Academic Jobs in the US vs. the UK

Abstract

Given the scarcity of full-time, permanent academic jobs, more and more PhDs are looking abroad for employment. When I was on the job market in 2020–21, I applied to positions in 7 countries. I landed at the University of Nottingham in the UK—which, despite being ostensibly close to my home country of the US in terms of culture and primary language, proved to be an entirely different world. This was apparent from the job application stage, yet at the time, there was no publicly available guidance on differences between the academic job markets in the US and UK.

Earlier this month, I set out to address this. I ran a webinar, “The Academic Job Market: US vs. UK,” aimed at demystifying both markets for applicants. Interest was so great that I added a second installment; in the end, over 200 people registered. You can watch a recording of the webinar below, which will remain freely accessible to all. The slides are also available to download from my website. I hope this can be a helpful resource to anyone looking to make sense of different market timelines, varying employment structures, and why you can’t address anyone below the rank of full professor in the UK as “Professor.” (This still trips me up constantly.)