To think academics are seriously entitled??

I'm a registrar for an HE institute (we don't have degree-awarding powers yet). There are some academics who work very hard, and there are some who basically repeat the same lecture notes and use the same exam paper every year, so, like anywhere, you have good and bad employees.

Much of the additional admin work on academics (and for us Professional Service Employees) comes from Government and very entitled parents and students.
While I have been a registrar, I have had the following requests from students

• While assisting with graduation, a mother called to ask what her son's head size was because she was ordering the cap and gown for graduation.
• Asking for an extension because they are getting a hair transplant.
• Telling us to ensure that they get an internship at a Premier League football club because it's round the corner from their house.
• Informing me that they can’t come to the exam (scheduled for 3 months' time) because they have a doctor's appointment (they didn’t really).
• Students propositioned me for exam answers.
• Accused of ruining someone's life because I couldn’t give them a certificate as the awarding institution no longer existed (this was due to the Higher Education Act of 1992). They asked who they could complain to, so I suggested John Major.
• A parent asked if I could personally make sure a student was eating properly and not eating too many kebabs.
• I was told that ‘no one told me’ when a student turned up for an exam at the wrong campus, which had been closed for 18 months.

What a bizarre statement. In nearly 30 years working in universities in the UK and Ireland, I don’t think I’ve ever encountered an academic who’d arrived at it having tried and failed to be a school teacher. Apart from anything else, it’s a completely different set of qualifications.

Absolutely. I’m fortunate to be in a Russell on a secure contract. Many brilliant colleagues in post 92s have been made redundant in recent years.

A PhD isn’t always required, some academics have worked in industry so get the role as a result. My PhD was fully funded and paid, certain ones are though they’re competitive. PhD’s are actually pretty cheap.

I’m an academic and not entitled but I grew up on a council estate so I didn’t have a cushty easy start in life. Some of my colleagues did and they have never known a life outside of academia. I wouldn’t call them entitled but they are severely disorganised and lack common sense entirely. Organising anything with some of them is just awful, I hate it. Amazing bright minds and I love being around them but piss up and brewery springs to mind.

What I will say is you probably shouldn't damn thousands of people based on a small sample.

They really aren't paid well. Most less than regular classroom teachers.

You know very little about any of this.

Academics/lecturers do not ONLY teach your child they have so many benchmarks they need to pass all the time for research, teaching and public engagement - Universities are not set up to just teach, if they were then, yes, there would be a lot of time to spare. Where do you think the majority of new ideas come from, research, innovation and invention - they come from universities, they are not just a ‘higher school’, they are so much more than that. Also, many brilliant people cannot find a position at a good university for a good research or teaching position because there is no money, no vacant positions , also, the pay for the majority is pretty crap - YABU

Hope you can carry the chip on your shoulder.

That would make more sense. I imagine that can be true of some senior staff who are research focussed. I can't say I recognise it from the Profs in my institution. However, there are many that definitely think the admin side of their jobs is beneath them and they create stress and work for those around them!

Many PhD's are funded. Most work as graduate teaching assistant whilst undertaking them, sometimes 3, 4, 5 years duration. Not well paid. Lots of job insecurity, short term contracts after years of study. Easy to upset students. Huge workload as in many jobs.
I think you don't know what you're talking about

I think @bathdragon means that they believe lecturers think that teaching (students on their course) is beneath them. Not that lecturers think (school) teachers are beneath them? I may be wrong, it wasn’t the most easily decipherable post. 🤷‍♀️

Either way it’s still a sweeping statement. As a university lecturer I 100% prioritise teaching over research and I love being in the classroom (lecture theatre).

Academic here. As others have said, the gentleman who opined that he probably wouldn't meet the qualifications for a tenure-track job (if that's what was meant, not clear you understand the difference between TT faculty, lecturers, adjuncts, and admin) probably meant that he wouldn't have a sufficient number of peer-reviewed journal articles, a habilitation book contract, and several prestigious fellowships before being hired for a subsistence-waged job.

The word "entitled" has become overused in everyday discourse and that is the case here.

The majority of the general public including most of Mumsnet wouldn’t be able to meet the qualifications in their current role in most industries as the criteria for acceptance is completely different to what it was decades ago. For a lot of even high-quality jobs, you didn’t necessarily need a degree, and sometimes not even good maths and English school grades. You could get into lots of top-tier universities including Oxbridge with much lower A-level grades than you need now. Above all, you could get hired without having much prior experience and they would train you. Nowadays even entry-level jobs require “five years worth of experience” which people obviously don’t have when they are starting off in life.

My FIL and also a good friend (both college lecturers) have always said this, OP. They both love their jobs but get tired and embarrassed by some colleagues constant whining.

I don't think that's remotely true. It may be true of some - but how can you generalise like this? I'm a teacher and most of the academics I know/have known have shown huge respect for the importance of my role.

I imagine they vary, like people in most professions.

My sister-in-law has many good qualities but she can be a little bit "woe is me" about her (to my mind excellent) pay and working conditions.

On the other hand, the guy I am dating seems very sensible of how fortunate he is to have a job in academia. And he isn't from a privileged background at all - I really admire him for being from rh background he is from and achieving what he has achieved.

I've known some academics who were total cunts, others who were lovely and realised they were lucky to have the jobs they have.

Everyone is different.

Erm I train teachers and other education professionals so I disagree with this sweeping generalisation!

There are lecturers for 16-18 in FE colleges but that's quite a different job to university lecturers in many ways.

That aside, your post is unfair. My colleges who run the teacher training degrees and Early Years and other education degrees certainly don't look down on teachers...!

I have huge respect for my son's teachers, I just don't do the same job and don't want to.

The hours are not minimal. The pay is no longer that great. And the sector has been really tough to work in for the last few years. None of my colleagues are entitled. What people are entitled to do is have a moan with their colleagues on a Friday night. HTH.

What is your basis for this rather sweeping statement, @bathdragon ?

Lecturers have nothing to do with the education of pupils from 5 to 18, lecturers are a load of people who could not make it in classrooms they are an entitled who think teaching is beneath them

Yeah... but it's not just about the quality of the teaching is it? Even now an RG degree tends to open more doors than one from a post-92 institution unfortunately ...

And as an academic I’d agree with you. My daughter had a terrible time in her first degree, the whole cohort did. They forgot to teach an entire module and didn’t realise until near the end of the semester and even then only because Dd asked the programme leader why they’d been given no information about an upcoming assessment. I can’t get my head around forgetting to teach an entire module.

Dd said emails weren’t answered, no support, etc and in the end made such a comprehensive complaint on behalf of her cohort they all received significant financial compensation from the university.

Its bizarre as from my pov I feel there is so much quality assurance, checking, regulations, etc and then I hear about something like that happening.

You've misunderstood. This is part of our job, not a hobby. If I am teaching on a creative writing degree, no student wants to be workshopped on a fiction module by a teacher who doesn't write and publish novels.

It benefits students to be taught by people who are active/practising in the fields they teach in.
And professional artistic practice feeds into research.