Title:
Coming to Terms With Academic Titles at US Colleges
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Education Report.
See text below
Text:
Not everyone who teaches in a college or university
is a professor. Many are instructors or lecturers.
In fact, not even all professors are full
professors. Many of them are assistant or associate
professors or adjunct professors. So what do all of
these different academic titles mean at American
colleges and universities? Get ready for a short
lecture, especially if you are thinking of a career
in higher education. Professors usually need a
doctoral degree. But sometimes a school will offer
positions to people who have not yet received their
doctorate. This person would be called an instructor
until the degree has been completed. After that, the
instructor could become an assistant professor.
Assistant professors do not have tenure.Tenure means
a permanent appointment. This goal of greater job
security is harder to reach these days. Fewer
teaching positions offer the chance for
tenure.Teachers and researchers who are hired into
positions that do offer it are said to be "on the
tenure track." Assistant professor is the first job
on this path.Assistant professors generally have
five to seven years to gain tenure. During this
time, other faculty members study the person's work.
If tenure is denied, then the assistant professor
usually has a year to find another job. Candidates
for tenure may feel great pressure to get research
published. "Publish or perish" is the traditional
saying.An assistant professor who receives tenure
becomes an associate professor. An associate
professor may later be appointed a full
professor.Assistant, associate and full professors
perform many duties. They teach classes. They advise
students. And they carry out research. They also
serve on committees and take part in other
activities. Other faculty members are not expected
to do all these jobs. They are not on a tenure
track. Instead, they might be in adjunct or visiting
positions. A visiting professor has a job at one
school but works at another for a period of time. An
adjunct professor is also a limited or part-time
position, to do research or teach classes. Adjunct
professors have a doctorate. Another position is
that of lecturer. Lecturers teach classes, but they
may or may not have a doctorate. For VOA Special
English, I'm Carolyn Presutti.You can learn English
and stay informed every day from your computer or
mobile device at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also
find us on Facebook, Twitter and iTunes at VOA
Learning English.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
