities.

Examples of competitive secondary occupations include

offering, either privately or through a company, training in the same field in which the university provides or may provide commissioned training.

Secondary occupations must be clearly separated from employment

A secondary occupation must always be clearly separated from employment at the University and must not be mixed with official duties. There must be no doubt as to in which capacity an assignment is performed.

This means that the secondary occupation must not be carried out during working hours or using the University’s resources, such as equipment, email address, logo or premises.

As a general rule, a secondary occupation must not involve transactions or financial dealings with the University.

What applies to teachers?

Teachers may have secondary occupations linked to their subject area, so-called subject-related secondary occupations.

A specific type of subject-related secondary occupation concerns research or development work, so-called R&D secondary occupations. R&D secondary occupations contribute to collaboration with the surrounding community, for example through cooperation with companies or work to develop and disseminate research results.

These secondary occupations are valuable as they contribute to collaboration with society at large and to the dissemination of research and knowledge. To ensure transparency and maintain public trust in the University, these secondary occupations must be reported.

Examples of subject-related secondary occupations include:

a teacher in law running consultancy activities within their subject area
a teacher in economics acting as an expert adviser within their subject area
a teacher in biology giving paid lectures within their subject area.

Examples of R&D secondary occupations include situations where teachers, based on their research at the University:

start a company to further develop and utilise research results
act as scientific adviser in an R&D project in the private sector
run a research project in their own company.

Teachers must:

report subject-related secondary occupations, including R&D secondary occupations
or confirm that they have no subject-related secondary occupations.

After reporting, the University assesses whether the secondary occupation is permitted in light of risks of it being confidence-damaging, work-preventing or competing.

What applies to managers and other employees?

Managers who, according to the Management Agreement, are part of the University’s local management group:

must report all secondary occupations on their own initiative.

Other employees (see also what applies to teachers):

must provide information on secondary occupations if requested by their immediate manager.

Report secondary occupation

Instructions for reporting secondary occupation can be found under External links.

Governing document in the Rulebook

Regulations and procedure for secondary occupations

Contact

If you are unsure about what applies, contact your immediate manager.