Lecturing job in Ireland - need Ph.D from top university?

Reesy

Hi,

I'm planning to do a Ph.D in order to become a lecturer in the fullness of time. My discipline will be marketing. I've heard that to get a lecturing job in Ireland nowadays it's important to have you Ph.D from one of the top universities.

So, my question: Is it true, & if so, is there a single list of the best universities? Thanks!

Dionysus

Reesy wrote: »

Hi,

I'm planning to do a Ph.D in order to become a lecturer in the fullness of time. My discipline will be marketing. I've heard that to get a lecturing job in Ireland nowadays it's important to have you Ph.D from one of the top universities.

So, my question: Is it true, & if so, is there a single list of the best universities? Thanks!

1. Permanent, tenure-track lecturing jobs are very thin on the ground - and that's an understatement.

2. If you're willing to devote around 10 years to doing the "post-doc merry-go-round" and engage in all the politics in the tiny academic community in your discipline here, then you are, generally speaking, better off doing your PhD in the university which is most renowned for being progressive/at the cutting edge in your discipline. Almost invariably, that means the United States, not Britain or Ireland.

I did my PhD here because this is the best place for my particular area. I was conscious that I was depending on something tragic happening to lecturers in their 40s in order for a vacancy to come up in the area I chose. I still did a PhD in it. As much as I enjoyed it and am proud of having finished it, I would do so much differently now - in particular, I'd follow my head instead of my heart and go to one of two universities in the US or of two in continental Europe to study a topic which would career-wise be much more beneficial. Think very carefully about the prospects for your area and don't be beguiled or plámásed by supervisors here or in Britain who need PhD students - do not even fall for the "we'll give you a scholarship" line. Treat a PhD as a serious job and not as an extension of student life and you'll find it far less painful, more productive and fulfilling. In short, if you do it, the US is still at the cutting edge of most disciplines - I'd imagine this is particularly so with marketing - and do it as quickly as possible.

All the best.

Reesy

Hi Dionysus, thanks! That is useful, if a little depressing, information. A bit of background: I'm 48 and after 25 years in sales & marketing, I want a career change - and I've always enjoyed lecturing so I think I'd like to do it as a job.

The whole plan is predicated on the notion of getting work in academia in Ireland once I finish it - I'm trying to guesstimate what my chances might be.

The idea of a US university for a PhD sounds interesting, though I wouldn't be able to relocate there - I'd have to travel back & forth. Also, my current idea is to stay working and do it part-time. That'd be a real slog, I know. My current employers give me some flexibility.

As I research it I start to get the measure of the task!

Rosita

Sorry guys,

You might be be able to answer a question that appears simple to me but I have never been able to get a comprehensible answer to up to now.

What is the practical difference between a full-time and part-time PhD?

What are the implications for:

a) the length of time allowed/expected for completion

b) any commitments to the colleges e.g. tutoring etc.

c) payment of fees

I am assuming that the differences are represented in the questions I've asked but perhaps there are others.

ulysses32

Good question Rosita. I do a part-time PhD and yet I am officially registered as a full-time student. I have four to six years to complete the study.

In practical terms, I couldn't describe the work as part-time; I work on it all the time, formally and informally.

I don't think you can box these things away into a couple of evenings a week. A phD tends to become part of your daily routine.

avalon68

Reesy wrote: »

Hi Dionysus, thanks! That is useful, if a little depressing, information. A bit of background: I'm 48 and after 25 years in sales & marketing, I want a career change - and I've always enjoyed lecturing so I think I'd like to do it as a job.

The whole plan is predicated on the notion of getting work in academia in Ireland once I finish it - I'm trying to guesstimate what my chances might be.

The idea of a US university for a PhD sounds interesting, though I wouldn't be able to relocate there - I'd have to travel back & forth. Also, my current idea is to stay working and do it part-time. That'd be a real slog, I know. My current employers give me some flexibility.

As I research it I start to get the measure of the task!

Just to add a little more depressing info (sorry!), you would probably have to go abroad to do a post doc for at least 2 years after finishing to be anyway competitive in attaining an academic post in Ireland. There is a vast over supply of PhDs in Ireland, and there will never be enough jobs to accommodate all of them. Id like to be optimistic and say that the best and brightest will eventually succeed, but at this point I have fully accepted that Ireland is nepotistic to its core, and who you know will probably be far more important than where you did your PhD .

Marcusm

Reesy wrote: »

Hi,

I'm planning to do a Ph.D in order to become a lecturer in the fullness of time. My discipline will be marketing. I've heard that to get a lecturing job in Ireland nowadays it's important to have you Ph.D from one of the top universities.

So, my question: Is it true, & if so, is there a single list of the best universities? Thanks!

What are your current qualifications and experience levels? I ask because I would expect anyone with aspirations to educate to have an idea of the best institutions from which to gain qualifications/experience. If you're a school leaver or simply have an interest in marketing rather than experience, I could understand your question.

site designer

Probably off topic, but are you only referring to only a university lecturer?

I know in WIT seems a lot of lecturers barely had a Masters, if that and in DIT in recent years they were basically handing out made up Masters to half the lecturers just to get them up to code.

Rosita

ulysses32 wrote: »

Good question Rosita. I do a part-time PhD and yet I am officially registered as a full-time student. I have four to six years to complete the study.

In practical terms, I couldn't describe the work as part-time; I work on it all the time, formally and informally.

I don't think you can box these things away into a couple of evenings a week. A phD tends to become part of your daily routine.

I understand the workload aspect - it was more the formal arrangements I am hazy on.

As I understand it, a PhD is a research degree (notwithstanding the possibility of attendance for formal research seminars occasionally presumably) so the difference between doing it full-time and part-time is unclear to me. My understanding of these terms normally in the context of, for example, a taught Master's would be that part-timers would take less modules and do it over say two years where a full-timer would do all the modules and do it in a year. Or maybe part-time might mean doing it by evening attendance if the course was structured that way.

The meaning of 'part-time' in the context of a research degree is less clear.
I presume that the length of time allowed for expected completion would be greater than for a full-time PhD? Or are there other college commitments expected (e.g tutoring) if it is full-time?

Incidentally how can you do a part-time PhD if you are officially registered as a full-time student? (Maybe you just mean you are working at the same time?) Or to ask the question I've already been asking in a different way - what's the difference between being registered full-time or part-time.

liam_2009

Dionysus wrote: »

1. Permanent, tenure-track lecturing jobs are very thin on the ground - and that's an understatement.

2. If you're willing to devote around 10 years to doing the "post-doc merry-go-round" and engage in all the politics in the tiny academic community in your discipline here, then you are, generally speaking, better off doing your PhD in the university which is most renowned for being progressive/at the cutting edge in your discipline. Almost invariably, that means the United States, not Britain or Ireland.

Sorry, as this is an old thread, but I'm trying to understand why so many Irish people are making out there to be "loooaaadddddddsssssssss of jobs" at third level in Ireland... Sounds like atrocious bollocks to me, or at least a misunderstanding of academia, and like a case of people doing this typically Irish thing of offering their uninformed opinion on a topic that's none of their business.

What is it causing this myth? Some moronic misunderstanding of the market e.g. people jumping up and down about reports that have headlines of "staffing shortages" at unis but missing that these "shortages" are caused by lack of funding and trimming of staff numbers and don't actually translate into vacancies? Or have things actually improved since this post was made and it's not a myth (doubtful, I suspect)? Or maybe something even more basic - i.e. people don't understand the system at all and think it's like industry and just getting a contract position will be a "foot in the door" and "ah, sure you'll be grand with the experience you get" (clearly bollocks based on the above comments).

Thing is the above comments by Dionysus are in line with any academics I know tell me in UK and Ireland.

Only reason I'm asking is my current career is coming to an end and I'm getting plagued with this BS all the time, just wanted some ammunition against some idiots that are looking for a slap. Not that they'll listen of course (and of course they'll get sainthood conferred on them for "trying to help" when they are actually being a hindrance at best).

Geuze

People doing a PT Ph.D. are usually employed, i.e. they are existing lecturers.

AFAIK.

So they have a job, maybe with less workload, and are studying as well.

D4RK ONION

liam_2009, please don't dig up 4 year old threads, as the people who originally posted will probably not see the post. Secondly, there's no need to be so angry, try to pose your question a bit more rationally. If you want to have this discussion, try posting a new thread.

Thread Closed.