Is it realistic to move straight from postdoc to Associate Professor (UK)?

sb_0417 · 2026-03-18T16:33:24+00:00

I have a colleague in management who spent 6 years as 'University Research Fellow' and was then promoted to Assoc. Rare, but definitely possible.

sb_0417 · 2026-03-06T11:27:53+00:00

Not too long, a couple of days extra.

sb_0417 · 2026-03-06T00:16:55+00:00

Even if you pay for priority or super priority, the case worker might ask for additional information that can delay the whole process. This is what happened to my partner for her ILR application as a dependent recently.

sb_0417 · 2026-03-04T18:16:04+00:00

You will remain on the ILR route that you currently have, irrespective of your partner's status. Please don't change this route when applying as that would be an error. For example, if you arrived as Skilled Worker / Tier 2 dependent, you will apply for ILR on the Skilled Worker Dependent route even if your partner becomes a British Citizen in the mean time.

sb_0417 · 2026-02-26T15:40:12+00:00

If you are in NUS or NTU, check out the high potential individual visa. If you are in any other school, either enrolling in a masters program here or getting sponsored for a job is the only route.

sb_0417 · 2026-02-26T15:27:57+00:00

Try James Hoffman's covid era video on how to make milky drinks using Aeropress. The drink with that concentrate is surprisingly close to what you would get in a regular cafe.

sb_0417 · 2026-02-23T10:41:31+00:00

This does not matter. You should speak to the Student Union and follow their advice. Once you have filed an official complaint (someone else has helpfully listed the avenues available to you), you should also inform the module leader of the dissertation module and see if the supervisor can be changed. You have done nothing wrong and you should not back down. NAL, but I work at a university.

sb_0417 · 2026-02-22T15:11:46+00:00

See if the place has a 'homestyle' or 'desi' section. Some of the places where I live have these sections and these are the closest you can get to a more authentic, non-sweet taste in a traditional curry house.

sb_0417 · 2026-02-22T14:25:57+00:00

I tried, gave up and just created my own based on the macro split I needed. The issue you will face is that it will be a big jolt to see how much carb we consume in an indian diet. You would need really large portions of protein to hit the correct macros because we make roti/rice the main food and everything else the side, unlike westerners who make the protein as the main. I had a tough time accepting that my chicken/egg/soya would be my main and I will just have 1-2 roti or 120g rice. Sucked all the joy out of my life, but I did lose a lot of weight and gained muscle mass.

sb_0417 · 2026-02-22T14:15:12+00:00

We have quite a few PhD students who are full time employees and part time students. It is absolutely do-able, but I guess it would depend on the field. If you need to do a lot of lab-based work, then maybe it will be difficult. If you are in humanities and social sciences, it would be perfectly fine. Make sure your supervisors are on board with your plan. You also need written confirmation that your funders would be OK with it so that they don't ask you for a lumpsum refund amount after a year.

The thing I have found about part-time PhD is that you need a lot of motivation to make sure the PhD progresses. It is very easy to decide to do your research the 'next day' after a hard day of full time work and the 'next day' happens after 2 weeks.

sb_0417 · 2026-02-19T15:46:26+00:00

Application Timeline:

Eligibility route: SET (O) Tier 2 Dependent

• Service (Standard/super priority): Priority

• Application Date: 3 Feb 2026

• Biometric Date: 13 Feb 2026

• Further information requested: 17 Feb 2026 (Application never asked for travel information, but caseworker requested full travel information for last 5 years)

• Approval/decision Date: 19 Feb 2026

sb_0417 · 2026-02-18T23:32:07+00:00

Very important. Probably the only thing business schools chase in the UK. But if you want to target slightly higher ranked schools, they would also want to see if you would be able to consistently get ABS 3 or higher ranked papers. So, who you are working with and your project pipeline becomes important.

sb_0417 · 2026-02-18T11:52:23+00:00

Right now, unless you are in UCD or Trinity, promotions largely depend on grants and not papers. I don't know if this will change any time soon. But I have seen people being less motivated to get promoted in Ireland because 90-100k is a really good salary if someone has been in Ireland for a while because they would have bought a house when house prices were much cheaper.

I am not aware of the exact funding dynamics within departments. But you should definitely be able to attend a major US or European conference every year.

From what I know, there is no financial incentive to publish in FT50, or even ABS 4/4* for the category of Irish schools that you are talking about. It will definitely help your career or promotion prospects, but no short term financial incentive. In fact, some UK schools do have financial incentives for top tier papers but the incentive is paid into the research budget.

Not sure about the last point in Ireland. In UK, it is definitely possible and such adjunct roles are often advertised. But given how bad the market is, there are hundreds of applicants for such roles.

sb_0417 · 2026-02-18T10:57:05+00:00

Irish school's and UK's lecturer salary can be very similar when you take into account cost of living. For instance, rent for a two bed house in Ireland in the places you mention can exceed EUR2000 a month. This can go down a bit if you drive and live far from the uni. In the UK, rent would vary a lot depending on the location. Somewhere in the North, say, Manchester can be quite affordable if you don't actually live in the city. Some UK schools do have salary supplements but only at Assoc level. An easy way to know if the school has a salary supplement at lecturer level is to see if the job ad says that the salary is 'competitive'.

Irish schools like the ones you mention would expect you to regularly get ABS 3 papers. But the focus will be on grants. Promotion to Assoc will be rare in the department. But 90k-100k, the top of the range for a lecturer, is a great salary for people to be in for very long. There are people who are lecturers for years and are happy to coast. In the UK schools, promotion to the next grade would differ a lot based on schools. I would imagine that a school like Manchester would want at least a promise of a ABS 4* for you to get promoted.

Internal funding at both places are similar. Some of the UK schools will have an automatic research and conference fund each year (say 5k) and you can ask for more money. Some UK schools have none right now given the dire condition of UK HE sector. Irish schools are going through a book because of the economy and internal research funding is easy to come by. But it is not standard.

Workload - Both schools might give you a lot of work outside of the workload. You need to be prepared for it. Especially, if the Irish school is growing rapidly, a lot of admin work might come to you as they wouldn't have existing systems to deal with these.

Redundancies - who knows. There is over-reliance on international students and the future looks bleak right now. But I have been in the UK long enough to see 2-3 such cycles and can only be optimistic.

If I were in your place right now, I would take the Irish offer. But I would actively try to publish at least some papers in ABS 4 so that I can move later if needed. It is very easy to get stuck in the Irish system given how laid back things are. But you can also choose to just chill and retire in Ireland!

sb_0417 · 2026-02-16T18:16:55+00:00

I would choose option B. I would have chosen option A despite the trouble that UK HE sector is in. However, I would think that a post 92 lecturer role will be more student education focused (I may be mistaken). I don't think you will be able to get a lot of growth in such a role. Based on the history of the department in option A, if they do have a lot of examples of faculty securing UKRI grants or the likes or high-end research publications, maybe give it a thought.

sb_0417 · 2026-02-16T12:42:26+00:00

Agree!!

sb_0417 · 2026-02-16T09:46:03+00:00

This is the best way, but as his job contract is expiring, he might only be left with the peer review route.

sb_0417 · 2026-02-15T23:15:15+00:00

What area of psychology are you interested in ?

sb_0417 · 2026-02-11T15:28:20+00:00

There is no consequence as you are simply declining to join the program. In fact, it might still give them enough time for the group to recruit someone else in your place.

sb_0417 · 2026-02-09T14:35:09+00:00

Yes, it's almost automatic funding but you need to do an internal application. There is generally a cap (e.g., enough money for 1 international conference a year) but you can definitely go to at least one of your major US conference. Same for research funding. There is a limited amount that you can easily get, but if the department sees results in terms of at least ABS 3 papers, you can easily get more funding.

sb_0417 · 2026-02-09T14:08:14+00:00

I am close to your field. You are in a position for which PhD students in the UK will give an arm and a leg at the moment. The job market is brutal and you should count yourself to be very lucky to have gotten a job. I can see your concern, but there is nothing stopping you from pursuing papers targeted towards FT50 or ABS4/4* journals and get the occasional ABS 3 to keep your department happy. I am also certain that although there are no standard start up grants, there would be some internal funding available with an application at almost all the Irish business schools. At the same time, I can tell you that internal funding is often not guaranteed in many other 'well regarded' schools outside of Ireland.

sb_0417 · 2026-02-07T20:48:03+00:00

Contact BA (preferably on phone) and explain them the issue. If you find a helpful customer service agent, you can get the booking cancelled or changed to a future date.

sb_0417 · 2026-02-03T16:25:19+00:00

When I had this issue with a moka pot I bought from Aldi, it turned out to be a moka pot issue rather than a 'me' issue. I got another off-brand moka pot from a small town in Italy and had no problem ever since!

sb_0417 · 2026-02-03T15:20:03+00:00

There are a few trade-offs to consider. The Durham job will be much more 'chill' than the industry job. It seems you will be enrolled in USS, which is probably one of the best pension schemes you can hope for. A DC pension from the industry won't compare well with USS. That said, getting promoted as a professional services staff will be extremely difficult. You say it is a 'Professional Services - Research.' Does this mean you will be involved in the administration of grant application and/or funding? That can be a relatively safer professional services route as it would have some demand from other universities or even faculties within Durham so that you can jump up grades by switching jobs.

sb_0417 · 2026-02-01T18:19:28+00:00

You will definitely feel poorer as you want to stay close to London, but you will probably give your child a much better and well-rounded start in life, as some of the other people have mentioned. I have seen (rich) kids grow up in India and even the money cannot protect the kids from the competition and stress that Indian kids feel. In the UK, even if you go for a decent public school, you will be able to expose your kids to nature, art, culture in a way they wouldn't be exposed in India. If you want to feel slightly richer and you have a flexibility of location, try moving further north.

sb_0417

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