Can you become a lecturer with an MA?

I don't plan on becoming one but I was just looking at my lectures profiles on my uni website and for their education section, some say MA and some say PHD. Why do some have MAs but others only PHDs?

Reply 1

polscistudent88

Original post by porcelainwhite

I don't plan on becoming one but I was just looking at my lectures profiles on my uni website and for their education section, some say MA and some say PHD. Why do some have MAs but others only PHDs?

What do you mean by "only PhDs"?

Anyways it is possible but quite unlikely, especially in the present academic market with the many PhD holders applying for jobs. Years ago it might have been a different story, provided that the person showed incredible experiences in and outside research (I guess)... Never came across one academic without a PhD though...

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 2

member841230

If it's an MA by research with good grades, it's possible (but unlikely). You'd probably need to have written a book, chapter in a book, or articles in refereed academic journals.

An MA by coursework wouldn't suffice.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 3

porcelainwhite

Original post by polscistudent88

Yeah I phrased that wrong, they have PHDs and MAs. But some only have MA.

Reply 4

nunugab

Might be TA's - teacher assistanships

Reply 5

redferry

Original post by porcelainwhite

Yeah I phrased that wrong, they have PHDs and MAs. But some only have MA.

They may be doing their PhDs at the moment. Some units let PhD students teach.

Reply 6

madamemerle

It also depends on your subject. Sometimes people with really substantial, impressive professional experience and acievements in a field that is the practical/ creative/ applied side of a discipline are hired as lecturers/ professors. In English, this happens with poets a lot.

Reply 7

Alfissti

Original post by porcelainwhite

I don't plan on becoming one but I was just looking at my lectures profiles on my uni website and for their education section, some say MA and some say PHD. Why do some have MAs but others only PHDs?

It is unlikely someone with just an MA would be the full instructor of the module, more than likely he or she would be a co-instructor of it, maybe 1 or 2 parts of a module would be done by that person or a seminar group leader would be that MA person.

I don't hold a PhD and no plans to get one ever. I'm a seminar group leader for a module and 2 of the topics within that module will be done by me. My time at the university is donated by the company I work for as part of a research collaboration.

Alas my seminar group usually ends up being a Q&A session on how to get a job in the field I work for.

Reply 8

Klix88

Depends on your uni's policy.

Mine now has a stated policy that at least 80% of teaching staff will have a PhD and that this percentage will rise. Historically, staff were employed with suitable professional experience but no PhD e.g. legal lecturers who had practised for a number of years, design/technology staff who had worked for x years in industry etc. However no new teaching staff without PhDs are being hired and the ones without are gradually getting them, moving on, retiring or being worst hit in redundancy campaigns.

In my department, even the person who runs the field equipment store has to have a PhD. They occasionally lecture and demonstrate on fieldwork and lab units, so it's classed as a teaching post. Some research students act as paid TAs for odd lectures or seminar series, but they must be in at least the second year of a PhD project.

The percentage of staff with a doctorate is basically a selling point for a uni and a measure by which they're judged.

Reply 9

Tcannon

Madamemerle and Klix are right. It depends on uni and subject. The trend goes towards PhD as a result of supply with PhD and ranking categories (% of PhD in staff). In language subjects, you see some instructors with MA only.

Reply 10

El Salvador

It is definitely possible especially if you are in professional fields such as education, law, medicine, dentistry, some kind of medical therapy, etc. Even deans of law tend not to have anything more than masters.

But in most faculties you will get stuck on the lowest level unless you academically progress. (Unless you are a clinical professor, that is.)

In the Faculty of Education at The University of Hong Kong (No 8 world-wide, QS Education 2012) for example, people with no doctorates are only teaching consultants (now renamed lecturers but still the lowest level), and you can only progress to assistant professorship with a doctorate, although that is by no means a guarantee.