4 ms·

>Myth: postdocs formally exist. In almost all universities I know, formally there is no such thing as a postdoc. In research councils' view of the world, it's t

• einpoklum 7y ago
  I believe you're partially mistaken. That is, indeed, there is no such thing as a "post-doc". But in most academic institutions, there are non-tenured researcher positions - fixed-period or otherwise - which have a Ph.D. as a requirement. They may called something like "Researcher", "Research Engineer" or "Research Staff Member" (as opposed to "Academic Staff Member"). Of course, my knowledge is as anecdotal as yours.
  • dfdz 7y ago
    >I believe you're partially mistaken. In my field (math) and country (USA) there are many postdocs. Maybe you are in a different field or country? (If you really don't believe me try search "postdoc" on math jobs https://www.mathjobs.org/jobs?joblist-0-0------ https://www.mathjobs.org/jobs?joblist-0-0------
    • einpoklum 7y ago
      I see those positions as "Researcher", "Research Fellow", "Associate"(-member of the academic staff) etc. They add the term "post-doctoral" to indicate that you need to have completed a Doctorate. Or if you wish - to indicate that the conditions will be poor :-(
    • anjc 7y ago
      The titles for these roles are not "postdoc" though, that's his point no? The role "postdoc" doesn't exist, at least in any institutions I know. Of course there are postdocs in the world, but the actual payscale that you're on may be one that a person without a PhD can be hired on, e.g. research assistant. They then call this a "postdoc" position to indicate that you need a PhD to be hired, but the contracts and conditions do not specifically cater towards people pursuing careers in academia.
  • wsxcde 7y ago
    Not too long ago, my official title was postdoctoral scholar and I was at UC Berkeley. A little while before that, I was a PhD student working with a couple of "postdocs" whose title was postdoctoral research associate. I submit that I do exist as did my co-authors (who have since stopped being postdocs, but continue to exist as researchers.) This was at another well-known US school. Perhaps thing are different in Britain, but I am not aware of any R1 university in the US where postdocs "do not exist."
    • ppod 7y ago
      I don't know about those places in particular, but it's quite common (especially in Europe) to see people described as "postdoctoral researcher" or "postdoc research associate" on their staff pages, website, email sig etc, while in the official HR scheme and on payroll those titles only exist without the word "postdoctoral".
  • bubblethink 7y ago
    Even so, why does the specific title matter ? Ultimately, all these are non tenured positions. I don't see how creating an official title would solve any problems. As others mentioned, some places also have official post-doc titles.
    • dfdz 7y ago
      > why does the specific title matter? My view is that there is a problem in academia where people in non tenured positions are being taken advantage of. However, most of these people do not actually have "postdoc" in their title. Positions with postdoc in the title are typically reserved for people who just received their PhD. It is fairly difficult to get a tenure track position directly from a PhD program, so (most) professors were (formally) a postdoc at some point in their career, and it is an important training step for applying for tenure track. (I hope this clarifies my above point, sorry if it was unclear).
• ivalm 7y ago
  The University of California definitely has "Postdoctoral Fellow" titles. The "Research Scientist" titles are better paid/more permanent. "Lecturer" titles usually come with minimal research and mostly teaching obligations (the former two don't).
  • secabeen 7y ago
    Yep, the postdocs are unionized: https://uaw5810.org https://uaw5810.org
• scott_s 7y ago
  The author has experience with mostly UK institutions, so it may be the case there.