Teaching, research or a combination of the two – Rachel Walls shares her advice on the career paths available in higher education and what skills and experience you need to get there
Academia is a competitive field and a PhD is just one of the things required. To get started and to get ahead in academia you will need to be passionate about what you do and savvy about how you do it. You will need to be patient and if you can be flexible, it will certainly help.
Publish as soon as possible and aim for high quality journals (with second-choice journals in mind as a back-up). Note that the Research Excellence Framework (REF) is due in 2014 – this is the system used by UK higher education funding bodies to assess the quality of research produced by university departments. The department will then receive an amount of public funding determined by its performance in the REF. Established staff are usually expected to submit four 'research outputs' to the REF.
Although early career researchers may be exempt or asked to submit fewer outputs to the REF, be aware that if you are applying for jobs in the run up to 2014, departments will be looking for candidates with publications ready to submit. You might also be asked to demonstrate the impact of your research, as impact case studies are the basis of 20% of the REF assessment.
Although the pressure might ease after the REF, publications remain crucial for progressing your career – unless you want a teaching-only academic career. If this is the case, research whether teaching-only promotional track jobs exist in your field and which universities are offering this route. Teaching-only promotional track jobs are those that allow you to progress up the academic career ladder to the level of professor in an equivalent manner to research-and-teaching lecturers. For teaching-only jobs, publications will be less important, although check the criteria carefully – you might still be required to demonstrate that you can keep up with new developments in your field. Several universities offer this route: Bristol University, for instance, calls these jobs Pathway 3. If you are not finding many of these roles available, you could look for positions in teaching-focused universities with a higher teaching to research ratio. At these institutions there might be less pressure to publish and bring in funding, as teaching would form the core of your workload.
If you want a research-only permanent job in academia, you might struggle. These exist in some disciplines and institutions, but are generally rather rare. You have to be a world-class researcher, regularly bringing in large grants, for a university to give you a permanent contract. For the most part, researchers are employed on fixed-term contracts as postdocs or fellows; their first permanent post will be a lectureship. If you want to progress up the ranks in research, applying for funding is as crucial as publishing your research. You might start small, with travel grants or funding for events, but find out what early career fellowships and awards are available from relevant research councils and charities, and factor these into your career plan.
To get a lectureship, you'll need some teaching experience. It will also help if you have a teaching and learning certificate and are a fellow of the Higher Education Academy. A teaching qualification is increasingly one of the desirable criteria on lectureship applications; it might be essential before too long. If you are aiming to be a teaching-only academic, this is even more crucial; you will need to demonstrate that you are an outstanding and innovative teacher. In some universities teaching experience is hard to come by and you will have to search further afield for opportunities. If there are no teaching assistant vacancies in your own department, are there any other departments you could teach in? Failing that, get in touch with the conveners of courses you could teach at other institutions and ask if they need anyone – if not, could they keep your CV on file? Check vacancies at the Open University and consider teaching at adult education/further education providers. You could also get in touch with relevant departments and offer to do a guest lecture or seminar.
On that note, organising your own seminar series or conference will be a good move for your academic career. It is a way of contributing to the life of the department, meeting with other academics in your field, and getting administration experience. To add to your administration experience – which you'll be expected to demonstrate when applying for lectureships – and to enhance your profile, look into whether you can take a committee role within your department, learned society or at a journal.
In summary, define your career goals and once you have a destination in mind, be proactive about getting there. For further guidance, Vitae and An Academic Career are really useful.
Dr Rachel Walls is a careers advisor for research staff at The Careers Service for the University of Oxford
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