Academia - Academic

An academic is a multifaceted professional, and the term encompasses roles from university lecturers to professors. The role involves a combination of leading research activities, teaching the next generation of innovators, and varied leadership roles to aid with the efficient running of activities. Academics usually hold PhDs. The role follows on from a post-doc/fellowship.

Whilst the blend of activities varies from individual to individual, below is a summary of general activities performed by an academic.

Research

• Leading a research group. This involves a combination of setting the vision, securing resources and execution.
• Dissemination of research outputs through platforms such as publications, conferences and media activities.
• Advisory and community activities; shaping future research agendas and supporting scholarly activities such as journal editorial boards.

Teaching

• Creating and delivering subject specific teaching content across a range of class sizes.
• Supervision and assessment of student projects.
• Subject area and personal tutorials.

Administration

• Engagement and leadership in committees with a range of areas potentially covering: safety, outreach, teaching and research.
• Activities that support the smooth operation of a department (e.g., admissions, safety, outreach).

What helps to secure an academic position?

Research

• High-quality research outputs. Consider highlighting the core conceptual advances that your work has generated, outputs beyond traditional publications (e.g., open-source codes), dissemination activities to engage with relevant stakeholders, and the impacts of your work.
• Evidence that you’re able to craft critical research questions, design programmes of work to address them and execute projects successfully. Fellowships are one example of how this can be demonstrated. Beyond that small funding opportunities and formal recognition as a research co-investigator on a grant from your line manager can help evidence this.
• A track record of being engaged and leading research activities, including activities such as collaboration with industry partners. A focus on tangible outcomes helps to demonstrate the ability to create impact from works and collaborations. Activities such as helping to organise scientific meetings and other community events helps to evidence this.

Teaching

• Evidence of the ability and quality of teaching. This might start with delivering guest lectures, supervising masters/PhD researchers and running of teaching labs. This could also include producing teaching materials, which can be in the form of notes or codes. More formal courses for teaching include a PGCert in Higher Education.
• Engagement with outreach activities. Universities typically have a range of existing activities. The Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition is an excellent showcase to demonstrate a passion for scientific outreach and education.
• An awareness of best pedagogy within universities, covering a good understanding of different approaches to teaching, design of learning objectives, online learning tools and use of innovative teaching approaches such as flipped classroom.

Administration

• Engaging with departmental/group administration activities can help evidence an ability to contribute to the effective running of a department. Here, activities such as supporting lab management, organisation of conferences/seminars and early involvement in department committees are helpful.

Additional considerations

• Note that the conversion rate from PhD/post-doc to academic positions is generally quite low, in part due to the mismatch between the number of academic positions available and the number of researchers being trained. As such, these positions are often highly competitive. It is not uncommon to have >100 applicants for a single academic position. If the academic track is the desired track, then do consider how you can best demonstrate suitability with the above points.

Case studies