An academic career

Most people will progress through several positions when pursuing an academic career. These include: 

• research-only role, where the bulk of your time is spent conducting research with limited or no teaching commitment

• teaching-only role, where the majority of your time is for teaching with little or no time allocated for research

• research and teaching position, i.e. a lectureship, where you will be expected to both teach and conduct research

The route you take will depend on your interests, the funding and opportunities in your subject area and the job market at certain points in your career. 

The League of European Research Universities (LERU) has made a study of academic careers pathways in Europe. You can see the typical routes in the UK on the ‘academic career maps in Europe’ site: 

Academic career maps in Europe 

Many academic jobs will be a balance of research, teaching and administration but the percentage of time spent on each will vary greatly. Factors that will affect how you spend your time include: 

• your role, e.g. if you are employed as a research or teaching fellow

• your level of experience, as junior lecturers will often have a greater teaching load than more senior lecturers

• the type of institution as lecturers at research-intensive universities may be expected to spend more time on research than those employed in teaching-focused institutions, e.g. North American liberal arts colleges

Some of the activities you may be expected to contribute to during an academic career are listed here: 

Research 

As a PhD student you will be familiar with the range of activities that come under the research heading. As an academic member of staff research activities can include: 

• coming up with ideas for original research 

• identifying suitable funding bodies and preparing proposals to apply for funding 

• conducting research (reading, collection and interpretation of data, gathering of information from relevant sources etc.) 

• disseminating research findings through publishing 

• speaking at conferences 

• supervising postgraduate research students 

• managing resources (research budget and possibly research staff) 

• preparation for the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 

• public engagement activities. 

Research Excellent Framework

Teaching 

You may already have had some experience of teaching or tutoring. As an academic member of staff teaching responsibilities can include: 

• design of courses and development of curricula 

• preparing notes and material for lectures 

• delivering lectures to undergraduates and postgraduates 

• preparing for and facilitating discussion at small group tutorials 

• marking / assessing students work 

• taking part in Exam boards to review student achievement 

• supervising Honours or Masters students’ dissertation research. 

Administration 

Some examples of the types of administrative roles academic staff may undertake include personal tutor, admissions tutor, course organiser, or open-day co-ordinator / school liaisons officer. 

Academics are also often members of several committees both within their Department or School (e.g. staff-student liaison, health & safety), their College (e.g. library, equality and diversity, undergraduate studies) and/or across the university (e.g. quality, scholarships and student funding, recruitment and admissions strategy)

Administrative tasks associated with these roles include: 

• writing the course handbook 

• designing exam questions and answers (and getting these validated through the relevant committees) 

• preparing a schedule of talks for visiting prospective students 

• writing references for students seeking employment or further study 

• screening applications for admission to postgraduate courses 

• reading papers relevant to your committee membership and submitting your comments for discussion at meetings

The lists above give a simple overview of some of the different activities that make up an academic job. Speak to academic staff in your network to find out more. 

You’ll already know that the academic career route is a competitive one. There are more people doing PhDs than there are research and lectureship positions available. 

You have to be committed, focused, and in some cases maybe a bit lucky, to be successful. It’s important to know what is involved in an academic career to be sure you are embarking on the right road. 

There is no definite answer to whether or not an academic career is right for you. You have to think not only about what you enjoy doing but also about the type of opportunities that will be available when you graduate and in the future.  Ask yourself some of the questions below to help you to decide if this is the career path you wish to pursue. 

• Are you passionate about your research? 

• Do you want the freedom to pursue your own research interests? Is this realistic in light of current funding priorities? 

• Do you want to teach or just do research? 

• What are the possibilities for research-only roles in your subject area? 

• What do you know about the challenges of balancing teaching, research and other academic commitments? 

• Where can you do research in your subject area? Is it limited or available in a large number of institutions? 

• What about the lifestyle? Are you attracted to the flexibility often possible with working hours and location? What does this actually mean for home life? 

• How mobile are you? Are there opportunities in geographical areas where you’d be prepared to live? 

• Is some form of stability / job security important to you early on in your career or would you enjoy the challenge of a new role every few years? 

• Are you good at networking and enjoy telling people about your research? 

If you find it difficult to answer some of these questions, ask for help. 

• More senior colleagues will be able to share their experiences and knowledge of the academic work environment and job market. 

• Careers consultants will be happy to help you explore what it is you want from a career, and to answer questions about the academic job market. 

• You could attend the ‘Thinking about an academic career’ workshop which is offered twice a year to PhD students on a College wide basis by the Careers Service. 

Careers Service talks and events

AGCAS survey - Getting the first lecturing job

There is no one guaranteed path to a successful academic career. If you talk to lecturers and researchers employed in your School you will hear about the wide range of different experience they gathered to get to their current position. 

However, many academic staff will agree that the steps outlined below are helpful if you wish to pursue an academic career: 

Improve your research profile 

• Do good research and publish! Have a strategy for publishing – which journals or publisher may be interested? Ask for advice from your supervisor or more experienced colleagues. 

• Go to, and present at, conferences to get yourself and your research known. Find out what the hot topics in your field are, talk to other researchers to gain ideas for future research and collaborations, find out who may be recruiting in the future. 

Develop a research strategy 

• Start thinking about possibilities for funding your research after your PhD. Which funding bodies typically fund in your research area? What are their priorities for the future? Can you ‘shape’ your future research plans to have a better chance of funding success? Edinburgh Research Office provides access to databases of funding and offers advice and support on making applications. 

• Edinburgh Innovations provides access to searchable databases of funding and offers advice and support on making applications. 

Edinburgh Research Office 

Gain teaching experience 

• Get some teaching experience if possible - tutoring, demonstrating or lecturing. Don't wait to be asked; if appropriate, offer to teach on courses in your department. 

• Look beyond your department; what courses are offered at your institution that you could teach on? 

• If opportunities are limited, you could enquire about developing a course for the Centre for Open Learning. 

Centre for Open Learning 

Understand the wider work of an academic 

• Be active in your department and even the wider institution. Sitting on and making a contribution to university committees will help you understand the politics and priorities of your institution and you may meet people who sit on selection committees, which can be useful if you want to stay at the same institution. 

Extend your network 

• Working and/or collaborating internationally is often viewed positively. This may be difficult to do during your PhD but is something to consider in your early research career. 

Impact / public engagement 

• Think about the impact of your research as this is becoming more important. Are there people or organisations outside academia who would be interested in your research? 

• Explore opportunities for public engagement through the Institute for Academic Development (IAD) and ask your supervisor for advice on what's appropriate. 

IAD Support for Public Engagement

You can find out more about the views of UK academic staff in the AGCAS survey "Getting the first lecturing job": 

AGCAS survey - Getting the first lecturing job 

Know your sector 

• Read Times Higher Education and other relevant publications to pick up news on higher education policy, funding bodies and their priorities, which institutions may have a recruitment drive, the Research Excellence Framework and more. 

Times Higher Education 

Understand recruitment practices 

• Look at job vacancies well before you are due to complete your PhD, to help you decide where to focus your efforts when gaining experience and how to manage your time. 

Jobs.ac.uk 

There are three main approaches to academic job search: 

1. applying to advertised vacancies for research or teaching positions 

2. making funding applications to create your own research position 

3. networking to uncover jobs that are not advertised or to improve your chance of success with approaches 1 or 2 

It is good to plan well in advance so that you don't miss deadlines for funding or opportunities for networking. 

Advertised vacancies 

It is vital to keep track of advertised jobs; research fellowships, teaching fellowships and lectureships are all frequently advertised. Besides individual university websites, and specialist journals or email discussion lists for your research area, sources of vacancies include: 

jobs.ac.uk 

Times Higher Education 

Recruitment for Commonwealth universities around the world 

Academic jobs in Europe 

Academic jobs in USA 

Funding 

Many grant awarding organisations provide support for early-career researchers in the form of post-doctoral fellowships or career development fellowships. These can provide support for your research for anything from one to five years depending on the fellowship, but the application process is usually very competitive. 

A good place to start to identify funding is the Edinburgh Research Office (ERO). You can access a database of funding opportunities, Research Professional and get support with applications. ERO also has a list of successful grant applications for reference: 

Edinburgh Research Office 

Networking 

Networking is one of the key factors which will contribute to success in an academic career. Your network consists of anyone who has an interest in your field of study including researchers in your department, external collaborators and people you meet at conferences or seminars. 

Use your network to: 

• discuss mutual research interests which may result in future research collaborations or invitations to give seminars 

• ask someone to act as a mentor to help you focus on gaining relevant experience for a successful academic career 

• let people know you're looking for work and finding out about opportunities 

• get feedback on your CV or advice on job applications