Academic, technology and data protection law. She/her. š³ļøāš Kraut abroad. Maintaining her sanity behind her avatar since 2009.
Occasionally blogs at https://cybermatron.blogspot.com/
Cybermatron
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@EvelineSulman @ChrisMayLA6 We have that too and Iām not dissing it. At least a teaching focus now doesnāt disadvantage you as much as it used to in terms of career progression. But in reality, the teaching track is not most peopleās first choice, I think. Itās what they do when they canāt get a teaching/research position or when they are buried in teaching by their institution.
@EvelineSulman @ChrisMayLA6 There are definitely people, who just or mostly want to teach, but in my experience most academics still (also) want to do research and would prefer to be given more of an opportunity to do it.
@ChrisMayLA6 The scary thing is that I work for a THE Top 5 UK Uni and it is happening here. The bifurcation is (also) happening within the staff body of the same institution.
We are essentially creating an new class system with an āacademic upper, middle and working classā, depending on the kind of contract you managed to get when you started out. And no guesses what the real life class background (gender, nationality, etc.) of the āacademic working classā often is.
@ChrisMayLA6 The upward mobility opportunities that my generation still had are essentially being erased. It is soul-destroying to watch.
I was a āfirst generationā kid from Germany that ended up - albeit with a lot of detours - teaching at a leading UK University. I used to tell my students my story to show them that it was possible. I donāt anymore because we no longer live in that world. I fear it would deceive them.
@ChrisMayLA6 Why anyone would even consider joining the academy these days is beyond me. I could not honestly recommend it to any of my students as a career.
@ChrisMayLA6 Finally, there is the problem of downgrading entry-level positions. The standard at my Uni for entry level, start of career positions used to be Grade 8 (junior lecturer/assistant professor level). We are now being told that all business cases for new positions must be submitted at Grade 7.
This comes on top of a by now 2-year promotions freeze, meaning that not only are we recruiting junior staff at a lower, less well paid level, we are also keeping them there for longer.
@ChrisMayLA6 Also, the people doing these teaching-only jobs mostly WANT to do research and are taking these jobs in order to get a foot in the door, hoping for a better position next time. But the longer they stay in teaching-only jobs, the less likely it is that they will have the time to do the kind of research that will make them eligible for a full teaching/research post. We are destroying young academicsā careers almost from the outset to feed the machine.
@ChrisMayLA6 Of course, Unis@have long wanted to fit a third semester into the summer (some already do). But that would be the end of research-focused universities as we know it. Maybe that is the longterm strategy?
@ChrisMayLA6 What few people talk about is also how this does not work with the academic calendar. My Uni only teaches from mid -September to the end of March. My colleague on a 100% teaching contract therefore has to do 90% of their work (save for some marking and dissertation supervision) in 7.5 months. That is a massive physical and mental health challenge.
@hacks4pancakes Same. The curse of enhanced pattern recognition v āThe inability to understand something, if your pay check/identity/self image/power depends on you not understanding itā.
I learned to trust my intuition.