Conversation

We prepare lecture slides, videos, interactive online tools, formal & informal assessments, workshops, and practicals. Proper prep can take hours, even days, for a single class.

The hours spent in the classroom/ lecture theatre are the tip of the proverbial iceberg. 2/18

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The above requires planning, subject knowledge, teaching skills, and clear communication. It also means regular public speaking 🧑‍🏫

. Students often tell me they’re terrified of giving talks. They may be surprised to know that many lecturers also find it stressful. 3/18

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We mark assessments. This means reading the same assignments/exam answers again and again, often 100s of times. It’s dull, but we can’t afford to lose focus. The marks must be fair, our students need quality feedback, and they will (rightly) complain if they don’t get it. 4/18

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We have module and programme leadership roles. This means we have to keep on top of what learning outcomes our courses and modules deliver and ensure high teaching and assessment standards. We’re constantly looking at data and evaluating and improving on what we deliver.

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We have pastoral care duties. Being a personal/guidance tutor means helping struggling students with their academic, health, and welfare issues. It means signposting career support. It means writing lots of references, and generally caring about our students. 6/18

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We supervise thesis projects. This means regular meetings with students about their research projects to support them with what is arguably the most challenging part of their studies. Large student numbers make it hard to offer all thesis students the time they deserve. 7/18

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We do our own research too. Indeed, most Universities require that academic staff do “internationally excellent” research alongside our teaching. This a whole other job on top of the teaching, which requires a whole other skill set, which I’ll describe below. 8/18 +

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We’re all writers. “Publish or perish”, as they say

. We don’t just write papers, books and book chapters, we also edit them and review them (for free). There’s pressure to publish in “high impact” (hard to get) journals, because prestige affects academic career prospects. 9/18

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To do research, we need data – both quantitative and qualitative. So, we must be skilled at collecting, managing, and analysing data. For those of us who do quantitative, this means having statistics and programming skills. But data analyst is a whole job title itself, no? 10/18

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‘A lot of room for bias’: UK funder’s data point to uneven playing field

Research requires funding. So we write grant applications, and lots of them, because most won’t be successful (UKRI funded 21% of applications in 2020-21). Minorities must work harder, as funding is not equally distributed: nature.com/articles/d4158 11/18

nature.com

Nature - Grant success rates for scientists in under-represented groups are lower than for white applicants, finds analysis.

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If we get the funding I mention above, we become project managers (not necessarily good ones) 👩‍💼

. Delivering successful research can mean managing a budget, timelines, risks, a lab, equipment, staff, and often stakeholders. Sounds like another job in itself, doesn’t it? 12/18

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Speaking of managing people, tenured academics who are lucky enough to get grants will hire research assistants. These assistants will be on short term contracts, experiencing career precarity and uncertainty – something we may dislike but can do little to help them out of. 13/18

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I already said that being academic means regular public speaking. That includes presenting at conferences. If it’s not a talk, it’s a poster (suddenly graphic design ability is needed), and if we can’t get funding we’ll pay from our own pockets to attend these conferences. 14/18

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Now, I should probably mention that we also organise those conferences. We sit on programme committees, review abstracts and organise speakers and schedules. We often manage budgets, catering, accommodation, websites and registration. Again, this could be a job in itself. 15/18

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On top of the teaching and research tasks listed above, we do an enormous amount of admin. There’s a dazzling array of miscellaneous tasks involving spreadsheets & online systems. Last year, I recorded 202 hours of “miscellaneous” emails and meetings among the tasks I did. 16/18

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Whilst I’ve listed some common academic tasks above (I may have forgotten some), there are some extra things we’re strongly encouraged to do: public & policy engagement, commercialisation, and “impact”. These could each have their own thread but you get the picture! 17/18

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Why post all this? I love much of what I do, but many academics face increasingly unrealistic workloads. I want to let our students and the public know what we do, because it really stings when the press make out that academics are “work-shy” (

). We’re anything but. 18/18

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Nice thread. It's also important to emphasise how much of the week is spent on meetings above and beyond core research / supervision. Most academics sit on multiple committees, e.g. EDI, internationalisation etc. These alone can consume large chunks of the working day.

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Excellent point. I knew I'd forgotten something! I'm on an EDI group, I'm the Department Sustainability Lead, and I'm also meant to champion open science in my research theme. Others have even more demanding roles, like leading the Athena Swan applications or REF submissions.

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What she said! #CrookedTariffs #UCUstrikes #OneOfUsAllOfUs

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Great thread! How did this assemblage of many multiple duties occur? I remember when lecturers snoozed away post-lunch in the scr. Throw in being a parent (which impacts you for a good 20 years) and it’s no surprise there’s an exodus from the sector

I often wonder that myself. I think big increases in student numbers and fees (thus expectations), plus myriad initiatives designed to optimise our performance in league tables have a lot to do with it. I'm sure other sectors have their own issues too, of course...

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Excellent thread

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So true and so unsustainable.

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