Ok, you guys might know about this, or know someone who does…..

How do I get to become a Uni lecturer? Do you have to do a PhD??!?

Also can any shed any light on PhD funding? Do you have to get the funding in place first or the research proposal and place at uni first?

Cheers

It’s a few years since I finished my PhD, so things may have changed a bit.

First, it may depend on the subject, but you don’t need a PhD to be a lecturer. However, it does seem to be the most common route to switch into lecturing whilst doing your research. I taught part time for 4 years while I did my post-grad work. I was offered a post after I finished my research programme, but turned it down.

As for funding you really need to discuss that with the research department. I was lucky enough to get supported through a scholarship. Together with my teaching pay this was enough to see me through my research without any debt. A few of my colleagues were being funded my commercial companies who had interest in a particular piece of research. When I started there was also the possibility of EPSRC funding, not sure if that’s still available though.

-j

You don’t need a PhD to be a lecturer but it is fairly common, however if you have suitable industrial / professional expertise that’s also acceptable.
Funding for PhDs follow both the paths you’ve mentioned, plus others such as a research assistant which may be a full time job that you’re typically do with a PhD, but others have probably got better info.

EPSRC does still exist. From what I’ve seen lecturers are a mix of PhD/post-docs and highly experienced professionals with loads of experience.

On the subject of funding I can detail how it is at Aberystwyth for a science related PhD. I had to submit an application detailing what I wanted to do and why it was important etc… The department then looked at all the apps and ranked them. The uni then gave the department so much money and from that they worked out how many people they could fund and gave the moeny to the top X applications.

There are also things like the EPSRC and there’s something to do with some European board giving a load of money if you can get sponsored by a company in a ‘poor’ area of the UK. On top of this there are also PhDs offered that are already funded by companies that want the research doing etc…

I didn’t get the funding that I needed so haven’t done one (yet)

Cheers guys, thats a great starting point!

very much depends on the subject. PhD’s; the easy way is to find a funded positin and apply for it as I did, or the hard way is to approach a potential PhD supervisor and convince him/her to apply for funding for what you want to do

Universities and lecturing is a pretty broad church, there’s huge variation in what is required according to subject and type of university you have in mind – what’s your area?

I’m a reader in chemistry at a research-focussed university. To get my position I did the following:

1. Take undergrad degree somewhere good, get at least a 2:1. In final year where you carry out a research project, work for someone good who is doing competitive research and who can write you a meaningful reference.

2. Take PhD somewhere good, but critically, you MUST work for someone of standing in your field, someone good. This can be hard to figure out because at your stage you’re vulnerable to hearing bad advice on who is good and who is not. I can’t emphasise this enough, if you’re not doing a PhD for someone at least decent then you’re in a huge hole wrt going further with independent research.

In my area people apply to me for PhD positions, I raise funding for usually 2 or so a year, I interview them and if they look like they have what it takes then they’re in and the PhD will be fully funded.

3. Be successful in your PhD, publish some good papers, and go and do a postdoc somewhere outstanding. You’ll be finding your feet as a scientist now so really push the boat out and go abroad to somewhere world class.

4. Come back here, on the back of great papers, impeccable references, and get an independent position.

That’s it in a nutshell, but everything I wrote may be way off for other disciplines. So it depends what you have in mind.

That’s a very good summary Garry_lager

It’s exactly the same in the biological sciences.

I’d just add that in my area of science it’s damn unusual to meet someone in a lectureship position without a PhD since I seem to remember that you can’t be the main supervisor for a PhD without holding one (it’s been a while since I’ve supervised a PhD). There are a few non-PhD lecturer exceptions like medics, but very rare.

I’m sure that the OP can work out how long it takes to get a lectureship!

Some nice kind responses for you there, confess that am tempted to say that if you need to ask this on STW then …. oh never mind.

As above, you don’t need a PhD to lecture – my best lecture experiences at MSc level were from a super experienced guy without a doctorate. But it’s generally the deal in academia to have one.

My PhD was a CASE studentship – so industry and ESRC (research council funded). Department got the studentships and I was invited to apply, competitive process, you get interviewed etc and they pick the one they want. Helps of course if you are a known quantity etc .. I was studying for a masters with said department at the time. Studentships do get advertised too (can’t remember what time of year or what day of the week in which broadsheet paper … see how long I’ve been out of academia… but if you’re genuinely interested then you’ll work it out).

Am thinking that a_a’s PhD was not in a language based subject as there’s no apostrophe in PhDs FFS !!!! … 😉 [switches pedant mode off]… Oh and I’m sure someone will be along in a moment to tell you it’s a lost cause in the current economic climate anyhow….

Garry_lager speaks the truth, I had to insert a MRes after the degree too as I was a bit too stoned to do very much during my degree. I studied Ecology (not languaaage!!!) and getting to a lectureship was beyond my levels of endurance, that and I started to find the research I was doing very boring. When doing postdoc work a few lectureships came up, my boss got one and he had been doing lots of high quality research with huge amounts of funding for at least 10 years, another friend has just got a lectureship after a similar length of time despite publishing papers in Nature a few times. Its a long hard slog in that subject. The problem with doing research is that you have no job security past the last funding (typically 3 years) so it can be very stressful unless you are young free and single.

Morning a_a – I did environmental management stuff, coming from an environmental science/geography background (albeit in a school of management)but you still gotta be able to write proper doncha know.. 😉 Like you I kinda got bored with it, couldn’t be bothered to turn my thesis into papers and get published and all that stuff that you need to do to establish a research position. I just wasn’t that interested and there was plenty about academia that I grew to loath. I toyed with the idea and actually applied for a lectureship at one point – but after a good 5 mins hard thought realised it wasn’t for me. You really have to be intrinsically interested in research and teaching to go for it. Like most things really.

To the OP – do some research (good practice!) and go talk to people who do the job you think you might like. Nothing is ever quite as it seems when you are on the outside looking in. Good luck.

I didnt mind the writting papers, quite liked it actually, it was the funding application process and the politics that went with it that did my head in. Oh and I did say to a college if he spoke like that to me again I’d break his **** legs…..a week later he was made head of department 😀

Brilliant! 😀

Wifey works in teacher training, went into it after a few years as an advisory teacher in modern languages in primary schools, so had a specialist niche that her employer was after. Was already studying towards a masters, and is currently working towards he PhD.

Problem is teacher training is really likely to be one of the university courses that gets hit by cuts, so she is uncertain whether to go back to teaching as an over qualified but very experienced teacher, or just wait & see what happens.

another way in is if you can find a research assistant/associate type post. I have been doing this for some years now and once in the department there always seems to be opportunities. So, whilst I am not a full time lecturer I often am asked to give lectures because of my experience. However, I don’t have a PhD (yet) but it is something I am strongly encouraged to do. Finding the time though is difficult to research and earn money.

Things in the arts and humanities are a little different. Here a PhD is virtually a prerequisite unless you are extremely well published or possess significant industry experience. You will also need to be able to demonstrate the ability to teach. There are a few different routes into PhD study but keep your eye on THES (http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/) who advertise for studentships. The usual arrangement is a stipend for around £10,000 a year where you will do between 6 and 8 hours teaching per week, plus your PhD of course!

My route:
1st Class undergraduate degree in arts related subject from decent uni.
Postgraduate course plus industry experience in advertising (running my own business)
Got fed up and fancied the freedom of PhD study.
Publish like crazy
Get good job (with intense pressure to research and win grants).

Unlike the sciences, in the arts it doesn’t matter quite so much where you do your PhD. Of course a PhD from LSE is going to look better than London Met’, but it really is the quality of your publications that count.

I’m currently a post doc, in computer science. It is good work, and super interesting. The only cautionary thing I would say is that there is a long way from phd to lecturer in many subjects, think if you start a phd now, you’d be lucky to make lecturer in much under ten years, at least if you want to work anywhere good. Oh and most people who start out with phds, at least in my field, won’t end up as lecturers.

My advice on phds is
a) be very certain you love the subject area, you’ll be spending three or four solid years on it – also when you start looking for jobs you’ll be competing with enthusiasts, there is no point being in academia if you don’t love your subject.

B) find out about people in the field who are good and do interesting work.

C) read up enough about your area to at least know what kind of area you want to work in.

D) contact some good people, say I’m interested in doing a phd in something about blah, here’s my background etc. see what they say.

E) I wouldn’t recommend applying just to a department before you’ve lined up a supervisor, unless there’s some particular advertised post that you want to work on – like any job, some academics are ****, meeting them before you apply means you can avoid personality clashes which can mean people completely waste 3 or more years.

If you get a potential supervisor on your side, funding will be easier for you/them to sort out.

Personally I lucked out a bit, I had a rough idea of what I wanted to do, turned out I was living about 2 miles away from one of the top universities in europe for the stuff we do (human computer interaction), I bunged some interesting sounding people there an email, then went in for a chat and they said that what I wanted to do sounded good, and told me to stick in the official application form, and that my application would get accepted and funded.

(Dr) Joe