Lecturers lured by lucrative offers
OXFORD'S REPUTATION FOR academic excellence is under threat due to top-grade lecturers accepting more lucrative offers from universities abroad, it was alleged this week. Each year, UK Lecturers earn an average of £50,000 less in pay and benefits than those in Canada and Italy, and £30,000 less than their US counterparts.
Both Oxford and Oxford Brookes have joined the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE) in seeking an extra £675m of government money to bring lecturers' salaries to levels on a par with overseas universities. Currently, the average British lecturer earns around £21,800. In Europe, only lecturers in Greece, Turkey and the Czech Republic earn less.
According to a poll of vice-chancellors at the UK's top research-led universities, the challenge of recruiting good staff is particularly prevalent in fields such as IT, engineering, economics and medicine.
However, money may not be the only consideration for dons who choose to flee the Oxford lifestyle. Many tutors agree that workload is an important factor. The commitment to teaching required by the tutorial system is arduous and rarely allows sufficient time for tutors to pursue their own research interests. Paul Davies, Professor in Commercial Law, left Balliol College in 1999 after twenty-five years, in order to take up a Chair at the London School of Economics. He acknowledges that salaries, especially those of Professors, are considerably lower in Oxford than elsewhere but conceded that various supplements exist to close this gap and "by and large Oxford still attracts the cream of university staff."
One senior tutor explained that the problem is not a new one, but rather one that has come to the fore recently due to greater demands for tutors across UK universities in general.
24th Jan 2002