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Lecturer in the U.K. seems worse than most places, even the relatively high-pressure U.S. standards. As far as I can tell from the outside (though with some goo

Lecturer in the U.K. seems worse than most places, even the relatively high-pressure U.S. standards. As far as I can tell from the outside (though with some good colleagues who work there), U.K. universities seem to want the research output and grant funding of U.S.-style "tenure-track research faculty", but without being willing to give the relatively low teaching loads that U.S.-style research faculty have, instead having teaching expectations more akin to what in the U.S. are called lecturers or teaching faculty, or just regular faculty at universities not considered research universities (these faculty in the U.S. don't have particularly high research/grant expectations). And to sweeten the pot, they also offer fairly poor pay. The one big advantage seems to be that job security comes much quicker. The U.S.-style "tenure clock", where you have six years to either be promoted or leave, is pretty stressful. While it seems that many Lecturer positions in the U.K. turn into permanent positions relatively quickly, and don't have the same up-or-out pressure.

buro9 11y ago
> The one big advantage seems to be that job security comes much quicker. The U.S.-style "tenure clock", where you have six years to either be promoted or leave, is pretty stressful. While it seems that many Lecturer positions in the U.K. turn into permanent positions relatively quickly, and don't have the same up-or-out pressure. My wife is at the University of Exeter and has a 5-year probation period with measured goals after each year. Few to none of the goals have time allocated within her regular workload. The stress here is very real.
bachmeier 11y ago
> U.K. universities seem to want the research output and grant funding of U.S.-style "tenure-track research faculty", but without being willing to give the relatively low teaching loads that U.S.-style research faculty have, instead having teaching expectations more akin to what in the U.S. are called lecturers or teaching faculty, or just regular faculty at universities not considered research universities (these faculty in the U.S. don't have particularly high research/grant expectations). And to sweeten the pot, they also offer fairly poor pay. At least in my field (economics) UK teaching loads tend to be lower than in the US but the pay is much lower. [Note: I'm not referring to the top tier in either country.]

buro9 11y ago

> The one big advantage seems to be that job security comes much quicker. The U.S.-style "tenure clock", where you have six years to either be promoted or leave, is pretty stressful. While it seems that many Lecturer positions in the U.K. turn into permanent positions relatively quickly, and don't have the same up-or-out pressure. My wife is at the University of Exeter and has a 5-year probation period with measured goals after each year. Few to none of the goals have time allocated within her regular workload. The stress here is very real.

bachmeier 11y ago

> U.K. universities seem to want the research output and grant funding of U.S.-style "tenure-track research faculty", but without being willing to give the relatively low teaching loads that U.S.-style research faculty have, instead having teaching expectations more akin to what in the U.S. are called lecturers or teaching faculty, or just regular faculty at universities not considered research universities (these faculty in the U.S. don't have particularly high research/grant expectations). And to sweeten the pot, they also offer fairly poor pay. At least in my field (economics) UK teaching loads tend to be lower than in the US but the pay is much lower. [Note: I'm not referring to the top tier in either country.]