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I'm a university lecturer: ask me anything

Dunning-Kruger effect in action...

How do they get past the enrollment process though? Not just in mickey mouse universities. I go to UCL, and I've met 4 people like this there in the past few months, who believed the extreme. Considering I don't go out very often, on average regularly mix with maybe 50 different people a week (exchanging conversations, etc., not just from a distance), and I don't go out of my way looking for such people either... 4 is probably a lot. I know I might be injecting my own subjective bias into this... but still to say that "IQ is a hoax" in any shape of form... I don't think there's any left or right way to interpret that, biased or not.

Are universities so desperate for students? On the other hand I thought competition to get into UCL was stiff.

I just had a great idea. I'll start a poll on this forum to see how many people think this way.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 1181

Sandyking

4

What do you think about this article?
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/apr/05/cambridge-ranked-last-in-university-fair-access-table

Reply 1182

Bongo Bongo

19

Original post by chazwomaq

That's that I did too. MSc, then PhD, then lecturer. Almost all lecturers in this area will have a PhD, yes. On top of that you need to publish research papers to become attractive to universities. If you do a PhD, getting teaching experience is a good idea even if it's just marking essays, running seminars and maybe doing a lecture here and there.

Not sure what you mean by teaching other subjects. Can you elaborate?

Thanks for the info, so do you lecture and publish papers while your doing your PhD? I mean could you lecture in subjects allied to your PhD if you knew enough about it?

Reply 1183

brainmaster

14

Original post by chazwomaq

What it says on the tin.

how long would it take to take to start teaching after you get a PhD? assuming in the area of pure mathematics?

Reply 1184

karl pilkington

20

Are you still a lect how much do you get paid? This thread is 4 years old lmao

Reply 1185

meediaabid

14

Is your twitter @dandangeologyman

Reply 1186

chazwomaq

OP

18

Original post by NonIndigenous

How do they get past the enrollment process though?...

I think for most people it's just that they're ignorant of the evidence. If you don't examine the data in detail you can live comfortably with a delusion.

It's more worrying when it's my own students who really should know better. Even worse when some of the psychology lecturers deny the value of IQ!

But I think we all have our cognitive biases and blindspots. There are almost certainly some things on which I'm misinformed and I don't realise it. We should all just try our best not to let our political biases or wishful thinking get in the way of solid evidence.

Reply 1187

chazwomaq

OP

18

Original post by Bongo Bongo

Thanks for the info, so do you lecture and publish papers while your doing your PhD? I mean could you lecture in subjects allied to your PhD if you knew enough about it?

Yes. In the sciences it's strongly encouraged to publish one or more papers during your PhD. I had 4 or 5 I think.

I did do some teaching in anthropology during my PhD because it was close enough to my area. For an actual lecturing job your PhD would have to be very close. But you could get, for example, psychology PhDs teaching business or (behavioural) economics so I see what you mean.

Bear in mind that most lecturers will not just teach their own area of research. You have to teach a variety of topics in your discipline so you need some broad knowledge too. I still find it a bit amusing when I teach basics of psychology even though I don't have a first degree in it.

Reply 1188

chazwomaq

OP

18

Original post by brainmaster

how long would it take to take to start teaching after you get a PhD? assuming in the area of pure mathematics?

Quoting myself:

Original post by chazwomaq

I got my lecturing job just before I finished my PhD. That's a bit unusual in the sciences. Much more common is to finish your PhD then do one or more "postdocs" - temporary jobs (1-5 years typically) where you work on a research project but in a senior way. By then you have built up a body of research publications and established yourself in a field, then you apply for lectureships. So it's quite often 2-10 years after your PhD.

Reply 1189

chazwomaq

OP

18

Original post by meediaabid

Is your twitter @dandangeologyman

Maybe...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAAlGAsFdHE

Reply 1190

chazwomaq

OP

18

Original post by karl pilkington

Are you still a lect how much do you get paid? This thread is 4 years old lmao

Still a lecturer. Starting salary is 35-40k. I'm between 40 and 50k.

Reply 1191

karl pilkington

20

Original post by chazwomaq

Maybe...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAAlGAsFdHE

Do your students ever come on to you

Reply 1192

chazwomaq

OP

18

Original post by Sandyking

What do you think about this article?
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/apr/05/cambridge-ranked-last-in-university-fair-access-table

I could write a very long answer to this but I won't.

I will mention three well established correlations:

IQ/grades correlates with social class.
IQ/grades correlates with earnings.
Parental IQ/grades correlates with children's.

These 3 facts mean you will automatically get more wealthy students going to more elite universities without any bias of malfeasance.

You also have to remember that social mobility is a resource that will be used up over time. Imagine the post-war generation when grammar schools were widespread. Many of the clever but poor children would go grammar school, get to university, and get into the professions. Their children would then be born middle class. Those parents who remained in the working class are more likely to be less clever and have less clever children.

So in the next generation you would expect to see fewer clever working class children. It sounds snobbish but it's actually evidence that the grammar system worked.

Reply 1193

chazwomaq

OP

18

Original post by karl pilkington

Do your students ever come on to you

Only with lines like "why does your head look like an orange?".

Reply 1194

Anagogic

19

Original post by chazwomaq

I could write a very long answer to this but I won't.

I will mention three well established correlations:

IQ/grades correlates with social class.
IQ/grades correlates with earnings.
Parental IQ/grades correlates with children's.

These 3 facts mean you will automatically get more wealthy students going to more elite universities without any bias of malfeasance.

You also have to remember that social mobility is a resource that will be used up over time. Imagine the post-war generation when grammar schools were widespread. Many of the clever but poor children would go grammar school, get to university, and get into the professions. Their children would then be born middle class. Those parents who remained in the working class are more likely to be less clever and have less clever children.

So in the next generation you would expect to see fewer clever working class children. It sounds snobbish but it's actually evidence that the grammar system worked.

Or perhaps education doesn't improve social mobility but simply maintains it. Wealth is a huge barrier to education regardless of IQ, wealth alone provides a significant advantage i.e extra resources, tutoring exc

Reply 1195

adacos173

5

What should you do as a student if you know that a fellow student might be plagiarising?

Reply 1196

chazwomaq

OP

18

Original post by adacos173

What should you do as a student if you know that a fellow student might be plagiarising?

I catch students plagiarizing almost every year. I actually quite enjoy grilling them in their plagiarisim hearing.

If I were a student I'm not sure I would do anything. I've never had a student snitch on someone else. I would probably just seethe and say nothing.