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[redding]

Hello UK forumites!

I think I am going to apply for a job at a UK school.  I am currently employed at a mid-level State Uni (you've probably never heard of it).  My PhD is from a very highly-ranked US school.

I've done a little research, but some things still baffle me a bit.

The place I want to apply to is a Russell Group "red brick" school, but a lower-ranked one.  The position is for a lecturer, which I understand to be like a US Assistant Professor position, but without tenure.  The school runs on a semester system.  The position is, I believe, primarily undergraduate, but also includes a taught masters and a doctorate in a closely related field.  My area is in the humanities, with overlap into the social sciences.

So here are my questions:
--I am having a hard time determining what the teaching load is like.  I currently teach 3/3 on a semester system, but I have "double preps."  I've worked out that a 10-credit course is probably between 2-3 hours on the US system.  Any idea how many of these courses one would likely teach in a term?
--Are courses at a school like this primarily lectures, seminars, or a combination?
--My partner is also an academic, but has primarily been adjuncting here.  What is the situation for getting employment/work visas for foreigners for part-time work?
--How does doctoral instruction work in the UK, i.e. would it be likely that I would sit on committees of students in a (very) closely-related field, or do students work only with their primary advisor?
--What are class sizes like?
--I hear that moving expenses are often quite a bit less than at US schools.  Would they run to tickets for me and my partner and shipping books and clothes?

For anonymity's sake, I'd prefer not to name the school publicly, but PM me if it will affect how you answer.

[scotia]

So here are my questions:
--I am having a hard time determining what the teaching load is like.  I currently teach 3/3 on a semester system, but I have "double preps."  I've worked out that a 10-credit course is probably between 2-3 hours on the US system.  Any idea how many of these courses one would likely teach in a term?
--Are courses at a school like this primarily lectures, seminars, or a combination?
--My partner is also an academic, but has primarily been adjuncting here.  What is the situation for getting employment/work visas for foreigners for part-time work?
--How does doctoral instruction work in the UK, i.e. would it be likely that I would sit on committees of students in a (very) closely-related field, or do students work only with their primary advisor?
--What are class sizes like?
--I hear that moving expenses are often quite a bit less than at US schools.  Would they run to tickets for me and my partner and shipping books and clothes?

I can answer some questions, but I have lost track of what is happening with visas:

In the UK we tend to talk about 'contact hours' rather than course loads. There is quite a bit of team teaching (more than one person teaching a course), particularly at the lower levels (ie first and second year undergrad). Having said which, I have team taught upper-level undergraduate and postgraduate courses. In some places these contact hours are for classroom teaching only, in others they may include time to supervise undergraduate and masters dissertations (PhDs write theses) and other student projects. All three places I have worked at (all pre-1992) have had in the region of 100 - 120 hours in the classroom. This may be for lectures and seminars. It is worth noting that we tend not to teach 'sections' but instead have large group lectures and then smaller group seminars. For example, I team teach a level 1 course with 400 undergraduates and then others teach the seminars. Another colleague teaches a higher level undergraduate course with 50 students as a two hour lecture  and then has 2 groups of 25 students for a 1 hour seminar each week. Most universities (schools are for kids up to 18 or are subdivisions of universities e.g. the School of Business, or the School of Social Sciences.....) have courses that are a mix of lectures and seminars. My class sizes have ranged from 10 to 400. With the big classes you tend to have a mix of people teaching, with seminars taught by a mix of PhD students, academic staff and sometimes bought-in teachers (a bit like adjuncts) though I have taught a class of 150 on my own (no seminars).

Doctoral supervision is increasingly organized with a primary supervisor directly in the research area of the student and a secondary supervisor who may or may not be (this tends to depend on the size of the department - in my last place both supervisors could be working in areas closely to the PhD student's topic; in my current department we are too small for this to be the case). We do not have committees. Instead the thesis is examined by an internal examiner (from the student's university and not either of the supervisors) and an external examiner (from another institution - usually, but not always, a UK university). The examiners read the thesis and then the student undergoes a viva exam with the two examiners. Whether the supervisor is present depends on the university.

In my experience UK universities pay receipted moving expenses. You are expected to get three quotes and hire the company that offers the lowest quote or pay the difference. In all cases I have had colleagues who have shipped households (furniture etc.) from the US and been reimbursed. However, UK universities are looking to cut costs, so they may be looking to trim overseas removal costs. I know one university has recently decided it will interview overseas candidates by video link rather than flying them in.

The use of bought-in teaching varies between universities - we do not refer to adjuncts - and I know it is one area that is under close scrutiny at my current institution as we look for cost reductions. Having said which, my department could not manage without them.

Feel free to PM me if there is anything I can clarify.

[redding]

Scotia, thanks for such a detailed reply; this is really helpful.

When you say 100-120 hours, do you mean per semester or per year?  What I'm doing now is probably about that per semester in contact hours.

I think I understand that at this place, I might be a secondary supervisor on a doctoral thesis, but would not participate in the viva (something like a US defense?).  Is this correct?

I think I heard alarmist things about removal expenses, based on what you've said.  If I took this job, almost everything would be sold or go into storage.

Does anyone ever negotiate spousal employment in the UK like they do in the US?

[scotia]

Scotia, thanks for such a detailed reply; this is really helpful.

When you say 100-120 hours, do you mean per semester or per year?  What I'm doing now is probably about that per semester in contact hours.

I think I understand that at this place, I might be a secondary supervisor on a doctoral thesis, but would not participate in the viva (something like a US defense?).  Is this correct?

I think I heard alarmist things about removal expenses, based on what you've said.  If I took this job, almost everything would be sold or go into storage.

Does anyone ever negotiate spousal employment in the UK like they do in the US?

Where I have worked (two have been Russell group) it would be about 100- 120 hours per year. In both Russell group places supervision of dissertation (ug and pg) students was not included in this figure. There are places with higher contact hours. At current U the figure is about 140 - 160 hours, but includes dissertation supervision. Be warned that Masters dissertations are written through the summer so you do not get summers off, though the teaching should be a lot lighter (for most places zero classroom hours and maybe only one or two Masters students if you are unlucky).

The viva for a PhD is conducted by the internal examiner (so you would viva colleagues' students) and an external examiner (you may or may not be known to the supervisor: the most recent one I did they found me based on publications).

Most public sector jobs have to be advertised, which makes spousal hiring tricky. But there may be ways round it (for example, if someone rolled up here now with a spouse who is able to do lots of seminars I would be skipping down the street with joy. If the same thing had happened at previous U we would have struggled to use them. But at least two admin staff at previous U were trailing spouses).

[expatinuk]

As Scotia has indicated, teaching loads differ at different universities. I'm at a mid-ranked uni, which does happen to be a former poly. The way each Faculty/School handles teaching loads differs according to the amount of research in that Faculty.

I'm in a high research Faculty so we have expectations of research from staff. Not all staff, however, do research. So the teaching load starts with a base figure of 20 hours of contact per week for 24 teaching weeks. This is not all classroom teaching time... it can be supervision time or grading/prep time... this is dependant on the class being taught.

The more research outputs or 'esteem' obligations (such as serving in a leadership role in an academic organization) a staff member has, significantly reduces the teaching load.

Each year a teaching staff member will sit down with his/her line manager (department head, award leader, etc) and will determine how the work week will be divided between research, teaching, and service.  It's a very transparent system and you can't get stuck with a double work load because your dept head 'hates' you.

Also, keep in mind that in the UK we generally only have two pieces of work per student, per semester to grade.

There's also a bit of an employment problem about hiring 'adjuncts' in the UK. If you hire someone continously over a four year (I believe) period, that person has all the rights as a full time employee and must go through the redundancy process if employment is terminated.

And yes, we too have over the past 3-5 years cut down on the number of part time folks hired for financial reasons. We have, however, increased the number of fractional posts.

HTH

[britmom]

I'm in the Humanities at a pre-92 University. The normal teaching load is also 120-140 contact hours per year, normally towards the lower end of that range. However, there's another discipline within our School where they teach a lot more as it's done fairly poorly in previous RAE's and has therefore lost out investment/hiring-wise to stronger disciplines.

[qrypt]

For sake of comparison, keep in mind what it means to have a 2-2 load at a good research university in the US: with six hours per week and a 14-week semester, teaching hours amount to 168 per year.  UK teaching loads generally compare favorably with those in the US (assuming one is interested in doing less teaching). 

The fact that some of the hours we have in the UK are multiple instances of the same seminar (discussion section) each week can be a plus or a negative, depending on your perspective.  If I do 5 instances of the same seminar in one week (and two lectures), I only have three unique classes to prepare for.  On the other hand, by the time I get to the end of the 5th seminar, I typically want to slit my wrists.  Another common pattern is two lectures, two MA hours, and 3 seminars.  This sounds better in principle; if only we had better MA students...

[wegie]

Does anyone ever negotiate spousal employment in the UK like they do in the US?

I've seen one couple go on the market in the UK as a couple successfully, but they were in a hugely in-demand field and the senior of the two was prepared to be flexible about rank. But, nowhere in the mainland is massively far away from anywhere else, and universities tend to be in clusters (with, of course, the notable exception of any institution beginning with the prefix Aber ;-), so it's usually possible for your partner to end up at another university within 30-50 miles or your own place.

The good news is that despite all the huffing and puffing about visas, you have a tier 1 or tier 2 visa, your partner is automatically covered as well and is free to seek work in the UK on the same basis as an EU national. 

[redding]

Does anyone ever negotiate spousal employment in the UK like they do in the US?

I've seen one couple go on the market in the UK as a couple successfully, but they were in a hugely in-demand field and the senior of the two was prepared to be flexible about rank. But, nowhere in the mainland is massively far away from anywhere else, and universities tend to be in clusters (with, of course, the notable exception of any institution beginning with the prefix Aber ;-), so it's usually possible for your partner to end up at another university within 30-50 miles or your own place.

The good news is that despite all the huffing and puffing about visas, you have a tier 1 or tier 2 visa, your partner is automatically covered as well and is free to seek work in the UK on the same basis as an EU national. 

This situation is actually way better than I expected.  My partner is accustomed to cobbling together some teaching, some creative work, and other things that together amount to a job.  I didn't realize that he wouldn't need to get his own separate visa.

I think I'm beginning to wrap my head around what the teaching would look like.  I can see which courses I would likely be teaching, based on their offerings.  When I look at who is teaching what, it looks like I'd do lots of first-year survey (but only for majors instead of non-majors as it is here), lots of undergrad and MA-level dissertation supervision, a couple of courses in my area, and methods.  Altogether, I think it would be fewer hours than I do now, and a lot more of the things I like best (like supervising research and teaching methods).

You've all talked me into it.  I'm definitely going to apply.  I have no idea if I'd be competitive or not.  I don't have a very big publication list, but I have several things in the pipeline.  Looking at the most junior person in the department, I can be where she is in a year or two.  I think I compare favorably.

Thanks for all the advice!

[drspouse]

Good luck!

I have taught as an adjunct in the US (lower-tier but not bad, research-focussed state university) and at two UK universities as a lecturer (plus Oxbridge as a postgrad but we won't talk about that). My first UK position was similar in national rank to the US institution and I was very happy with students' academic standards in comparison. I've moved up to a better institution now and again am happy with academic standards. 

Neediness is higher at my current institution (the former UK institution was in a very big city and had a lot of independent students and recent immigrants with "you just get on with it" parents, 10% of students were accompanied by parents to visit campus; the current one is a greenfield campus site with 90% of applicants accompanied by parents on visits). But in neither place is it as bad as I know it can be at some US institutions.

On the tenure issue, no, you will not get tenure - but if you are taking a regular Lecturer post, you will have a reasonably light-touch probationary period, no horrendous pre-tenure hoops to jump through - usually an expectation of papers and grants submitted, rather than accepted, with a suggestion of destinations. I assume this isn't a fixed-term lectureship?

We hired spouses a few years ago but we had advertised two posts - the applicants ended up swapping ranks, or specialisms, depending on how you view it, and after not too long one of them left for another institution an hour away.

[drbeeper]

My partner is accustomed to cobbling together some teaching, some creative work, and other things that together amount to a job.  I didn't realize that he wouldn't need to get his own separate visa.

Many universities will sponsor you for a Tier 2, I think it is now called a "sponsored worker", visa. If you or your partner independently qualifies for a Tier 1, I think it is now called a "highly skilled worker", visa (a PhD will basically get you there), it might be worth the little extra cost and effort. With a Tier 2 visa you cannot easily switch jobs for the first 5 years and if you get made redundant you have to leave the UK immediately. None of this is true with a Tier 1 visa.

[johnsem]

My partner is accustomed to cobbling together some teaching, some creative work, and other things that together amount to a job.  I didn't realize that he wouldn't need to get his own separate visa.

Many universities will sponsor you for a Tier 2, I think it is now called a "sponsored worker", visa. If you or your partner independently qualifies for a Tier 1, I think it is now called a "highly skilled worker", visa (a PhD will basically get you there), it might be worth the little extra cost and effort. With a Tier 2 visa you cannot easily switch jobs for the first 5 years and if you get made redundant you have to leave the UK immediately. None of this is true with a Tier 1 visa.

With the interim cap on Tier 2 visas (as of 19 July 2010 and a permanent one in April 2011), I have personally found that most of the universities (if not all) are unable to offer (or have ran out of) certificates of sponsorships (required for non-EU job applicants). They are now counting on applicants to qualify for a Tier 1 visa. If you are in your late twenties you need to earn at least 30k pounds a year but if you are in your early thirties your annual income for the past 12 months have to be at least 35k pounds. Also there is an weightage adjustment for salaries outside the UK so I'm not sure how much this translates in actual dollar terms. Recent UK PhD graduates won't face this problem as they qualify for the Tier 1 post-study work visa which is not subjected to the quota but their salary has to be 30k or 35k pounds so that in 12 months' time they can switch to a Tier 1 general visa. Many postdoc positions and a few lectureships, especially those outside London, have advertised pay scales that are lower than this. HR departments have issued circulars to SCs to note that non-EU applicants ought to be able to qualify for a visa without sponsorship.