PhDs and professors

studentphil

melancholly wrote: »

sorry for the assumption, but most of your threads are about how your university hasn't helped you/taught you/listened to you properly and your opinions on the many and varied faults you see in the system. given that background, you can't blame me for expecting there to be an ulterior motive for the question!

Thanks, I am not having a go about university here as it is just a wondered about question.

I have always been taught fairly well by teaching fellows and none PhD holding lecturers so I have no worries about that. I do not really care if lecturers are Mr/ Miss/ Mrs/ Dr/ Prof/ Rev as long as they teach well and help you make progress.

studentphil

It would be interesting now to see if in the modern age that people can rise through the academic ranks without a PhD to get a professorship.

It looks very unlikely as a PhD is a requirement for almost all lecturing posts.

[Deleted User]

PhD's are a filter system in one respect, just as 1st are.. You can be a lecturer without one. I suspect that if I was still working in a university, i'd be looking towards being a lecturer in a couple of years. Sometimes its more about reputation and research than qualifications.

Phil - when you are a student, you are exposed to a very limited view of the accademic world. There's a lot more under the surface

kittiwoz

Being a lecturer is not the same as being a professor. You can be a lecturer in an FE college in which case your qualification would likely be a degree and PGCE. I think that that is not uncommon for lecturers in arts subjects at HE level either although they normally seem to have more experience outside of education. I had some lecturers on my degree who had doctorates and even who were professors who were not very good as lecturers because although they had a great deal of knowledge they weren't very good at putting it across. In that sense someone who doesn't have a doctorate but is a QT is arguably better qualified as a lecturer at UG level.

studentphil

ringo_24601 wrote: »

PhD's are a filter system in one respect, just as 1st are.. You can be a lecturer without one. I suspect that if I was still working in a university, i'd be looking towards being a lecturer in a couple of years. Sometimes its more about reputation and research than qualifications.

Phil - when you are a student, you are exposed to a very limited view of the accademic world. There's a lot more under the surface

lol, I know that internal politics is strong and lecturers hate each other and don't talk to each other.

I am not sure about the PhD being a filter as it is number one must on the job description for a lecturer then second is a nice long list of stuff to publish for the 08 research rating and funding reviews.

I assume why they want the PhD with such strength is they think it make you a good publishing member of staff to bring the dosh in.

studentphil

kittiwoz wrote: »

Being a lecturer is not the same as being a professor. You can be a lecturer in an FE college in which case your qualification would likely be a degree and PGCE. I think that that is not uncommon for lecturers in arts subjects at HE level either although they normally seem to have more experience outside of education. I had some lecturers on my degree who had doctorates and even who were professors who were not very good as lecturers because although they had a great deal of knowledge they weren't very good at putting it across. In that sense someone who doesn't have a doctorate but is a QT is arguably better qualified as a lecturer at UG level.

That is true to some extent, however, universities don't really want teachers as lecturers, they want researchers who can get things published and get research funding as that is where the income is for universities.

brazilianwax

studentphil wrote: »

That is true to some extent, however, universities don't really want teachers as lecturers, they want researchers who can get things published and get research funding as that is where the income is for universities.

That's the arts bodies screwed then! How do you do that kind of research in drama or music?!

Honestly Phil, as usual you assume and make a t!t of yourself!

kittiwoz

studentphil wrote:

That is true to some extent, however, universities don't really want teachers as lecturers, they want researchers who can get things published and get research funding as that is where the income is for universities.

Well, quite. But there's a tension there between the role of universities as research institutions and their role as teaching centres. I think that is less of a problem in arts subjects because the type of research and development work for industry in that area is often quite people-based and requires good communicators.

brazilianwax wrote:

That's the arts bodies screwed then! How do you do that kind of research in drama or music?!

Honestly Phil, as usual you assume and make a t!t of yourself!

Research does go on within arts subjects and it does get published. Within design that may be R&D type stuff for industry. It may also be looking at how people relate to existing designed objects or spaces or investigating how people interact with new technologies or how people's interaction with something affects their mood, learning or quality of life etc. Researchers apply primary research techniques such as structured questionnaires, observing people in a natural environment, observing people in a controlled environment or doing tasks defined by the researcher, focus groups, interviews etc. The research is still approached in a fairly scientific manner but the results tend to have a strong qualitative component.

studentphil

brazilianwax wrote: »

That's the arts bodies screwed then! How do you do that kind of research in drama or music?!

Honestly Phil, as usual you assume and make a t!t of yourself!

I am sure they do research something. I am not saying that all subjects are looking for lecturers with heavy research backgrounds but most lecturers jobs demand you can bring a good research ability for RAE ratings(I think thats the name).

brazilianwax

studentphil wrote: »

I am sure they do research something. I am not saying that all subjects are looking for lecturers with heavy research backgrounds but most lecturers jobs demand you can bring a good research ability for RAE ratings(I think thats the name).

Well, the ones I know of do on research, so funding must be based on more than that otherwise they'd close!