Ralph Wedgwood (Philosophy, Oxford) writes:
I was looking at your list of "tenure-track hiring in philosophy" in 2003-04. It occurred to me that strictly speaking, no UK hires are "tenure-track", just because tenure in the strict sense doesn't exist in the UK (e.g., my Oxford Fellowship will have to be renewed after the first 4 years, and then again every 7 years thereafter). "Permanent" UK jobs are in a way better than tenure-track US jobs (there is no ghastly tenure review ordeal in 6 years' time), but not quite as good as tenured US positions (it is at least theoretically easier to lose one's job, although I can't think of any cases in recent years when anyone in a permanent philosophy position has lost their job in the UK).
These days, it is becoming fairly rare for UK graduate students to get permanent positions immediately finishing their doctorates. The lucky ones get post-docs, such as Junior Research Fellowships (JRFs) at Oxford or Cambridge. The less lucky ones get temporary jobs that involve a significant (and sometimes excessive) amount of teaching (many of these temporary teaching jobs are just for one year, but others are for as long as five years). In addition, to avoid possible problems with new employment laws, a number of Oxford colleges have recently introduced a new category of 4-year "Teaching JRFs", involving significantly more teaching than traditional JRFs, but a lower teaching load than people in permanent Oxford positions have to put up with. (It would take too long to explain why this is a rational response to the new employment legislation.)
I only know of one philosopher went straight from being a UK graduate student into a permanent job this year, viz.
Chris Timpson, an Oxford graduate student (AOS: Philosophy of Physics, Philosophy of Science), who is going to a permanent job at the University of Leeds.
So far as I know, all the other Oxford graduates who got permanent jobs in the UK this year finished their doctorates some time ago, and have had a couple of years of temporary jobs. E.g.
Lucy Allais (AOS: Kant) has got a permanent job at the University of Sussex, after a couple of years of temporary teaching jobs in Oxford;
David Bain (AOS: Mind and Language) has got a permanent job at the University of Glasgow, after a couple of years of temporary teaching jobs in Oxford and Nottingham.
Apart from Chris Timpson (at least so far as I know), the other current Oxford graduate students who went on the job market this year only got post-docs or "Teaching JRFs" or temporary teaching jobs. E.g.:
Nicholas (Nico) Silins (AOS: Epistemology, Philosophy of Mind) is going to a 2-year post-doc at NYU
Others got positions of these kinds in Oxford:
Corine Besson (AOS: Philosophy of Language) got a 3-year College Lectureship at Jesus College and Trinity College
Dorothea Debus (AOS: Philosophy of Mind) got a 5-year Supernumerary Teaching Fellowship at St John's College
David Wallace (AOS: Philosophy of Physics) got a 3-year JRF (called a "Fellowship by Examination") at Magdalen College
Bruno Whittle (AOS: Philosophy of Logic and Language) a 4-year "Teaching JRF" (called a "Darby Fellowship") at Lincoln College
One of these new Oxford "Teaching JRF" positions is going to a philosopher with a PhD from Harvard:
Øystein Linnebo (AOS: Philosophy of Mathematics, Philosophy of Logic and Language), who has a post-doc at the University of Oslo in Norway, got a 4-year "Teaching JRF" (called a "Fitzjames Fellowship") at Merton College, Oxford
===========
(Note: the list of junior placements has now been updated to reflect these corrections.)
UPDATE: Another placement in a non-teaching JRF: Martin O'Neill, a grad student at Harvard, has been hired at St John's College, Cambridge University. AOS: Political and Moral Philosophy, Philosophy of Action.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Michael Otsuka (Philosophy, University College London) adds the following useful information:
"If by tenure one means 'the status of holding one's position on a permanent basis without periodic contract renewals', then tenure in the strict sense does in fact exist in the UK. Most UK academics in 'permanent' posts do not need to have their contracts renewed in the manner of Oxford dons. After an initial probationary period of 3-5 years in the case of those hired as Lecturers, our contracts extend to the age of retirement (65-67 years of age).
"Nobody in the UK is able to move straight from a PhD to a contract which extends to the age of retirement. But a few are fortunate enough to move straight from a PhD to a Lectureship with an initial 3-5 year probationary period and the possibility of renewal to the age of retirement thereafter. (One such person at UCL is Alex Voorhoeve, who is now finishing his PhD here and will be taking up such a post at the LSE in September.) Such jobs are considered as good as permanent, since a vanishingly small percentage of people fail to have their contracts renewed to the age of retirement after the probationary period."
Recent Comments