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?

"As a university admin, I can confirm that this is not where the money is…"

Not lower or middle admin, I agree, but comparing senior classroom people with senior administrators, it's completely true. My dean earns maybe twice what I do (and can knock off every day at 5) and provost and chancellor earn 3 and 4 times more with more fringe benefits as well

£64k isn't bad? Professors are often on £100k or more. I work at a university so see the salary scales.

Aren't there also other opportunities to make money e.g. by publishing a book in ones specialist subject?

See my previous post about book advances- £100 cash or £200 worth of books. Of course there can be royalties, but academic books do not typically sell in large numbers. Hundreds of copies, not hundreds of thousands.

I'm actually surprised how well paid it is, I work in the civil service and we have many ex lecturers and teachers joining so completely understand the awful work pressures, long hours and job insecurity academics face as many have moved across specifically for a better work life balance and not having to chase funding for their roles.

But they tend to join as middle management grades HEO or SEO which gives a £33-43k salary. I hadn't realized what a pay cut some of them are taking.

Most of the time you publish articles rather than books. You have to pay the journals to publish the articles!

Not all universities pay professors that much. We don't.

Plus, it's HARD to become a professor in some institutions.

Most lecturers or senior lecturers aren't paid anywhere near £64k either.

@Autumnweddingguest, if your son can't be dissuaded, he could move overseas. I am from the UK, now an academic in the US, making ten times the salary posted. (But I do have to live in the US, which might not be to everyone's liking).

😮🤯

In terms of insultingly poor pay for years of training and specialist expertise nothing beats UK academia, though maybe classical music comes close.

@EctopicSpleen

Working in a conservatoire I can confirm that lots of our Profs have ended up here because it's steadier work with better hours, holidays and pensions than the world of Classical Music nowadays!

We are good about giving them time off when they go on tour with the London Phil though, so that's something.

Well, thanks to the drive to get 50% of kids into uni, those who would previously have trained as highly skilled labourers/ craftsmen now have degrees and often v unsatisfying jobs, plus the weight of student debt. Historically, they would have been doing an apprenticeship & making a living as a plumber/electrician etc. the upshot of which is, as an economy, we are incredibly short of these skills (hence those who did do it can make a very decent amount of money) So well done Blair 🙄

Tell me you know nothing about academia without saying "I know nothing about academia". 😂😂😂

I always chuckle when people ask if I fly business when I travel to academic conferences.
I've been all over the world through my work and while the accommodation is often quite nice (e.g. the Athenaeum at CalTech), I've never flown anything other than economy.

I teach a class at university and I pay my cleaner more than I get paid an hour, I do hate the overused cleaners pay comparison, because it's supply and demand, cleaners are in demand and rightly get paid appropriately and I don't question that but it is absolutely true in my case that they get £3 more and hour from me than I earn from the uni, yet I need to have a post graduate qualification and a professional accreditation to teach my class. Universities are going to be the next thing in the UK to crumble due to staff not only being underpaid but also expected to take on tasks not part of their job and work hours for free as there's no way it can all work otherwise. Current they stay afloat as they take advantage of people who are passionate about their subjects and enjoy what they do but the increasing cost of living is making that luxury much less of an option for people as we all need to make money for survival now. I love teaching but I can't afford to do it more than a couple of hours a week at the sacrifice of work that pays 3-4 times the wage. We are going to lose the best people and classes are already being crammed with the minimum teaching provided. Sad.

Hmm... that's awful and must be very disheartening. It's not always the case though. My DH has been at the same university for 12 years and has remained at the same grade (Professor level) and his pay has increased by nearly £40,000 in that time. He's also able to do consultancy work, when he feels like it, and charges around £2500 per day. Not trying to be braggy but wanted to point out that some academics do very well for themselves. My DH is doing a job he's passionate about and his research is making a difference. He often says he has the best job in the world.
In your DH's position, I'd probably move to a different university. My DH did when he felt unsupported and unappreciated in his last job.

Academic salaries have always been poor in the UK. The USS pension scheme is excellent however (defined benefit giving 1/75 annual salary plus 3/75 lump sum every year), and could be considered to be equivalent to a 24% higher salary.

Compared to many it doesn't seem that badly paid. But then aren't mumsnetters all on 6 figures.

It's not the best career choice for making money. If you don't love your subject and everything that is part of being an academic It's not worth it. There is also constant pressure to get grants and publish in high impact journals. Though your research work is flexible, teaching is definitely not. Also, keep in mind that it's actually not very easy to be employed as a lecturer. Lots of post docs just spend years going from one time limited contract to the next. I've found academia to actually be very cut throat and family unfriendly.

When I had my first child I left academia and joined a large company. Very family friendly, very flexible and much better pay. I have got no interest in the work and I miss teaching like crazy but I couldn't afford to go back to academia neither financially nor in terms of how much flexibility I need.

A few years ago I attempted to switch from a role in Investment Banking tech to a senior lecturer role in a University but decided against it when I was offered 25% of my then salary.

Yep, so most senior lecturers average out at less than most tube drivers - who ironically announced they’re striking again

Also, there seems to be a misconception on this thread that the main job of an academic is teaching. It's not. At least, it wouldn't be at most Russel group universities. It's research. When I was working in academia most lecturers and professors saw teaching as a minor inconvenience that takes time out from their actual work. There was also very little incentive to be a great teacher. Career progression depended almost entirely on your research output: getting grants and publishing in high impact journals.

I always thought it's ridiculous how little contact time students get for the amount of tuition fees they pay.

There are teaching only staff but they are usually paid even worse.

More often you pay to publish. When you publish a research paper it can typically cost £1000. To publish in Nature one of the top journals in science it's more like £8000+. It comes out of grants not from your own pocket but it's not a source of extra income!
My partner did some consultancy work and by the time the university took their share it was below minimum wage and that was before tax and student loan deductions. He decided never to do it again as the work and stress were high and the benefit was low.
You can earn money by doing external examinations but it's pittance. These are to award someone a PhD. Involves reading a 200-400 page document (thesis), writing a report on the back of this with a list of corrections. Travelling to the university, doing a 2-5h oral examination followed by a meeting with the internal examiner to agree the corrections to the thesis. It was 3 days of prep plus a day out of work for the viva and a 2.5h drive each way and my partner got £150 which included the travel costs.

My partner and I do have a good standard of living far from poor. My partner would not say he's badly paid, he's not but the pay isn't the reason he does the job.

I’m in a non teaching HE role, same salary band as a senior lecturer although I am at the very top. The salary has always been shit but we aren’t in it for the cash (fortunately).

There has been fuck all pay increase because no-one in government wants to address the fact that tuition fees are far too low and don’t reflect rising costs (it’s also a shit way to
fund HE but there we are).

Yep. I made the switch from private practice to university lecturer (law) and was paid less than 30% of what I earned in the City. I quickly switched back 😂

My dad was (still is) a university lecturer and professor, but I was always under the impression that he was pretty well paid. I'm sure his professorship might have given him a bigger pay than "just" a PhD (and I'm not minimising PhDs at all, I certainly couldn't do one!)

Maybe I'm wrong... but I always believed that if you were a very experienced highly qualified academic ie professor then you'd earn quite a lot... £80k maybe?

Can I ask what sort of engineering?