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Information for New Staff and Students

Administrative (Business, Money, Legal & HR)

Employment Paperwork

For new members of staff, on arrival please see the Human Resources Officer, Sang Huynh and hand him all HR forms including

  • a signed copy of your letter of offer
  • bank details form
  • tax file declaration form
  • personal details form
  • UniSuper form

and any other forms you received from the University with your contract. Please also bring with you your passport or birth certificate as ID as well as proof of your qualifications stated in your application. This paperwork will be forwarded to HR so they can be entered on the payroll system. You will also be given a School Personnel form to complete to so that your contact details can be added to the School database.

Staff Card

New staff should obtain a Staff Card.

Pay, Casual claim forms and Employment Details

The HR Officer can tell you when your first salary payment will be made. Salary is paid fortnightly, on a Thursday, directly into the bank account (or accounts) for which you supplied details at commencement. Once you are paid you will be provided with an employee number (SID). Employment pay details and casual timesheets are available online at myHROnline. You need your UniKey account to log in. For information concerning your employment at the University, see the Staff at Sydney page of the University HR department.

If you have any other questions concerning the administrative aspects of employment please do not hesitate to contact Sang Huynh (extn. 14315) for regular and conferred title appointments, or Chindy Praseuthsouk (extn. 65370) for casual appointments.

Employment Support Personnel: 

  • If you have any questions concerning the administrative aspects of employment please contact Sang Huynh (Ext. 14315) or Chindy Praseuthsouk (Ext. 65370) in the Main Office.
  • The University Human Resources department is called SydneyPeople, click to visit their website.
  • The university staff resource homepage.

Leave, Travel and Fieldwork

All staff are to submit annual, sick, and carer's leave applications online via MyHROnline. All other leave requests are to be submitted to the Main Office on a Leave Application form. This includes leave without pay, long service leave, maternity leave, and all special leave. For conference leave or leave that is University business-related and involves travel, please see the travel policies and procedures. All work-related leave is requested and approved online, using SpendVision.

Postgraduate and Honours students should use the School's Student leave form to request fieldwork, special duties, recreation, sick, or other leave (also hosted here). In addition, when travelling overseas on University business, the leave form must be submitted with an itinerary for insurance purposes. All postgraduate & honours students must lodge their leave form with Physics Student Services (Room 202).

Expenses, Reimbursement and Petty Cash

Spendvision is used University-wide to process all requests, approvals, reimbursements including cash advances and acquittal processes by staff. Please note all travel related claims should be made through Spendvision, not petty cash.

If you need further assistance in Spendvision (travel requisition, reimbursement claim etc),

All academic staff should apply for Spendvision access (please contact the Finance Manager Marlyn Hogan). Staff who travel more than twice yearly should apply for a USyd Corporate Credit Card.

Please see the Finance Officer (David Young, room 205) in order to organise any reimbursements, payment requests and petty cash reimbursements. You will need to obtain a receipt for anything for which you will require reimbursement, and you must submit the original receipts with the paperwork for reimbursement to the Finance Office. The forms must include

  • your School address
  • your staff ID number
  • the account number to be charged
  • the signature of the grant holder (for academic staff)

Please categorise your expenses (eg: postage, taxi fares, software, reference material should each be itemised and written on a separate line on the payment request form, and the supporting receipts should be organised by those categories).

Please see the Finance Manager for more details. 

Claims for expenses incurred that are under $25 can be claimed on a petty cash form, submitted to the Finance Manager. Anything greater for staff must be submitted online to SpendVision.

Legal Policy and Performance Reviews

There is a university-wide Performance Management and Development process for staff. Your supervisor will talk with you about it. Also you can see the resources at the PM&D website. 

Postgraduate students also have an Annual Progress Review. For responsibilities in the research postgraduate degree see the Current PhD student information page.

Codes of Conduct, Policies

See the School of Physics legal and HR policies.

For staff policies see the HR policies page.

There is also a main University Policies page.

University Structure and strategic plan

The School of Physics is one of seven schools within the Faculty of Science, which in turn is located within the Faculties of Science, Veterinary Science and Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources. For an introduction to the university structure, please view information about and book a half-day University-run Orientation seminar.


Scholarships, Funding & Research Grants

See this website for information on all the Physics prizes, scholarships and awards, or see the website for the university scholarships available to Postgraduate Research students.

See in particular the PRSS (Postgraduate Research Support Scheme). The School offers one round per year, during April. Please note that information regarding PRSS funding is circulated via email and the guidelines are subject to change from one year to the next.

  • Please see Eve Teran in Physics Student Services, Room 210, for School Postgraduate Scholarship & Awards applications.
  • For help with research funding grant applications see Prof. Don Melrose.
  • For information on Messel Fellowships for staff please see the Finance section of the Physics Policies page.

Researchers planning to move to or from Australia may also find the Australian Researchers' Mobility Portal organisation a useful resource.