University Lecturer Review

Overall Rating

Long holidays
Stable income
Won't get fired easily
Good pension scheme

Repetitive
Bureaucratic
Low paid compared to industry

Being a University Lecturer is generally a good job with long university holidays. Your income does not get affected by market ups and downs, and it is very stable. You can control your own time and work, and be your own boss most of the time. It can be dull and stressful sometimes, and you have to put up with bad middle management (if any), but it is rare for a lecturer to get fired. Anybody can work in the same job until retired. t is a suitable career for those laid back people who do not care for a successful career, and it is suitable for married person who needs more time with family than achievement in career. It is also suitable for those who failed previously in industry. It is an easy and safe job.

On the bright side, the students are very sweet and produce good work that is rewarding.

Members' Comments onvellum's Review

• SiColl007 on 5th May 2006

  This review is light-weight and irrelevant. I would like to have assumed that the reviewer had worked as a lecturer, but find such a conclusion difficult to come to having read their article. It lacks depth and fails to provide the reader with any real insight into the complexities of the job of lecturing. I fail to understand how a job can be 'dull' yet 'stressful', at the same time as being ideal for 'laid-back' people. It is also frankly insulting to suggest that such work is suitable for those who have failed in industry. In fact such a job tends to take only those with a relatively successful record in industry or whatever sector it is taking the prospective lecturer from, as that person has to educate the bright sparks who will be entering the field. I have to wonder if the reviewer works for a mediocre Higher Education college, rather than a university, due to the comment that the students are 'sweet'. If the lecturer has taught on Master Degree programmes where the students are intelligent, (usually) graduates, and often have five or ten years front-line experience to compare and contrast the academic work against, I am sure they would have refrained from using such a mediocre term. Further to this, and in regard to the idea that the work is repetitive, this is well wide of the mark. Any industry, be it private sector or public sector, will change and advance over time: new lines of though come into fashion, new legislation and challenges arise, all of which have to be kept abreast of in order to achieve a satisfactory result in this line of work. Has this person never attended seminars or conferences on the impact of changes in the market? Has this person never been challenged by a witty student, or had his ideas rejected by an experienced practitioner? Does he or she not gain a buzz from thinking on his or her feet while somebody is attempting to undermine a theoretical position. Such jousting and competition for and with ideas is what lecturing is all about. Analysing work by students and quickly coming to the core of why and how that student is right or wrong is enthusing and exciting - it is what defines this skilled profession. What the reviewer has written is, unfortunately, a mini autobiography of their own failure - it is not an incisive and illumnating review on what it is to be a lecturer in today's fast-moving and information-rich world.

• vellum on 6th May 2006

  To be fair, both previous reviews are partially true but from different points of view. First review - merry go round wristle blower who just got shot; second review - academic snobbery stuck in a state of disillusion and in denial of reality. So lets stick to the facts. A typical university lecturer job includes the following tasks: 1. teaching - preparing handouts, presentations, demonstration, e-learning materials, group lectures, one to one tutorials. Give sympathy to students with different pace of learning. This is the enjoyable part, challenging and can be full of fun depending on methods of teaching. 2. research - propose research topic, apply/bid for funding, establish industrial link, establish methodology and hypothesis, collect and analyse data, review methodology, critical theories, writing up papers for conferences and publications, RAE rating, etc... This is the most crucial part of the job, research findings and their contribution, whether they are science/technology/theory based, are invaluable to all aspects of society. There are many leading authorities in their field who require an academic environment to carry on their research, so the brightest minds in universities are generally research active. Need to be highly passionate about the subject, and open-minded throughout the whole process, intervention often needed, have to stay objective as your works are accessible to all and maybe attacked by fellow academia. Overseas travelling sometimes needed for field work and conferences, work long hours constantly, can be stressful at times but manageable. Research funding is available for purchasing equipment and travelling expenses. Personal satisfaction is more from a sense of social recognition side than a financial one, but there will be extra income from doing guest lectures for other universities (your university will deduct a big chunk of the fees), from copyright of book publications, also from involvement of commercial projects (again, the uni will take away a big part of your fees). Can apply for readership and eventually professorship. A long hard road ahead. 3. adminstration - lots of everyday paperwork to manage the course, meetings, assessment... the most busy periods are the beginning and the end of academic year. This is the boring part, imagine how many forms you need to fill in during the year, and assess the same exam paper for 200 times (if there are 200 students), repetitive and exhausing. If proceeding onto managerial level, one will get paid a few thousand pounds more each year, more power and resources, but unbelievable high workload and long hours in meetings after meetings, very dull indeed. Financially, most universities do not negotiate salary with lecturers. University lecturers are generally underpaid, so don't expect to become rich. However, one can always choose to go back to work in the industry as the salary can be far much higher. In some rare cases, some lecturers get paid much higher in the industry but prefer to stay with their universities and sustain a low income because of their prestigious status, such as the case of Oxbridge. Then, there are the ones who work years in the industry and need a change for either personal or professional reasons, and happy to accept a more basic lifestyle and give something back to the society (contribute their knowledge to educate the next generation). Unfortunately, there are also lecturers who never spend a day in their life in the industry. There are also much worst cases hiding among the crowd. When there are the frontline hardworking lecturers who are totally talented, committed and passionate about their work, there are also the ones who hide under the radar and escape scrutiny. It may be the same case in all industries but it is just more sad when this happens in education. So do choose carefully which uni to work for and I recommend you join a union, take up private commercial works if possible to bring in extra income (as one may find very little pension when retire), keep updating your CV to stay competitive in both industry and education sector.

• EBROOKS on 3rd Aug 2006

  Vellum's review is slightly hilarious. "Lecturing is a good field for persons who have failed in industry!" I love it! Unfortunately, one reviewer without a sense of humour commented "This review is light-weight and irrelevant," and went on to defend lecturing and himself at some length.
  
  Well, we know where he is coming from, don't we? Tender feelings based on under-achievement, I would think. The teacher as whiner.
  
  But what I like about Vellums' review (I don't think it is Vellum himself, by the way, I think it is a persona), it that under-achievement is his goal.
  
  What I like about the critic's reaction is the delineation of his true-to-life persona which takes itself so seriously and cares about its achievements while revealing the insecurity of the under-achiever.

• vellum on 3rd Aug 2006

  Another funny thing that few lecturers like to mention is the "sausage machine phenomena" commonly found in universities. Some people studied their first degree in a university, immediately moved onto postgrad, master, phd.. at the same uni, graduate and got a job immediately, again, at the same uni, then worked there for the rest of their life. Never go far and venture into the real industry. Like sausage meat coming out from one end and goes straight back into the same machine, the same meat just going round and round. It is easy to spot them, ask how long have they been teaching in this uni, where and when they got their first degree, what postgrad qualification that they have and from where, then work your way down the time line.. or simply ask if they have ever worked in the industry that they are teaching... try not to laugh at their reaction. As proud as these lecturers are, they would tell you 1001 reasons why they cannot work in the industry and make the amount of cash that they claimed they worth. Respect!

• SiColl007 on 10th Aug 2006

  Ebrooks really needs to be a bit more substantial if s/he is going assert to that I have no sense of humour (which I do, but am not obliged to turn one review into a comedy sketch), and that this review was a justification of my supposed under-acheivement. One clue to his archair analysis is the 'teacher-as-whinner' comment which I tend to think is something that s/he believed before hand and needs little justification to spew out. I am, by the way, not a teacher by profession, but have been taught in a number of universities by both good and bad lecturers. For my part, my review was a laymans analysis of a job which I thought had been unfairly chastised by a cynic. Now for the humour. What do you say to an egg with no legs???