Senior University Lecturer salary - shocked!

[salary]

I've just seen an advert for the above position, at a nearby Uni. The salary is anywhere between £39k and £64k, based on whether it is filled by a grade 7, 8 or 9 person.

I am genuinely shocked at how low this salary is, for such a high profile role. Do they get huge bonuses or something?

There’s also the point to be made that many academics are career academics with no real world experience. Why should they be paid more when the uni still have to employ private professionals for back office roles (like accountancy, project management, IT, data analysis) these useless lecturers apparently ‘specialise’ in.

There’s also the point to be made that many academics are career academics with no real world experience. Why should they be paid more when the uni still have to employ private professionals for back office roles (like accountancy, project management, IT, data analysis) these useless lecturers apparently ‘specialise’ in.

This makes no sense. Are you suggesting that academic should also be doing a professional services role alongside their academic job?
I teach a subject which trains people to do a job. Most of my graduates go on to work in a specific department of a university. I don't have time to do that job alongside teaching people to do that job!!

I agree with pp. This makes no sense.

Are you suggesting that the computer science lecturers run the IT infrastructure and the finance lecturers run the finances?

You know universities are massive organisations and those are full time jobs for whole teams of people, right? Not something that the academics can just slot into their timetable for a few hours a week.

Are you suggesting that the computer science lecturers run the IT infrastructure and the finance lecturers run the finances?

You know universities are massive organisations and those are full time jobs for whole teams of people, right? Not something that the academics can just slot into their timetable for a few hours a week.

I have seen some absolutely crazy suggestions of what academics should do with their time but this just bat shit!!

I'm two levels below a senior lecturer but do research and teach. I manage project budgets, I manage projects, I am an expert in the computer programmes I use and data analysis in my field. However, doing the accounts and finance for multiple different grant funders all with their own rules and organising payroll is for finance experts. Similarly, if my computer breaks or there's issues with the servers, that's the IT specialists job. I wouldn't know where to start! You can't expect a lecturer to do everything, the same way as any big organisation needs people with a range of skills. Everyone's valuable and needed to make a university work.

A senior lecturer is pretty senior, a lot of folk won't go any higher (or just one step higher) and it'll take around 10-15 years minimum from getting your PhD to get to senior lecturer.

The median income in the UK in 2024 is £36,000 so the starting value for this post is close to that. It is also very close to the level of income (£38,000) planned for anyone to bring their spouse/family in to the UK which will cause problems with recruitment.

I'm two levels below senior lecturer and my pay is quite a bit less than the UK median despite having a PhD and 12 years experience. I'm aware that I have some advantages (some flexibility, a job I enjoy) but the pay is low for the qualification and experience required, and the amount we're expected to do. And that's before you take into account the short term contracts and lack of stability.

There’s also the point to be made that many academics are career academics with no real world experience. Why should they be paid more when the uni still have to employ private professionals for back office roles (like accountancy, project management, IT, data analysis) these useless lecturers apparently ‘specialise’ in.

Tell me you know nothing about education without telling me you know nothing about education.

Lol. Yeah, of course... (!) No need for the research or publishing new findings in academic papers and studies...😳😒

Surely you wouldn’t only be a senior lecturer then would you…you’d be a phd student or a researcher or whatever too

I think you're a bit out of your depth with this discussion. You are making yourself look rather foolish.

What on earth are you on about? Do you have any comprehension of what any of those roles are?

Clearly not, so:

You can’t be a senior lecturer until you are many years post-PhD. And being a researcher is an intrinsic part of the senior lecturer role. The job typically involves a 40% teaching, 40% research and 20% admin or management component.

Lecturers actually produce the research and knowledge and write the books that university teaching is based on.

Sure…but there’s a big difference IMO between someone researching what type of vessel the Anglo Saxons took a poo in to say researching how to create a computing system that can detect cancer cells…

Sure…but there’s a big difference IMO between someone researching what type of vessel the Anglo Saxons took a poo in to say researching how to create a computing system that can detect cancer cells…

Well yeah. They're entirely different disciplines 😂

But your point is??

But that wasn't the "point" you were trying to make.

I’m not making any argument, just stating the facts as I see them.

For what it’s worth I think that academics (and those working in the arts for that matter) should be paid much more. But the fact is that when people really really want to to the job, it’s a race to the bottom because some people are prepared to do the job for the love of it rather than for the money.

This, in my opinion, is why those from wealthy backgrounds are over represented. And it’s also in my view why you often find some phenomenal egos in these careers, alongside the passionate ones. Some people value prestige, kudos, expertise, authority etc more than the money.

It was 25 years ago, but I went into industry and out-earned my PhD supervisor in 5 years.

Some people need to read some Bourdieu

The job title is misleading. A senior lecturer doesn't just teach, they also do research eg supervise PhD students, write research grants, write research papers, supervise more junior research staff, sit on review panels, review journal manuscripts.... Teaching is only 30-50% of their job. (A senior lecturer also is minimum 10-15 years experience after they've done a PhD)

Probably yes - the graph in Distinction showing the inverse proportion between wealth and cultural "taste" or knowledge is interesting!

But @AuxArmesCitoyens most of the people trolling academics on this thread just wouldn't be capable of understanding his work. The French is quite dense & complex.

I didn't say that the current crisis is invented. But many institutions are always apparently in crisis: that is, too much 'in crisis' despite enormous profits to allow staff to apply for promotion, but not so much in crisis that they can't raise senior management pay at rates far above the rate of inflation.

I have been following this interesting discussion around the availability of academic posts and the difficulty in securing them. I have to say that it is very dependent on the subject area. I work in Computer Science, and we struggle to recruit good quality applications. The majority of our applications originate from overseas and it is clear that many of the applicants have no clue what the role entails in the UK, or even know anything about the institution they are applying for. A quick search on jobs.ac.uk shows that there are currently 410 posts related to Computer Science in academic departments, with 184 of them paying £40,000 and above. The reason we cannot recruit is that the good applicants (or those that don't feel a burning need to work in academia) are chasing the money instead.

Is there a solution to this? Maybe. One thing to consider is to have different pay scales for more in demand subjects (already happens in medicine and dentistry) but that comes with other challenges.

Sounds like he is doing amazingly well. Without giving his identity away, can you share some of what he is doing?

39k is low for a senior lecturer. Lecturers start on 42k at my university and it goes up every year. Senior lecturers would be on at least 50k probably. The top end salaries are between 80k and 140k.

There's also a generous pension contribution in the region of 20% of salary. And 6 or 7 weeks holiday and a lot of flexibility. You can attend most of your kids school functions, look after them in the holidays etc. Plus an interesting and varied job. Contrary to popular opinion lecturers spend most of their time on research related activities and only a small proportion often 20%, on teaching. People do put in the hours at times especially in the early years as it's extremely competitive to get the permanent positions, but it's basically a 37 hour week, no unsocial hours. No life or death decisions. A clean, safe working environment with pleasant polite people. Opportunities to travel. It could be a lot worse

I don't know any lecturers on £140,000 unless they are top top top tier professors.