What is the hierarchical ranking system for academics in your country?

Asked by Bellatrix (21307

) March 1st, 2012

I am in Australia and here we have a ranked system with Professor being right at the top (Level E), Associate Professors (Level D), Senior Lecturer (Level C), Lecturer (Level B) and then Assistant or Associate Lecturers (Level A) (No PhD. May be post-doctoral students). There are also research only positions.

You don’t automatically move up through the rankings, you have to be promoted to move out of your tier. So an academic might stay at the same level for years and never meet the criteria to move to the next tier. They may be employed on a continuing basis (often serving a three-five year probationary period) or on a casual/fixed term basis.

Those who work for universities around the world (or know the system), how does it work in your country?

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4 Answers

In the United States:

The tenure track: Assistant Professor < Associate Professor < Professor

Below that, off the tenure track, Instructor < Lecturer < Adjunct Professor.

nikipedia (28072

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At the university I attended—they had the same ranking as @nikipedia said.

The Instructors and Lecturers could get away with just having Masters, while the Adjuncts had to at least be enrolled in a doctorate program and show progress towards completion. They did not allow anyone without a doctorate or a terminal degree to become tenured. I’m not sure, though, if that’s uniform throughout the United States.

linguaphile (14574

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From a Facebook friend who is a chemistry professor in the US:

People can be called Professor with a Master’s Degree (community college professors, mostly).

You just need to have a full time teaching job – I mean, it really depends on the type of institution. At a research university, people who do research and teach are professors, while instructors and lecturers just teach and don’t do research – so they aren’t officially professor-types.

augustlan (47745

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Thank you people. Interesting.

Bellatrix (21307

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