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"Lecturer" in the UK is roughly equivalent to "Assistant Professor" in the US. Lecturer -> Senior Lecturer -> Reader -> Professor. In the US, it's Assistant Pro

"Lecturer" in the UK is roughly equivalent to "Assistant Professor" in the US. Lecturer -> Senior Lecturer -> Reader -> Professor. In the US, it's Assistant Prof. -> Associate Prof. -> Prof. The rank of "Professor" is roughly equivalent in both countries.

chrisseaton 6y ago
So almost everyone who teaches in a US university is a automatically a 'professor'?
- valarauko 6y ago
  No, calling an "Assistant Professor" a Professor is like calling a "Major general" a "General". I have only ever heard full Professors referred to as Professors, and Assistant or Associate Professors are called by their full title, or simply "Dr.". It's possible some students might call them professors, but it's not the proper term. In practice, these are tenure track positions, and not all teaching staff have them. For example, as a postdoc, I might teach a course at a college nearby. They might refer to me as "Adjunct professor", which is a temporary non-tenure-track position.
  - SeanLuke 6y ago
    > It's possible some students might call them professors, but it's not the proper term. Some students? All students. The usage of "professor" in the US is much like the usage of "lisp" in programming. There are many lisps (scheme, elisp,...), but there is only one Lisp (that is, Common Lisp). Similarly, "professor" does indeed mean "Full professor". But students and staff in most universities call nearly all faculty "Professor X", whether they are assistant, associate, full, emeritus, adjunct, term, or whatnot. Indeed many US institutions have since invented official titles for, for example, instructors or adjunct faculty, which explicitly include the word "professor". I became a professor a month after I got my PhD. Thus for my whole life I had been Sean, then for one month I was Dr. Luke, and then suddenly I was Prof. Luke. It has never been comfortable. I let the undergrads and some MS students call me Professor Luke -- I can't stop them -- but the PhDs, particularly those who are coauthors with me on papers, generally call me Sean.
    - valarauko 6y ago
      > But students and staff in most universities call nearly all faculty "Professor X", whether they are assistant, associate, full, emeritus, adjunct, term, or whatnot. Students, yes; staff, no; at least this has not been my experience, and outside of some students referring to any teaching faculty as "Prof. X", I have not seen it used professionally. In a professional setting, an associate prof. would be introduced simply as "Dr. X", rather than "Associate Prof. X". I have never heard anybody short of a full professor be called "Prof. X" in a professional setting. The students I understand as them misunderstanding the nomenclature.
      - SeanLuke 6y ago
        My experience is entirely different from yours. "Associate Prof. X" is not a title. It'd be "Prof. X". In every context outside the university where a full professor would be called "Prof. Johnson", so would essentially every faculty member in my department. Including those who do not have a PhD. And yes, staff also refer to all instructional faculty as "Professor". This goes not only for my current institution (GMU), but for several other major universities with which I have had experience, as well as major conferences and other academic gatherings. I think it is the norm. Is it possible that you're seeing something else because of the culture stemming from a different area of academic study? I am in computer science.
        SeanLuke 6y ago
        > "Associate Prof. X" is not a title I should clarify that: by "title" here I mean "a thing people are called", as in "hey, Associate Prof. X, what's up?". As opposed to an "official" job title.

chrisseaton 6y ago

So almost everyone who teaches in a US university is a automatically a 'professor'?

valarauko 6y ago
No, calling an "Assistant Professor" a Professor is like calling a "Major general" a "General". I have only ever heard full Professors referred to as Professors, and Assistant or Associate Professors are called by their full title, or simply "Dr.". It's possible some students might call them professors, but it's not the proper term. In practice, these are tenure track positions, and not all teaching staff have them. For example, as a postdoc, I might teach a course at a college nearby. They might refer to me as "Adjunct professor", which is a temporary non-tenure-track position.
- SeanLuke 6y ago
  > It's possible some students might call them professors, but it's not the proper term. Some students? All students. The usage of "professor" in the US is much like the usage of "lisp" in programming. There are many lisps (scheme, elisp,...), but there is only one Lisp (that is, Common Lisp). Similarly, "professor" does indeed mean "Full professor". But students and staff in most universities call nearly all faculty "Professor X", whether they are assistant, associate, full, emeritus, adjunct, term, or whatnot. Indeed many US institutions have since invented official titles for, for example, instructors or adjunct faculty, which explicitly include the word "professor". I became a professor a month after I got my PhD. Thus for my whole life I had been Sean, then for one month I was Dr. Luke, and then suddenly I was Prof. Luke. It has never been comfortable. I let the undergrads and some MS students call me Professor Luke -- I can't stop them -- but the PhDs, particularly those who are coauthors with me on papers, generally call me Sean.
  - valarauko 6y ago
    > But students and staff in most universities call nearly all faculty "Professor X", whether they are assistant, associate, full, emeritus, adjunct, term, or whatnot. Students, yes; staff, no; at least this has not been my experience, and outside of some students referring to any teaching faculty as "Prof. X", I have not seen it used professionally. In a professional setting, an associate prof. would be introduced simply as "Dr. X", rather than "Associate Prof. X". I have never heard anybody short of a full professor be called "Prof. X" in a professional setting. The students I understand as them misunderstanding the nomenclature.
    - SeanLuke 6y ago
      My experience is entirely different from yours. "Associate Prof. X" is not a title. It'd be "Prof. X". In every context outside the university where a full professor would be called "Prof. Johnson", so would essentially every faculty member in my department. Including those who do not have a PhD. And yes, staff also refer to all instructional faculty as "Professor". This goes not only for my current institution (GMU), but for several other major universities with which I have had experience, as well as major conferences and other academic gatherings. I think it is the norm. Is it possible that you're seeing something else because of the culture stemming from a different area of academic study? I am in computer science.
      - SeanLuke 6y ago
        > "Associate Prof. X" is not a title I should clarify that: by "title" here I mean "a thing people are called", as in "hey, Associate Prof. X, what's up?". As opposed to an "official" job title.