Register Log in

Scientific Method / Science & Exploration

UK postdocs get a voice

UK postdocs organize to create the National Research Staff Association.

Trends like to cross the Atlantic.  Whether it be The Beatles going to America or hula hoop coming the other way, our separation by a common language certainly helps facilitate meme-transfer.  Or something like that.  The latest example of this is the creation of the UK's first national postdoctoral organization.  Postdocs are those of us working in research, usually academic, with PhDs but no faculty positions or tenure.

Explosive growth in the number of PhDs being produced, coupled with the virtual end of new tenured positions mean that what was once a one- or two year stepping stone on the way to a nice, safe faculty job has now become a kind of purgatory, characterized by a series of short term contracts with little long term stability.  Another one of those trends, this time one from industry and the business world, that the academic sector has adopted.

The postdoc situation is not quite as bad as in the US. University pension benefits apply, for as long as final salary pension schemes continue to exist, and employment laws are much fairer. EU laws are actually changing in an effort to encourage more long term employment.   But despite this, there are fears that the new laws will be used by universities to avoid moving their postdocs into open contracts, instead just letting them go.

Which brings me back to the pond-crossing trends.  Three years ago in the US, the National Postdoctoral Association was formed, to provide a unified voice for the postdoc community, to better enhance the postdoctoral experience.  Now, a similar organization is being created in the UK, called the National Research Staff Association, set up by a Plymouth-based scientist, John Bothwell.

It's at this point that I mention I have a vested interest in this story, as I'm an NPA member, and currently a UK postdoc working in the US.  I wish John and his colleages every success in improving the postdoc experience in the UK.  As employment practices evolve in the 21st century, it is a positive change to adapt the working conditions of academic researchers.

Expand full story

This article does not have a comment thread.

You May Also Like

    Need to register for a new account?

    If you don't have an account yet it's free and easy.