Lecturer

Lecturer is the name given to university teachers in most of the English-speaking world (but not at most universities in the US or Canada) who do not hold a professorship.

United Kingdom

Lecturers are generally divided into Lecturers, Senior Lecturers, and Principal Lecturers/Readers and are permanent positions in a university which involve carrying out both teaching and research. These positions are generally comparable to "Assistant", "Associate", and "Full" Professors, respectively, under the US system, with the title "Professor" being reserved for only the most senior academics in the UK, and roughly equivalent to a chaired professorship in the US.

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However the academic rank system in the UK is gradually changing with promotion to senior lecturer being based on a mixture of teaching research and administration whilst the rank of Reader is obtained via research. Hence Senior Lecturer/Reader are essentially the same rank with the former position having a higher emphasis on teaching and the latter position having a higher emphasis on research at some institutions. Professorships (or personal chairs) are being awarded much more frequently in the UK than in previous years with this position now becoming the equivalent of the US 'Full' Professor.

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Most lecturers have Ph.D.s, and in many fields this is a pre-requisite of the job.

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In the UK, before a candidate is appointed to a lectureship, it is generally required that the candidate spend at least a term as a postdoctoral research assistant, a position that carries a low salary but is a requirement to learn the ropes and to establish new research paths following a Ph.D specialisation.

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