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?

Should they be paid well?
Their job doesn’t really have any commercial gain.
They have never worked in the real world either. They go to school, university then into teaching. I’ve always found lecturers to be a failed version of their profession.
It’s all very well having all that knowledge, but there are plenty of people with exceptional amounts of knowledge out there, but if it can’t be applied commercially then it doesn’t have any monetary value.

i call bingo! I knew someone would eventually come along to say something like this.
When, in actuality, most academics (and any student) will usually have had at least one other job alongside their studies - I worked full time in the Uni admin during my PhD. It was a killer. That’s not at all unusual.

I’d like to see what a successful version of a research scientist working on a cancer drug, or an archaeologist doing research on Roman pottery. Because, here’s a clue - these ARE the successful people in their fields.

Wiith no one to teach them, how would the people who do apply their knowledge commercially ever reach that position?

Lots of jobs don't have 'commercial gain' - are we going to get rid of teachers, NHS workers, the police?

And define 'the real world'? Why is the often insane world of a large corporate, for example, any more real than the world of a university?

I'm not an academic nor married/related to one, but your post makes little sense.

your post makes little sense.

That’s generous. It actually makes none.

What did you study at university, and if not how come you so many lecturers?
What do you do now?

The best paid academics I know...one is in charge an electronics research institute, one researches electric car engines and spends summers in USA, and one is a specialist dental surgeon...all teach too.
Someone like Mary Beard taught as well as doing media stuff before she retired.
A lot of knowledge is applied.

In my experience I find that the effort that students put into getting a degree, has no real bearing on their day to day job. In fact they never needed the degree. Their real knowledge comes from the work environment not university.

I stand corrected.
I wholeheartedly agree with you. My experience is limited to a narrow field that do not include the professions of those that you have mentioned.

I quit. I lack self control and maturity. But I guess you already know that. Luckily for me I got by on confidence and bullshit. I get by on grandfather rights for now, and hopefully will reach retirement before they become obsolete. I’m quite comfortable being a thicko. It doesn’t appear to have held me back. Also, I have no university debt.

I currently have a day realease student under me, and I see great potential in him. I honestly do not think he needs a degree. I think he could have a great career without it. I have also seen that in our other young apprentices.

Just do the maths to see why it happens. That professor is probably costing the university 100 grand all in with pension and benefits etc. About 180 teaching days a year, 2 classes a day on average, that’s 360 classes or £277 per class. That is quite a lot really.

Sorry but this is rubbish.

I work in an education faculty. At least 90% of us have worked in education before becoming academics. Our students are being taught be people who've done the job.
I did my PhD while working full time as did most of my colleagues.

We train teachers, education psychologists, social workers, careers advisers and a whole load of other education professionals.
We might not be commercially lucrative but we play an important role in society.

It’s probably aimed at London corporate-types, as Norwich Street is within easy walking distance of the main Cambridge Railway station. There are direct trains to London every half hour or so with a journey time of 53 minutes.

Look here for more reasonably priced houses within a mile of Cambridge city centre. Cambridge is mostly flat so many people cycle.

Isn't Cambridge pretty!

It’s what a decent two bed terrace costs. With a season ticket costing over £6k it’s unlikely you’d pay London prices with that on top and a commute on frequently cancelled trains. There’s a lot of research money in Cambridge. This is the kind of property a Cambridge lecturer would have lived in 50 years ago, I know one who did.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/153922160

The majority of universities in the UK are considered public, but the distinction between public and private universities has become less clear in recent years:

Public universities
Receive funding from the government for teaching and research. The government doesn't own UK universities, but they are considered public because they receive funding from the government.

Private universities
Are funded solely by tuition fees and are not subsidized by the government. They are run by charities or limited companies

The reality is that universities don’t fall comfortably into either public or private sector.

”Technically, the state still regards universities as private sector. They must comply with all the rules that control private bodies”

So, are universities public or private?

Oh yes, they get paid huge bonuses:

• Free biscuits at meetings whose main purpose is for managers to tell them they're useless. Maybe if they're lucky, even some left over sachets of unpleasant instant coffee.
• One free cup of tea plus teacher-enforced round of applause when going out to give talks to school students.
• Free lunch at weekend open days where they work unpaid overtime. Might not have time to eat the lunch, but relatively luxurious in this respect compared to their evening unpaid overtime.
• That's when they get to either stay late at work fuelled by free university tap water, or pay for electricity, heat and internet connection to work some extra hours for free at home, because the workload they are contracted to do exceeds the hours they are paid to work - but they do it anyway because they care about their students.
• Around £300 if they volunteer to cram in a couple of additional weeks' worth of extra work for another university as an external examiner while still doing the day job.
• Maybe once a year, free accomodation and travel expenses to stay in a budget hotel or university hall of residence to speak at a conference about research they have paid out of their own pockets the cost of carrying out.
• £0 from publishers for refereeing other researchers' work (for journal articles), or £100-£200 in free books (for books).

It all adds up - every little helps!

But seriously ... most of us love what we do, are grateful for being paid to discuss subjects we are passionate about, and know that a salary towards the top of the senior lecturer scale is in the top 20% of UK salaries. It's just that the mundane reality is rather far from the image.

In my opinion that’s more a reflection of Cambridge house price inflation rather than anything else.

30 years ago St Barnabas Road houses like that one cost about 200k and 5 years ago now they were £1.6 million. (I haven’t used a more recent sale for comparison as those are semis)

Young Street 3 bed terraced houses were 8k less than 50 years ago but are now around 400k.

I know 2 SLs who bought an extended 30s 3 bed semi in a pretty cathedral city which has two universities. In 2021 it cost them about £425k: their first house was very like the Young Street houses. No family money was involved. That seems a reasonable property to me for people in their 30s but perhaps I am unambitious.

@Whyisthemoonmadeofgreencheese - we've now had free tea/coffee/biscuits in meetings and lunch at open days banned, as well as travel to conferences (unless externally funded), so not much left from your list.

We are obviously lucky, we have recently had free fresh ground coffee machines installed. They replace the awful powdered coffee dispensers that were removed in the post covid cost cutting panic.

You get biscuits! 😮

My husband found some extra cash in the departmental petty cash box and took the secretaries out for tea and scones. Otherwise it would doubtless be cut from next years budget.

This, my DC is currently doing a doctorate, when finished the post doc salary is approx £30-£35K Very low wage for 7 years of studying post A level ☹️. I think they’ll have to move sideways in order to earn decent money. In comparison another family member has just finished a U/G degree in a different field and their first job pays £40k!

And in what decade does your husband work?
Petty cash?
Secretaries?

Depends on what your specialism/area of expertise is. Market forces at work.