Getting Promoted in Academia (Preview)

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Getting Promoted in Academia

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Getting Promoted in Academia

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Getting Promoted in Academia

Introduction

CHAPTER 1

The Career of an Academic

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Introduction

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Becoming an academic in a university or a similar higher education institution is a good career choice. You are not likely to get rich nor will you be poor. Rather, you should be able to live a reasonably comfortable lifestyle and operate within a vibrant intellectual atmosphere where new ideas are born, discussed, and disseminated.

You will also have a lot more control over what you do, and how you do it, day by day than employees in many other professions.

That is not to say that being an academic is for lazy people, quite the contrary. You may at times be very stretched managing a demanding workload of teaching and assessing students, as well as keeping up with the latest thinking in your discipline and making progress with your research.

Apart from the freedom to choose how you teach and what you research, you will find yourself immersed in an environment of extremely bright people — fellow

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Getting Promoted in Academia

academics and students alike. You are likely to find it stimulating, though on occasions, frustrating due to the quality-related government-driven bureaucracy that now pervades universities in many countries and that keeps you from doing the things you enjoy most — the teaching and the research.

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Universities are good places to build a career because the demand for higher education is continuing to grow globally. Despite new technological advances that could have a significant impact on the way higher education is delivered, growth in academic jobs is likely to continue at least for the foreseeable future. The growth in global higher education is primarily because most people (particularly the young, but increasingly the middle-aged and beyond) now recognise that to be successful in the 21st century and contribute as professionals in a globalised fast-shifting knowledge-based economy, it is necessary to be educated to a high level and even re-educated more than once.

They also appreciate the need to develop professional skills and essential life skills through a university education to be able to cope with several changes in career with increasing longevity.

There are now over 28,000 universities in the world; a number which grows by approximately 6% a year.2 The number of universities in some highly developed countries has stabilised, but in many newly industrialised countries and most developing countries, the number of universities continues to increase and those that already exist

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continue to expand as the demand for higher education qualifications continues to grow. Reportedly, China opens new universities at the rate of almost one per week.3 Some countries, however, are exceptions to this general pattern of growth. In a few countries, particularly in Asia, the falling fertility rate has recently led to a decrease in the young adult population and this trend is expected to continue in the next decade.4

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Despite this, the overall population of students in universities grows worldwide year on year, and good academics available to teach them are in short supply.

What this means is that academics can be reasonably sure of long-term employment if they adapt to changes in teaching practices, keep themselves at the forefront of their disciplines, and are prepared to be mobile between institutions; even internationally as this can potentially open up a lot more career opportunities.

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Whether you want to be mobile and move between institutions, or remain firmly in your current institution, it is likely that you will want to advance in your career.

Universities normally have a hierarchical academic grade structure (see Table 1) and most academics will wish to move up the grades as time goes by and their aspiration level increases.

A typical career in academia usually starts with a post at the “entry/junior grade� as a research assistant or teaching assistant. These are often posts for temporary researchers employed to undertake fixed-term research 3

Getting Promoted in Academia

Typical Grade Titles

Distinguished Grades

Distinguished Professor, Senior Professor, Laureate Professor

Senior Grades

Professor, Full Professor, Research Professor, Professorial Fellow

Mid-Level Grades

Associate Professor, Reader, Principal Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Senior Research Fellow, Senior Teaching Fellow, Senior Tutor

Base Grades

Assistant Professor, Lecturer, Research Fellow, Teaching Fellow, Clinical Instructor, Tutor, Docent

Entry/Junior Grades

Teaching Assistant, Research Assistant, Demonstrator, Learning Advisor

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Table 1 Typical hierarchical grades for academics. Titles vary by institution as do their relative positions in the hierarchy.

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projects and receive some teaching experience on the side. This is a typical way in, but not always. Academics aiming at a long-term career will aspire to get into a more permanent role with an established post linked to the core business of teaching and/or research.

The concept of “permanence” in academia is not, however, what it used to be in many countries. The idea of long-term “tenured” academic posts, with permanence and a right to challenge conventional wisdom on any topic, is now something which is tending to disappear as institutions grapple with rapidly changing funding contexts, as well as rapid changes in society and the way in which higher education is being delivered. Increasingly,

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institutions seek to avoid tying themselves down with permanently engaged staff at any level.

Career Grades

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The “base grade” for an academic with full responsibilities in teaching and/or research is typically the post of Assistant Professor, Lecturer, or Teaching Fellow; other titles may apply depending on the country and type of institution. Above that there will be one or more “midlevel grades” with titles such as Associate Professor, Senior or Principal Lecturer, or Reader, depending again on the country and type of institution you are in.

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Above these intermediate grades will be the “senior grade” of Full Professor or equivalent, which is a fairly universally adopted title. It is usually the ultimate career grade to which most ambitious academics would aspire.

In some institutions, there may be an even higher grade reserved for particularly outstanding individuals, which might be known as Senior Professor or Distinguished Professor. These are normally relatively rare appointments and only apply to exceptional individuals who have achieved significant distinction in their respective fields.

Whatever your level of aspiration, I am sure that you are unlikely to want to stay at the entry or base grades. In some institutions, you may never be offered a long-term post at such grades and obtaining a promotion may be essential to gain tenure or permanence.

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Furthermore, if you are in one of the mid-level grades and ambitious, you are likely to aim to become a full professor at some point in the future. You would want to have the academic title and enhanced respect that comes with it, together with potentially more job security and almost certainly a higher salary. Once you reach the midlevel or senior grades, you may also wish (or be requested) to take on a managerial or leadership role and progress your career further with more focus on building your institution or discipline.

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Getting promoted in academia, however, is not necessarily an easy thing to achieve. Career planning or optimisation appears to be something that not many academics think about, particularly in their early years.

Yet it is in these early years that good advice can have the most impact. There is also often a lack of understanding of how to increase chances of promotion. It is far more than just being a good teacher or researcher.

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This book, therefore, intends to plug this gap in understanding and help academics appreciate what is needed to climb the ladder of academia and to strategise their own career development. The advice in this book is necessarily generic and not specific to any individual or institution.

Every institution has its own career structure as well as its own criteria and procedures for promotion. In some cases, the criteria and procedures may even be

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Career planning or optimisation appears to be something that not many academics think about, particularly in their early years.

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laid down by the government and are not of the university’s own making.5 Arguably, this is not ideal as the best institutions worldwide determine their own criteria for promotions to the various levels of seniority.

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We should note in passing that your chances of promotion may also be determined by external political factors in some countries. Whether or not you are a member of a political party, hold the right political views, or are approved of by certain national or local politicians can come into play, particularly for promotions to senior levels. If you live and work in such a country, it is of course important to be aware of the political requirements that may apply. It is impossible to give practical advice in a book like this on how to deal with this situation. Universities are strongest when those academics with the best abilities can rise to the top, regardless of their political connections or acceptability.

Following any of the strategies or advice in this book does not guarantee a successful academic promotion.

Every individual is different, as is what each institution is looking for. Furthermore, the promotion process in many universities will be competitive, so your success or

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failure may not simply come down to your own abilities, actions, and achievements, but to how you compare to others. There may be quotas within a university for how many academic staff can be promoted each year set by budgetary constraints.

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Even when you are a strong candidate and the competition is weak, there is still an element of uncertainty in the procedure. Often there will be an interview with a promotion panel. In my experience, such panels are an exercise in what might be called “subjective objectivity�.

Certainly, they have objective criteria for promoting people, but the panel members have to assess the individuals and their wide range of achievements and contributions against those criteria, and that process is to a certain extent subjective.

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When participating in such panels as a member or chair, I have often found very diverse views among panel members in relation to the same candidate. Nothing is ever as clear-cut as one might reasonably expect it to be.

There is thus always an element of unpredictability, and even luck, in the process.

In the rest of this book, we shall examine what defines a good academic as a professional and what universities look for in making promotions. Of course, it has to be said that universities globally are very different from each other and have different missions, goals, and objectives.

In essence they are all trying to be good at what they do, and generally to get better at it. Thus, universities want

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to promote academics who understand their mission and contribute most effectively to achieving it and building their institution’s quality, reputation, and brand identity.

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How individuals are judged for promotion in the context of an American Ivy League university may be different to how they are judged in a newly-created university in Africa or Asia. Nonetheless, there will be some common elements that relate to the core missions of any higher Universities want to education institution. We promote academics shall examine these core who understand their missions as a means of mission and contribute understanding what types most effectively to of contributions are likely achieving it. to make an academic more promotable.

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Leadership Roles

Apart from promotion upwards through the various academic grades, some of you might aim for promotion into management or leadership roles, such as heads or chairs of departments, deans, or even ultimately provosts, presidents, rectors, or vice-chancellors (see Table 2).

Not everyone will aspire to a managerial or leadership role, and indeed many academics totally shun even the idea of it. Some academics consider promotion into a managerial or leadership role to be undesirable — it is seen

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Getting Promoted in Academia

Typical Role Titles Vice-Chancellor, President, Chancellor, Rector, Principal

Senior Management (institution-wide roles)

Provost (Chief Academic Officer), Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Vice-President, Vice-Rector, Vice-Provost

Senior Management (focused roles)

Dean of Faculty or School, Associate Provost (theme specific), Director (of a specific area of activity), Head of a Residential College

Middle Management

Head or Chair of Department, Director of Research Centre or Institute

Junior Management

Head of Research Group, Programme Leader, Course Director

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Level Top-level Leadership

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Table 2 Typical hierarchy of management roles in higher education institutions. Titles vary by institution as do their relative positions or categorisations in the hierarchy.

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as being incompatible with developing a stellar academic career and often involves spending a lot of time managing people and resources.

Promotion into management is not the preferred career path for academics who want to gain status and respect from making outstanding contributions in their discipline as managerial positions are more concerned with organisational development than subject development. Nonetheless, we shall devote some of this book to promotion into leadership roles. We will look at the challenges of getting promoted into such positions and what it takes to be successful. There are no hard and fast rules but guidance can be given.

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Having management responsibilities, especially for staff, can be challenging at times. Nevertheless, it is arguably not much more difficult dealing with resourcing or staff issues than being a front-line teacher dealing with students’ queries at all hours of the day (these days on social media). Once I had realised this early in my career, I decided that I would probably prefer to take on the responsibilities of management and get the additional rewards of doing so.

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It also seemed to me that many managers I encountered in academia were not particularly well-trained for doing their jobs. I soon began to realise that I could probably be a better manager than some I had observed. This set me onto the idea of not only climbing through the academic career grades but also of taking on management roles and growing as a manager in academia.

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Everyone will have their individual view of this and I invite you to consider your own personal aspirations and objectives in career development. I have known some highly successful academics who never sought promotion to a high grade but were well-regarded for their teaching or research and became highly rewarded financially in the process — either through writing hugely popular textbooks or undertaking lucrative consultancy contracts.

Others have seen their reward in terms of the appreciation and affection from students they have diligently taught. You will probably have a good idea of your own strengths and weaknesses, and your plans for 11

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meeting your long-term goals in terms of recognition and financial rewards.

Promotion Procedures

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Overall, most good universities have well-defined promotion schemes and procedures that operate according to a predefined schedule, perhaps with an annual process. Having a good promotion scheme can be critical to institutional success. If staff can see that there is a fair chance to be recognised and rewarded for highquality performance and achievement, then they are likely to be motivated to work hard and get the outcomes that the institution desires.

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Higher education institutions without clear promotion schemes risk demotivating staff as they cannot see potential benefits from working hard and devoting themselves to the success of their employer. This issue is sometimes misunderstood, in my experience, by some governing bodies or senior managers who cynically think of promotion schemes as an easy way for staff to get salary increases. Fortunately, such misguided views are few and far between.

Most institutional leaders and governing bodies do recognise the value of a promotion scheme and its central role in helping the institution grow and move forward. An institution normally will grow and rise in reputation as the

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staff progressively move forward in their careers and gain in status. In order for the link between promotion and institutional success to be well established, it is necessary for the promotion scheme to reward real rather than apparent achievement.

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The procedures for promoting individuals should be entirely transparent, well publicised around the institution, and be bought-into by staff. Actual achievement, and not self-promotional hype, should be clearly recognised.

Staff should be able to access the criteria used in deciding promotions and understand how to put themselves in a strong position to be promoted. They should also respect their colleagues who manage to get promoted before them and recognise the contributions such individuals have made.

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Hopefully, readers of this book work in higher education institutions that have clear promotion schemes and that encourage staff to seek promotion when they are ready for it. It needs to be said, however, that promotion schemes in some institutions are highly opaque and, for example, handled entirely by secretive committees.

Thankfully, such institutions are relatively rare and most good institutions have a clearly defined and communicated scheme that involves potential candidates applying for promotion or being nominated for it by their line manager, such as a department head or dean.

In most institutions, the academic promotion process involves an individual effectively applying to be promoted 13

Getting Promoted in Academia

and hence, entering into a promotion exercise. The exercise then involves a careful assessment of candidates, usually involving selection committees or panels and often with an interview much like applying for any new job.

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In some institutions, however, the process may simply involve academic managers identifying and recommending candidates who are then considered by a senior academic manager (of at least dean standing normally), committee, or panel. The process may not involve the candidate in any effort at all and may not even involve an interview.

This latter approach is not so common in my experience because of the need for transparency and fairness.

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I believe most academics would prefer an open competitive process where they can put themselves forward when they consider their profile sufficiently strong.

Normally, regular engagement with their line manager should give an academic the opportunity to discuss career goals and readiness for promotion at any point in time.

Promotions to certain levels, particularly more senior levels , may even occur by direct invitation in some institutions. There is always an element of talent spotting by senior management, and institutions which are particularly keen to change rapidly or build up new areas of activity quickly may deliberately choose to promote an identified talented individual without any formal process taking place. This is far from ideal and in some contexts of dubious legality as regards equality.

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The lack of transparency or due process may smack of cronyism; although sometimes it might be considered necessary to accelerate institutional development. What is important is that whenever this happens, it should be fairly clear to observers that the individual chosen has the required talent or capabilities and that no other obvious candidates have been passed over. Academics usually recognise when one of their colleagues is indeed highly talented and would not necessarily object to him or her being identified for a specific promoted role.

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Within a typical open competitive process, putting oneself forward for consideration either directly or via a line manager is normally the first step. Putting oneself forward is a matter of timing in relation to your position in your career and also your recent achievements. These are matters that ideally need to be discussed and reviewed with your line manager. We will look at aspects of timing and engagement with line managers in the process later.

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Needless to say, gaining promotion has some elements of gamesmanship and we will try to understand those as we look at how to maximise your chances of success within the confines of the system that exists in your particular institution. By understanding the game, it is easier to strategise your way to success than to leave everything to fate. There is no getting away from the fact that a good career in academia is normally a well-planned career, and that is exactly one of the key messages of this book that I hope you will come to understand.

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