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> Four-year colleges require Ph.Ds for those roles, no exceptions In British academia it is not impossible to get a lecturer position (equivalent to US assista

by nextos 4y ago

> Four-year colleges require Ph.Ds for those roles, no exceptions In British academia it is not impossible to get a lecturer position (equivalent to US assistant professor) without a PhD. Simon Peyton Jones, who is famous for his Haskell / GHC work, got one and progressed all the way to full professor. The OP might want to consider this. If one aims at CS positions that are mostly / fully devoted to teaching in not-so-prominent universities, it's totally doable. There is a shortage of good programming teachers because of the big pay gap compared to industry. A lecturer will get ~£40-50,000 gross, whereas a good programming job in London will be more than 2x that figure. However, if you land a lectureship somewhere cheap, in practice the paygap won't be so dramatic.

nunez 4y ago
Yep, totally possible to get to an assistant professor/lecturer without a Ph.D, but they are not considered full-time faculty, will not qualify for tenure track (i.e. can theoretically get fired at any time, but realistically probably not), do not get top pick for courses/course slots (and might not be eligible to teach certain courses despite having the credentials to do so), and, at some schools, are not eligible for the same number of holidays as full-time faculty are. It makes sense from within. The goal for a majority of Ph.D's is to become a professor at a four-year college and conduct research on government grants (or get tenured so that they can basically get paid to be retired). That can't happen if you have industry vets who can _actually teach these courses, and probably do a better job of it_ taking those spots. So you lock them out of those opportunities entirely and get TAs (for bigger core classes), adjuncts or staff/lecturers to teach everything else.
- nextos 4y ago
  In many European countries, including UK, tenure has been abolished. At the time of application, you know whether the job is permanent. Some lectureships that do not require PhD, or where PhD is optional, are permanent jobs.

by nextos 4y ago

nunez 4y ago

Yep, totally possible to get to an assistant professor/lecturer without a Ph.D, but they are not considered full-time faculty, will not qualify for tenure track (i.e. can theoretically get fired at any time, but realistically probably not), do not get top pick for courses/course slots (and might not be eligible to teach certain courses despite having the credentials to do so), and, at some schools, are not eligible for the same number of holidays as full-time faculty are. It makes sense from within. The goal for a majority of Ph.D's is to become a professor at a four-year college and conduct research on government grants (or get tenured so that they can basically get paid to be retired). That can't happen if you have industry vets who can _actually teach these courses, and probably do a better job of it_ taking those spots. So you lock them out of those opportunities entirely and get TAs (for bigger core classes), adjuncts or staff/lecturers to teach everything else.

nextos 4y ago
In many European countries, including UK, tenure has been abolished. At the time of application, you know whether the job is permanent. Some lectureships that do not require PhD, or where PhD is optional, are permanent jobs.