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[monita]

I have checked the search function, as well as the "To New Posters" thread.  My appologies if this question has been asked/answered and I just missed it...

My husband and I are planning a move to England in January (I have my visa and am eligible to work, but we're still waiting on the baby's paperwork).  I would like to get back into academia as soon as possible, but I'm completely fine with adjuncting part-time for a while, since our little one is so young.  In the US, it's appropriate to sort of "cold call" for adjunct positions, but I'm not sure how this is done in the UK.  Would it be appropriate to just send a letter and CV to colleges and universities in the area, or do I need to wait until a part-time position is advertised?  Should I e-mail, snail mail, call, or wait until I can stop by in person?  Do they even call it "adjunct"?

Thanks for any advice!

[scotia]

The term 'adjuncts' is not widely understood in the UK. It is also rare for UK universities to require someone to take a whole class including lectures for a semester. At the universities at which I have worked the external people we use tend to be employed to teach tutorials or seminars - a member of the core faculty will take lectures, but in each course there may be weekly seminars/tutorials and we will employ some external 'tutors' for these smaller discussion groups (as an example, our first year class has more than three hundred students - the core faculty teach the lectures, and we have a mix of faculty, PhD students, and 'external tutors' teaching weekly tutorial groups of approximately 20 students).

I find non-faculty tutors by a number of means but mostly from within our own PhDs and from people who are known to us. I occasionally receive CVs (snail mail and email) from people interested in tutoring, but most get filed in the usual receptacle because the senders are not qualified to teach. If I received a CV from someone with good teaching experience in some of the subject areas we struggle to fill (in my case, anything with numbers in) I would be delighted and would probably call you for an interview if something did come up. This semester you may have received a call after the semester started because we had a tutor pull out late in the day and another tutor who we were told was not eligible to work only after we had completed all the paperwork.

One thing I would need to be reassured on is that you understand the UK system (grading scales, how courses/modules work here, and in many cases a willingness to work with the tutorial materials we provide - tutors who do there own thing in seminar groups can sometimes be a major head-ache).

[expatinuk]

It also can depend on which field you're in. In my area (broadly speaking, media) we do use a lot of 'adjuncts' but they tend to be 95% from the industry. This is also similar to what's done in this field in the US.

What you actually want is a fractional post... this is quite common in the UK, where employment rights are different than in the US. Fractional posts are part time (less than 100%) check the ads for your field to see if any are listed. If you've got a great research portfolio you may have a pretty good chance as part-time 'adjuncts' can't be included in the REF but fractionals can be.

[wegie]

Don't forget about tutorships at the Open University.

[qrypt]

Monita, the term I'm familiar with here is: sessionals, or sessional teachers.  Dealing with & finding such people is above my pay grade, so perhaps others will correct me on this.  In any event, I think it will be more familiar here than adjuncts. 

[monita]

Scotia, I think you've identified my biggest challenge, which is demonstrating an understanding of the British system.  I'm slowly getting my head around it, but it's so different from what I'm used to that there's a pretty steep learning curve.  I recently applied for a lecturer position that I was quite well qualified for, but didn't even make a long list.  I think my inexperience with UK universities is going to slow me down.

Wegie, I've had my eye on Open University.  I get the impression that it is far more respectible than an online school (Phoenix, etc) would be in the States.

I will watch for terms like sessional and fractional posts.  I would not have had any idea what those meant, so this has been really helpful.  Thanks, everyone!

[expatinuk]

I will watch for terms like sessional and fractional posts.  I would not have had any idea what those meant, so this has been really helpful.  Thanks, everyone!

The ad for a fractional post will usually say something like: .5 .2 .8

[scotia]

Scotia, I think you've identified my biggest challenge, which is demonstrating an understanding of the British system.  I'm slowly getting my head around it, but it's so different from what I'm used to that there's a pretty steep learning curve.  I recently applied for a lecturer position that I was quite well qualified for, but didn't even make a long list.  I think my inexperience with UK universities is going to slow me down.

Wegie, I've had my eye on Open University.  I get the impression that it is far more respectible than an online school (Phoenix, etc) would be in the States.

I will watch for terms like sessional and fractional posts.  I would not have had any idea what those meant, so this has been really helpful.  Thanks, everyone!

The Open University is definitely looked upon very differently to Phoenix University. I know very highly respected academics who work or have worked at the OU, and have had a couple of respected colleagues with OU degrees. In my experience they provide very good support to their tutors, including good training (I did some tutoring for them while a post-doc at another - highly regarded - UK university who were happy for me to get teaching experience from the OU).

There are lots of reasons why you may not have been short-listed for a position that have nothing to do with you being from the US. I would not be too concerned about one failure to get an interview. If you are in a high supply field, that may be a barrier, rather than being from the US specifically.

I remember a thread some time ago - don't ask me when: I seem to be a longer-standing forumite than I remember - about the differences in language between the UK and US when talking about degrees, courses, marks..... That might be useful if you can find an adequate sacrifice to the fora search engine gods to help you find it.

[britmom]

I'm not sure which field you're in, but at my Uni (in the Humanities), we tend to use PhD students, but would certainly consider someone who emailed with a CV. The majority of teaching opportunities are tutoring on the big subhonours modules. That means the lecturing staff take the lecture; the class is then split in to groups  of around 12 for weekly tutorials. Some groups are taken by lecturing staff, but the majority are taught by tutors.

We have a rule that you need a PhD to teach above subhonours level. (Level 1 and 2= subhonours; level 3 and 4=honours. I'm in Scotland, which has a different system to the rest of the UK.) We've used such people a fair few times in the last few years. For example, we had someone take over my two honours modules when I went on maternity leave. Such people are obviously harder to find.

A few years back someone in your position--an American who had recently come over to the UK with her husband and small baby-- emailed me to see if she could meet up for a coffee and discuss how she might move over to British academia. I agreed--I was curious. I later recommended her to colleagues in another discipline and she's been teaching for us for the last few years. I think the moral of the story is that Universities often find people by word of mouth and it can do no harm to try to make as many connections as you can.

One thought, if you're in the Humanities or similar, is that departments often have research seminar programmes. You might want to see if such a thing exists at your local University/Universities. They're generally open to everyone and you might just be able to start networking.