Careers

Junior scholars are urged to do all they can to build bridges with the people who can give them jobs and promotions. But how calculating should they be about who to approach? How should they do it? And isn’t it all a bit grubby? Six established academics explain their perspectives

Marking every minor triumph inculcates a motivated mindset of appreciation for your effort and the process of scientific discovery, says Valerie Horsley

Those who take on vital academic housekeeping should be acknowledged as champions of good practice and rewarded accordingly, says Eleanor Baker

Without increased support, many RAs may choose to leave for other opportunities that provide more job security and benefits, says Bre-Anne Fifield

The president of San José State University on harnessing location to build partnerships, the importance of representation and why she isn’t a ‘traditional academic’

The likes of Cambridge can and should open up more permanent positions without resorting to age discrimination, says Wyn Evans

It makes zero difference to reviewers if someone else gets a paper in a high-impact journal, so why are they so pernickety, asks Stephen Cochrane 

But Cambridge must reform procedures that have evidently left many colleagues traumatised, says Thomas Roulet

Too many academics who have lost their motivation mid-career abuse a system that is often unable or unwilling to confront them, says Brian Bloch

We need, instead, to develop structures that allow everyone to flourish, both academically and as parents, says Eleanor Palser

If universities won’t cover immigration costs, they must at least help applicants make informed decisions about coming, says Tanja Wingenbach

The importance of senior faculty advising junior colleagues on their career trajectories is increasingly emphasised. But is guidance – and the giving of it – being fairly shared? Should mentoring schemes be formalised? And are they really enough? Seven academics have their say

Boosting your publication metrics need not come at the expense of your integrity if you bear in mind these 10 tips, says Adrian Furnham

What other industry would deem those with so much prior training to still be mere trainees? Let’s call them what they are – researchers, says Michele Nardin

Keeping highly trained people on tenterhooks for so long undermines the conditions necessary for innovation, says a university manager

Upfront costs can run into thousands of pounds, so speedy repayment is vital for equal access to permanent employment, says Eleanor Palser

The nature of the job differs dramatically depending on how one physically presents. Teaching support needs to catch up, says Hannah Kim

Despite a court’s endorsement of controversial virologist Alexander Kekulé’s suspension, suspicions linger that it is politically motivated, says Brian Bloch

Previous output is by far the best predictor of future success, but has become far less important for Dutch funding allocation, says Raymond Poot

A professorship comes with prestige, but appointments are opaque and there are other rewarding ways to cap off an academic career, says Ron Iphofen

Analysis of 5.8 million authors across all scientific disciplines also shows gender gap is closing, but with distance to go

The American University in Cairo’s first Arab leader on helping people reskill, serving the community and taking on the ‘necessary evil’ of administration

Instead of focusing on the reliability of the data, I know first-hand that defamation suits become personal and career-threatening, says David Sanders

While academics may be dismissive, the process helps their professional colleagues recognise their own scholarly contributions, say four of them

We need to encourage and support scientists to leap into the unknown to solve our grand challenges faster and more equitably, says Xiangkun Cao

The only way to get a permanent contract seems to be to take a teaching position. But that isn’t where my skills or interests lie, says Vanessa Baxter

Only one in five researchers in UK universities have been employed in private sector, says new report

Seven years after he took the ‘big leap’ out of academia, John Ankers explains what he’s learned from life coaching other scholars who are mulling a change of career

The new rules are welcome, but change will only truly occur if institutions finally get over their obsession with publications, says the Hidden REF committee

Permanent contracts, lighter workloads and higher salaries would boost the flagging prestige of Ukraine’s academy, says Alexander Kostyuk 

Research funder investing in leadership capability to support academics and encourage collaboration across disciplines and sectors

Tracking doctoral alumni in other sectors would inform departments about what their specific training allows graduates to do, says Patrick Walsh

Academics warn of damage to progress on equipping officers for modern-day policing and creating a ‘bona fide profession’

Academics’ belief in merit-based promotion at odds with their experiences of discrimination, study finds

Constant rejections for academic jobs took a bigger emotional toll than anything they encountered during their PhDs, says Michelle de Souza

Most presidents don’t get fired, and those who do typically go on to rewarding new positions, says Holden Thorp

In the wake of Jacinda Ardern’s and Nicola Sturgeon’s decisions to step down as leaders of their respective nations, university leaders and experts reflect on when is the right time to give up the biggest office on campus

Senior faculty are trying to prove their worth by making the lives of others so unpleasant that they agree to leave. It is time to call them out, says Aymen Idris

The lost golden age of hiring and wider social appreciation of the disciplines never existed, says Harvey Graff

Telling precariously employed literature scholars to just hang in there doesn’t cut it in a job market as bad as today’s, says Chris Townsend

Belated moves to mitigate precarity are welcome but may come too late for one scholar exhausted by insecurity

Mechanisms to determine university leaders’ salaries are opaque and unreliable. We need more meaningful metrics, says Adrian Furnham

Better alignment of pay and benefits, working cultures and expectations will clear the way for research to have impact, say nine Future Leaders fellows

Lack of consensus over how to define economic worth of programmes to student and taxpayer hampers education department’s efforts

For academics trained to plough a narrow, deep, heavily footnoted field, writing for a more general audience can be difficult. But the rewards, both personal and financial, can be considerable. Matthew Reisz picks the brains of publishing professionals for their dos and don’ts

Overloaded slides, peculiar body language and speech that is too quick, slow, quiet or relentless are all easily fixed, says Brian Bloch

Building a publishing platform that allows scholars to earn from sales of their papers has put all Pooja Sawrikar’s rage to good use 

Five years ago, a THE poll painted a bleak picture of work-life balance in the academy. Has the subsequent rise of homeworking eased the pressure? Or are ever-increasing workloads outweighing any benefits of flexibility? Tom Williams reports on our survey of 1,200 university staff

If we tenured professors do not hold ourselves to agreed standards, we will find ourselves being refereed by demagogues, says Robert Zaretsky

Is working humane hours at a humane pace possible for anyone in a British university, asks Sarah Colvin

Are research careers meritocratic? Do universities do enough to support researchers? Is impact more important than publications? Is interdisciplinarity the key to new discoveries? Can internationalisation survive the current global tensions? We present the views of more than 400 future sector leaders

Scholars from the Global South have vastly fewer international options than those from the Global North, says Srila Roy

The writer and academic talks about her philosophical fascination with the mind and body, and why she wrote about her mother’s dementia

Prize committees should re-examine nominees with below-average scientometric scores, says Adrian Furnham

Academics’ passion for research should feed into the ideal higher education experience, says Gill Evans

Analysis links poor salary returns to students underestimating career potential of major choices – and universities not sharing earnings information

Major THE poll considers pressures on academic and administrative staff, how this has changed in recent years and what can be done to improve matters

We need a sector-wide commitment to reforming career structures, funding strategies and publication outlets, says Ryan Truby

Spate of new senior roles created as universities seek answers on addressing sustainability, diversity and social responsibility

As precarity affects ever more academics for ever longer, many have come to see a permanent position as the gateway to professional happiness. But does it always work out that way? Or do the responsibilities and trade-offs of seniority outweigh the joys of security and salary? Seven academics have their say