I am very annoyed by the Benchmarking Body Report (BBR) recommendation for a salary increase of 3 per cent for the majority of university lecturers, almost the lowest recommendation for any group and much less than civil service grades with which comparisons were previously made, writes Dr William Reville.
University lecturing in science is itself a significant source of employment for top science graduates and science lecturers train most of Ireland's science graduates and postgraduates. It is particularly important now, when student interest in science is in serious decline, to maintain an attractive profile for the scientific profession.
Yet the same Government that expresses grave concern about declining student interest in science, recommends bottom-drawer pay increases for scientists.
I would love to refute the BBR justification for this recommendation, but I cannot because the BBR contains no arguments - just recommendations. In particular, I want to know why the BBR recommends an 11 per cent increase for institute of technology (IT) lecturers, while recommending almost four times less for university lecturers.
The IT sector complements the universities, concentrating on certificate and diploma level courses and some degrees in technological areas. One wouldn't expect IT and university lecturers to receive identical salary recommendations, but a four-fold difference - as they used to say on the TV soap The Riordans: "Get up the yard!"
By and large the general public wouldn't know much about the work of a university lecturer. (I will speak only about science lecturers but most of my points apply to all lecturers.) Many people may think that, apart from giving lectures and examining coursework, a lecturer does little else, and takes holidays from June until October, when undergraduate courses are closed. I suspect the BBR acted on a subtle version of this thinking.
This scenario is a myth. In addition to undergraduate lecturing and examining, in any given year a university lecturer must supervise senior undergraduate intensive research projects (about six), supervise undergraduate practical laboratory classes, guide and direct MSc and PhD research students (three on average), write research grant applications to win money to support research, carry out research, supervise research assistants and technicians (two on average), liaise with post-doctoral research associates (two on average), manage a research laboratory and administer research funds (€100,000 to €1 million), write scientific papers, present papers at conferences, examine MSc and PhD theses, keep abreast of voluminous literature, advise undergraduate students, and carry out university administrative duties.
LECTURING, examining, supervising undergraduate research projects and practical classes, take about 18 hours per week of a lecturer's time from October through June. The remainder of the work itemised above continues throughout the year. Most lecturers work at least 50 hours a week and take three to five weeks annual holidays.
Before being appointed to a junior university lectureship, one must undergo a long period of training. The average student enters college aged 18 and spends four years doing a BSc. If the grade achieved is good enough, the student can do a PhD. This takes another four years and the young man/woman is now 26 years old. The next step is to acquire postdoctoral research experience for, on average, another three years.
Now our candidate, aged 29/30 years, is ready to apply for a junior lectureship. The competition is intense and the unsuccessful candidate may have to take another postdoctoral position before applying for a lectureship again. Reviewing your life at this stage you will see that from the age of 22 to 26 you lived on an income of about €10,000 per year, and from the age of 26 to 30 (or 32) you had an annual income of about €25,000. You have accumulated no pension credits.
If your application is successful, you have at last, aged 30, achieved secure employment. The lecturer salary ranges from €26,000 to €66,000 (17-point scale). After several years as lecturer, you can apply for promotion to senior lecturer, the criterion for success being largely research productivity, with a salary range of €54,000 to €76,000. You can then seek promotion to associate professor (salary range, €76,000 to €89,000).
Promotion is difficult to achieve. Of the total lecturing staff in university about 60 per cent are lecturers, about 20 per cent are senior lecturers, and about 20 per cent are professors.
University lecturers are not poorly paid, but neither are they rolling in luxury. In view of the long training, the hard work and high standard of research required to successfully compete for funding internationally, university lecturers should be well paid. Investment of the same level of training and effort in any area of private sector activity would attract a much higher salary.
University lecturers are the key instruments to grow our economy as it evolves into a knowledge-based entity. Our economy has benefited enormously in recent years from the output of university lecturers. But, young people are shying away from science, to a large extent because they think that scientific careers are poorly paid. So, why this derisory offer of 3 per cent from BBR?
William Reville is associate professor of biochemistry and director of microscopy at UCC