Lecturer

Lecturer is an academic rank. In the United Kingdom, lecturer is a position at a university or similar institution, often held by academics in their early career stages, who lead research groups and supervise research students, as well as teach. However, in the United States, Canada, and other countries influenced by their educational systems, the term is used differently but generally denotes academics without tenure who teach full or part time but have few or no research responsibilities.

United Kingdom

Academic usage

A lecturer in UK universities often holds a permanent position that involves carrying out both teaching and research. After a number of years, lecturers might be promoted to senior lecturers. This position is below reader and professor. In terms of responsibilities and recognition, the lecturer position is similar to assistant professor in the North American universities and international universities that are modelled on the US higher education system.

Traditionally, a senior lectureship was theoretically equivalent to a readership and demanded the same salary, but reflected prowess in teaching or administration rather than research, and was far less likely to lead directly to promotion to professor. However, in recent years a senior lecturer has also had to demonstrate strong research prowess, as well as sound teaching and administrative skills. Senior lectureships are a between lectureships and readerships in many universities and they will normally be promoted to readerships before reaching professorships. Senior lecturers and readers, however, remain on the same salary scale and in many departments still are comparatively senior staff.

Most lecturers in the UK have a doctorate and often have postdoctoral research experience. In many fields a doctorate is now the prerequisite although historically this was not the case and some academic positions could have been held on the basis of research merit alone without a higher degree.

The New Universities (that is, universities that were until recently termed polytechnics) have a slightly different naming scheme than that just described in which the grades are lecturer, senior lecturer and principal lecturer, with the latter corresponding to senior lecturer in the pre-1992 institutions .

The University of Warwick decided in 2006 to use the terminology assistant professor for lecturer, and associate professor for senior lecturers and readers. It was claimed that this was to make it easier to appoint staff from the US despite the fact that associate professor generally refers to a non-tenured position in the US while at Warwick it is a permanent position (subject possibly to probation), and that both readers and professors in the UK would correspond to professors in the US . Nottingham has also adopted the same convention. At Reading job advertisements and academic staff web pages use the title associate professor, but the Ordinances of the university makes no reference to these titles and gives only procedures for conferring the traditional UK academic ranks .

Ecclesiastical usage

A lecturer is typically an assistant curate serving in a Church of England parish. It is an historic title which has fallen out of regular use, but several churches in the UK still have clergy with the ancient title lecturer including many London churches, St. Mary's Church, Nottingham and Carlisle Cathedral.

United States

The term lecturer is used in various ways across different US institutions, sometimes causing confusion. On a generic level however, the term broadly denotes one who teaches at a university but is not eligible for tenure, and has no research obligations. At non-research schools, the latter distinction is of course less meaningful, making the absence of tenure the main difference. Unlike the adjective "adjunct" (which can modify most academic titles, from professor to lecturer to instructor, etc.), the title of lecturer itself at most schools does not address the issue of full-time vs. part-time status. Lecturers almost always have at least a masters degree, and quite often a doctorate. Sometimes the title is used as an equivalent-alternative for instructor but schools that utilize both titles tend to provide relatively more advancement potential to their lecturers.

It is becoming increasingly common for major research universities to hire full-time lecturers, whose responsibilities are primarily undergraduate education, especially for introductory/survey courses that involve large groups of students. These tend to be the courses that tenure-track faculty do not prefer to teach, and are unnecessarily costly for them to do so (at their comparatively higher salary rates). When a lecturer is part-time, there is little practical distinction from an adjunct professor, since neither has the prestige of being on the tenure-track. For full-time lecturers, many institutions now incorporate the role quite formally with performance reviews, promotional tracks, administrative service responsibilities, and many faculty privileges (e.g. voting, use of resources, etc.).

One emerging alternative to the use of full-time lecturers at research-heavy institutions is to create a parallel professorship track that's focused on teaching, which may or may not offer tenure, with a title series such as teaching professor. This would be analogous to how some universities have research-only faculty tracks with title series' such as "Research Professor/Scientist/Scholar."

It should also be noted, however, that the title is sometimes, paradoxically, used in just the opposite sense: in some institutions, a lecturer especially "Distinguished Lecturer" may also refer to a position similar to emeritus professor. Also, in some schools it's a temporary post for visiting academics of considerable prominence—e.g. a famous writer may serve for a term or a year, for instance. When confusion arose about Barack Obama's status on the law faculty at the University of Chicago, the institution stated that although his title was "Senior Lecturer," that school actually uses that title for notable people such as federal judges and politicians who are deemed of high prestige but simply lack sufficient time to commit to a traditional tenure-track position.

Australia

In Australia, the term lecturer may be used informally to refer to anyone who conducts lectures at a university, but formally refers to a specific academic rank. The academic ranks in Australia are similar to those in the UK but there is one additional rank. The academic levels in Australia are Associate Lecturer (academic level: A), Lecturer (B), Senior Lecturer (C), Associate Professor (D), and Professor (E).

Unlike in the US, even relatively senior academic staff are referred to as lecturers. Generally, Australian senior lecturers (level C) are considered equivalent to associate professors in North America, because it usually entails tenure. A very small number of Australian universities have most recently begun to bring academic titles - and perceived status - more into line with the United States. Consequently, they have replaced the Australian term associate lecturer with lecturer, lecturer with assistant professor, and senior lecturer with associate professor.

Other countries

In other countries, usage may vary unpredictably. For example, in Poland lektor is a term used for a teaching-only position, generally for teaching foreign languages.

In France the title maître de conférences ("Lecture Master") is the first academical rank.

In German speaking countries, the term Lektor historically denoted a teaching position below a professor, primarily responsible for delivering and organising lectures. The contemporary equivalent is called Dozent or Hochschuldozent. Nowadays, the German term Lektor only exists at philology or modern language departments at German-speaking Universities, for positions that primarily involve teaching a foreign language.

In Norway, a Lektor is an academic rank, usually reached after three or five years of education, which enables a teacher to lecture at Ungdomsskole (Secondary school) or Videregående skole (high school) level.

In South Korea, the term "Kangsa" is the literal translation of lecturer. A Kangsa is usually part-time, paid by the number of hours of teaching. No research or administrative obligation is attached. In most disciplines, Kangsa is regarded as a first step in one's academic career but in some fields, especially in the humanities, it may take years for a Kangsa finally find full-time, tenure-track position.

In Sweden, a Lektor is an academic rank similar to senior lecturer in Great Britain, or Associate Professor in USA. The Lektor holds the position below Professor in rank.

See also

• Academic rank
• Professor