Lecturer
Lecturer is a term commonly used in the English-speaking world for certain types of university professors at the lower end of the academic hierarchy.
The term lecturer has different meanings in different English-speaking countries, which can lead to confusion. The following table shows the use of the term in the context of academic ranks and positions with salary in some English-speaking countries:
| United Kingdom | Australia / New Zealand | United States | Approximate German / Austrian equivalent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Teaching Fellow / Teaching Assistant / Tutor / Research Assistant | Teaching Fellow | Teaching Assistant / Research Assistant | Research assistant (as a doctoral candidate), other employees who have not received a doctorate |
| Staff Scientist / Senior Scientist | Associate Lecturer | Lecturer / Instructor | Research assistant as "Postdoc", teacher for special tasks / lecturer (doctorate) |
| Lecturer | Lecturer | Assistant Professor | Junior professor / junior lecturer (possibly with tenure track ), academic advice (habilitand, often only temporary), scientific assistant or comparable positions |
| Senior Lecturer | Senior Lecturer | Associate professor | Academic councilor (permanent and habilitation), university lecturer (unlimited, Baden-Württemberg), lecturer (GDR), senior lecturer (Austria, according to collective agreement (since 2010)) |
| Reader / Principal Lecturer | Associate professor | Associate / full professor | W2 / C3 professor (or W3 without a chair or management position, Baden-Württemberg), adjunct professor (if, in exceptional cases, employed or civil servants), associate professor (Austria) |
| professor | professor | (Full) Professor or Distinguished Professor / endowed chair | W3 / C4 professor with chair or management function, Univ.-Prof. (Austria) |
With regard to the correspondence, it should be emphasized that lecturers in the UK are usually employed after a two-year probationary period for life, while assistant professors generally enjoy tenure-track , which is often not the case with German junior professors. A doctorate is not a requirement for lecturers in the UK . It should also be noted that not all Ph.D. Candidates are automatically employed as Teaching Assistants (in the UK also called Tutors or Teaching Fellows ) or Research Assistants (in the case of a research-related focus). This depends on the university, the individual funding (for example the amount of the scholarship) and the research projects of the doctoral supervisor. US instructors are mostly only involved in research. A lifelong takeover (in the USA and Canada: promotion to tenure ) usually takes place at the same time as a promotion. Principal Lecturer and Reader refer to the same career and salary level, whereby the former only exist at the so-called post-1992 universities . There his focus is on teaching and management. A growing number of institutions (e.g. the University of Oxford ) are no longer awarding the titles of Senior Lecturer and Reader , but are converting in whole or in part to the North American model. The German private lecturers and non-scheduled professors find an approximate equivalent in the USA in the adjunct associate professors and the adjunct professors . Here as there they make a significant contribution to teaching. Distinguished professor or endowed chair refer to special academic honors, which are also reflected in the salary. In Germany, too, the term is increasingly finding its way into universities. In Section 42 (3) of the Higher Education Act of North Rhine-Westphalia, for example, the faculty councils are given the academic title of "lecturer" for academics who are employed as teachers for special tasks .
See also
literature
- Kerstin Janson, Harald Schomburg, Ulrich Teichler: Paths to a professorship. Qualification and employment at universities in Germany and the USA. Waxmann, Münster 2007, p. 44.