PL versus reader - forgive the silly question!

[socsciacademic]

Hi everyone,

As above, I wondered if someone would be kind enough to spell out the difference between reader and principal lecturer? I assume that reader focuses on research whereas PL is more of a management role? Are they both of a level in terms of seniority? I have looked at a few adverts and it is actually quite hard to tell the difference as criteria and salary seem broadly similar as far as I can tell!

I am research-focused and would like to stay where I am and pursue promotion to reader but my university has a very poor record re. internal promotions so I am now reluctantly looking to move. I am currently an SL. I have seen a couple of roles at PL in my area but nothing at reader and not sure why and whether I should apply for PL instead.

As per username, am in social sciences. And at a post-92 institution as that may have a bearing also.

Any thoughts on the above would be very helpful, thanks!

I thought Principal Lecturer was a teaching-focused role name? I got the impression it was a Reader-level education focused path. So probably not what you want if you are research-focused.

Have you looked at Professorships? You might be able to jump up that way. Where I am, SL and Reader are the same level, so a strong research-person applying for a Professorship wouldn't look too odd.

That's really helpful Murmuration, thank you. So I'll swerve that the PL opportunity - I hadn't at all considered applying for professor roles, so that is good to know. :)

Might be easier to look at grades which unlike the job titles are common across UK universities - at my post 92 grade 7 is lecturer, grade 8 is Senior Lecturer, grade 9 is Principal Lecturer, grade 10 is Associate Professor (affectionately known as ass Prof!) and grade 11 is full Prof. When we hire we don't really look at job titles but grades. We'd expect someone to apply one grade up but if you were applying for a position two grades up you'd need a serious CV backing that up (not impossible though!).

I think it varies between different universities. the RG one I used to be at switched to American titles, so they got rid of things like Reader and instead had 'lecturer / assoc prof / prof'

and many places don't bother to advertise 'reader' because it is a nice title but doesn't actually change your grade or salary band, so they are dropping it.

Go straight for prof, or talk to someone in the uni you are applying to in order to find out what the research focus is for the job.

Woah, grades 10 and 11? I think maybe these aren't so standard... Our Profs are grade 9. I wonder if your grades 10/11 get paid more, or our grade 9 is just much larger. It does sort of go "off" the top of the salary scales sheet. Or maybe it's a hidden Prof secret about higher grades - I have heard there are levels within Prof. But they have a network called "Grade 9 Women" which includes all the really high admin people you'd think would be on higher grades if they existed.

Different universities give different numerical grades to their levels and
post 92s use more grades than pre 92s. Maximum professor salaries at post 92s don't usually go as high as those in pre 92s.

There are usually multiple scales at professor level, reflecting the fact that the salary range is very wide - £70k - £130k, with some outliers above the top (and of course VC off scale). There should be a transparent and visible process for professors to apply for promotion between scales.

Pre-92 here. Grades 7&8 are lecturer. Grade 9 can be SL or reader (the latter emphasises the quality of research). Grade 10 is professor.

We have very few readers—I can only think of 1 within about 45 people. Most are SL.

@parietal

I think it varies between different universities. the RG one I used to be at switched to American titles, so they got rid of things like Reader and instead had 'lecturer / assoc prof / prof'

and many places don't bother to advertise 'reader' because it is a nice title but doesn't actually change your grade or salary band, so they are dropping it.

Go straight for prof, or talk to someone in the uni you are applying to in order to find out what the research focus is for the job.

Yes, that was the case in my last UK institution. Reader was 'retired' in favour of a progression from lecturer to senior lecturer to assoc. prof to prof.

At my Pre-92 RG we have:

Grade 6 - Teaching Fellow, Research Fellow, there might be some kind of new lecturer title in here as well (Salary £31-£41K-ish)
Grade 7 - Lecturer, Assistant Professor, Senior Teaching Fellow, Senior Research Fellow (Salary £42-51K-ish)
Grade 8 - Senior Lecturer, Associate Professor, Principal Teaching Fellow, Principal Research Fellow, Reader. (Salary £52-£60K-ish, with Reader extending to £64K-ish)
(Reader is mainly just a title change rather than an actual progression and a lot of people don't bother to try for it but go instead from SL to Professor. In some areas, there is some stigma around Reader being a 'pat on the head' title for people who are never going to make Professor, hence their extended salary range)
Grade 9 - Professor

As far as I am aware, Grade 9 theoretically just continues into infinity but progression through it is not automatic, as it is with other grades.

For Grades 7 to 9, we are phasing out all the titles except Assistant Professor, Associate Professor and Professor, but currently people can choose whether they wish to be known as, e.g., a Senior Lecturer or an Associate Professor, the job is the same.

Oh wow this is a surprisingly interesting thread! I thought it was grades that were standardised but is it spine points then? I'm on spine point 49 which is bottom of grade 10 for us (associate professor). Grade 11 starts at spine point 52 and grade 12 at 56 (both full professor here). There is overlap, e.g. Principal Academic /grade 9 goes from 44-51, G10 is 49-57 (i.e. can overlap with G11 and lowest G12). Complicated!

That's the academic pay scale, the professional/support one is a bit different!

I'm in a RG and we don't have Principal Lecturers here - for some reason I tend to associate it more with post-92 universities.
Reader is a subcategory of Senior Lecturer which in turn is grade 9. Basically a Reader would be someone whose research accomplishments are at professorial level but the rest of their profile (teaching, leadership, etc.) are still at SL level. But you can also jump from SL to Professor.

also, grades & pay bands are public at the unis i've worked at

eg
www.ucl.ac.uk/human-resources/sites/human_resources/files/21-22_ucl_non-clinical_grade_structure_with_spinal_points-202108.pdf

Thanks everyone for all your comments. Agree with QueenRefusenik that this has been a surprisingly interesting thread! Thank you so much!