TCD Assistant Professor Position

Trinity are advertising an Assistant Professorship in Economics with a focus on international macroeconomics, though all fields are welcome to apply. The job ad is here.

By Stephen Kinsella

Senior Lecturer in Economics at the University of Limerick.

9 replies on “TCD Assistant Professor Position”

TCD has led a peculiar kind of grade inflation when it comes to academic titles. Assistant Professor (Formerly Lecturer) is generally understood in the USA as a very junior temporary post. Good luck trying to explain that at the ASSA in Chicago.

When I looked into the details of the documentation I found that the salary on offer could range from about €33,000 to €46,600 per annum. Good luck to TCD: if they make a good hire at these rates, then they are unlikely to retain him/her, especially as promotion in Irish Universities seems to be strangled by the HEA. The salary offered is less than what can be earned by a LUAS or Dublin Bus driver, for which occupations a PhD or research publications are not prerequisites, as far as I am aware. It also compares badly with the pay of teachers, whose common basic scale for new hires eventually goes up to €60,000, with no promotion bar.

Is it any wonder that Irish Universities continue to slide down the rankings?

Business school has no issues John with hiring and retaining good folk at those levels. And your wrong on titles. Assistant Professor is the worldwide norm now for entry level tenure track posts in leading universities. This is known.
Finally, are you saying moar monies? Huzzah but…from whence?

Further point. Promotion isn’t hampered by the hea. It’s somewhat constrained between senior and junior buckets by the ECF a creature of government policy. Oh, and being broke. The latter is the bugger upper.

@ Brian Lucey: If you look at the international evidence on academic titles, Assistant Professor meaning junior temporary/tenure track posts is largely a US and Canadian usage. In the rest of the English-speaking world the terms Lecturer and Assistant Lecturer are the norm. As for non-English speaking countries, things get trickier: for example “professor” in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal (and I reckon most of Latin America) is a term used for all teachers, from Primary level upwards, so maybe I should not complain about grade-inflation too much.

To get back to the main issue: first, the Employment Control Framework (ECF) is of course the constraint, but the HEA is the enforcer, and so I think my basic point is correct. As for not having the money, my argument was all about priorities, and implicitly about the way rent-seeking Unions make sure that some workers are quite highly paid while academics, who for various reasons are not well organised, are badly paid, at least at junior levels.

Business schools may have no problem in hiring and retaining good folk (are they allowed to supplement salaries from private sources or consultancies?), but I doubt is this is true of all disciplines. The combination of salary scales which are the same for all disciplines plus the promotions straight-jacket is bound to lead to problems, which will ultimately reflect on the quality of institutions (not that I think they should simply chase rankings).

John
I’m on the board of the university. I’m on more university committee including finsnce, than I dare count. I’m director of research at a school growing, via not a penny of state funds, by about 50% PA. I’m fairly clear of where my experience lies, in the right now, not the back then.
Universities are not going to grow based on state funds.
Within universities some places make surpluses. Business schools are one. Others, don’t. Typically economic departments are such. Like theology or mathematical linguistic studies their existence is an adornment to the college. Some however , not theology typically, may have saleable goods to keep their staff and pensioners afloat. If they choose not to so engage, that’s a choice . Pipers , tunes

“are they allowed to supplement salaries from private sources or consultancies?”
no more or no less than any other academic anywhere else. My experience is that most don’t do such. When they engage with industry its on research and research related interests.

Yes, the “revised new entrants” teachers scale does go to 60k, although it is a very long scale, with approx 25 points/increments. Note that it starts at 31k.

Yes, the teachers don’t have a merit bar [I think they do in the UK??].

Isn’t it reasonable to say that a lecturer should be able to cross the merit bar by doing their job well, rather than having to be world-class?

If we accept that, then the TCD lecturer can get to 77k after crossing the merit bar.

http://www.tcd.ie/hr/assets/pdf/monthly_academic.pdf

That is well ahead of bus and tram drivers.

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