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Associate Professor, Postsecondary / Higher Education Reviews
What is it like working as an Associate Professor, Postsecondary / Higher Education?
February 2015
Ability to work with graduate students, incredible colleague.
Associate Professor, Postsecondary / Higher Education:
Pros: The students, the faculty, the ability to work at home. Challenging environment. Numerous opportunities.
Cons: Lack of trust between administration and faculty.
August 2014
Experience As A Faculty Member In The VCU School Of Medicine.
Associate Professor, Postsecondary / Higher Education:
Pros: Although VCU is not a top tier university, it has a number of top tier groups and/or departments. I am a faculty member in one of these (a stand-alone research institute) and collaborate actively with another (a basic science department in the medical school. As a result, my grant funding and research profile are substantially better than the average for the university or the school of medicine as a whole. I work in the area I am most fascinated by (one where the patient population are decidedly underserved, and one where, although challenging in the extreme, there is substantial progress to be made and even minor progress may impact the lives of patients directly. Richmond is a small city lacking much of what I love about big cities (I lived for a combined total of more than 20 years in New York and London), it is much more affordable than larger cities and is a very safe and easy place to have children, unlike large metropolitan areas.
Cons: 1. Metastatic administration with constantly increasing amount of required oversight and paperwork that (to my cynical eye) has little impact on quality or performance.
2. Virginia has an extremely slow-moving culture. As a result of this, state institutions lag far behind my perception of those in other states that seem better prepared to deal with the challenges of 21st century biomedical research. This is an issue of major importance because VCU is a state (properly commonwealth) institution subject to an additional layer of state level rules and bureaucracy. Much of this seems to be out of date and inappropriate for the needs of a contemporary university.
3. Poor planning: funds are regularly made available for the acquisition of equipment without recognizing that skilled technicians and faculty are required to make these investments pay off.
4. Rules governing expenditure of grant dollars make the university less competitive than it should be.
August 2014
Free to Be Me.
Associate Professor, Postsecondary / Higher Education:
Pros: Flexible schedule, job security.
Cons: Weak, unimaginative leadership.
March 2014
Who You Work With Is As Important As What You Do.
Associate Professor, Postsecondary / Higher Education:
In higher education, the colleagues you hire will probably get tenure and you'll be stuck with them for a long time. So when picking a department, don't just look at the academic program. Ask if you share the values and interests of the people you would be working with -- especially the younger faculty. Are they people you'd want to spend a lot of time with long term?
March 2014
Sleep is a luxury.
Associate Professor, Postsecondary / Higher Education:
Be prepared to do without lots of things if you want to achieve your goals.
January 2014
Associate Professor, Postsecondary / Higher Education:
You must accept the value of teaching and learning above income.
December 2013
Teaching And Research.
Associate Professor, Postsecondary / Higher Education:
Pros: Autonomy and ability to innovate.
Cons: Repeated delivery of same content to multiple group of students.
Associate Professor, Postsecondary / Higher Education Job Listings
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