> 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

> 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.