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Higher education lecturer : Salary and conditions

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  • Salaries for higher education (HE) lecturers range from £30,500 - £40,000+.
  • At senior level, salaries range from £39,000 to £48,000+.
  • Salaries normally depend on academic attainment and experience and are generally higher in London due to the London weighting (approximately £3,000 per year). Salaries are calculated using a national grading system with a single national pay spine across the current salary grades. See the University and College Union (UCU)  for details.
  • Although long working hours are common, these are generally flexible, and research-active staff have considerable autonomy. Some lectures and seminars take place in the evening.
  • An HE lecturer’s time is usually split between actual teaching contact, administrative tasks and their own research activities. The amount of time devoted to each activity varies widely between institutions and specialities.
  • Lecturers may work in lecture theatres, classrooms, studios, laboratories, hospital wards and, if their area of study includes field work, outdoors. Some lecturers have their own offices, but others may share an office, particularly in universities where space is at a premium.
  • Opportunities may arise to work outside a lecturer's own institution - in areas such as consultancy, the media, publishing and public speaking - but this varies according to the particular area of specialty. Opportunities for fully self-employed status are rare. Some subject areas require lecturing staff to undertake enterprise activities.
  • Part-time contracts and working hours are available and have become common in many HE institutions.
  • Career breaks are possible but as continued funding for academic posts is dictated by the results of the Research Assessment Exercise , lecturers who do not maintain an active research profile may find themselves at a disadvantage in what is an extremely competitive sector.
  • Men and women are both more or less equally represented at lecturer and researcher grades. However, at senior level (senior lecturers, senior researchers and professors), women are currently underrepresented.
  • Lecturers are employed in HE institutions throughout the UK. A flexible approach to relocating may help in gaining a permanent post, particularly as posts in specialised fields are often only available at a limited number of institutions.
  • Sabbaticals (usually up to one academic year) may be offered to staff to allow them to pursue their research interests in greater depth. This would normally only apply to lecturers with a minimum of three years' service in their institution. Commonly, academics on sabbatical are paid either half a year at full pay or the full year at half pay.
  • There are opportunities to work abroad. Demand for higher education lecturers in countries such as China, Australia and Hong Kong has increased.
  • Find out more about An Academic Career .
 
AGCAS
Written by AGCAS editors
Date: 
July 2011
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