[itsmeacupoftea]

I can only speak for how it appears in my country (Australia), but it seems like university academic staffing models in general are broken. I have 15+ years experience in service providers in Cybersecurity and SE roles. I have 2 Masters degrees with GPA7/HD averages, and love to teach. There is nothing I'd love more than to teach university level topics with a primary teaching focus, and research as a secondary. It's not about the money - they can pay me less than the Australian average wage and I'll be happy.

Over the last 2 years I've interviewed at multiple universities for Level A (Associate Lecturer) and they all had similar requirements that I've summarized below:

> you must have completed a PHD. > You must propose and perform original research, assist in upper level academics research, and publish X times per year. > you must participate in fundraising, complete your own grant applications and assist upper level academics in their fundraising & applications. > you must supervise and advise X number of postgraduate students thesis/dissertations. > you must teach both undergraduate and graduate level classes across 3 trimesters. > the position is fixed term for 12 months, rather than ongoing/permanent, with no job security and you are required to reapply each year.

Most current academics I know from Level A to Level E, say they don't particularly want to teach, and just wish they could focus on their research and fundraising to support their research. I met other applicants at networking and alumni events like myself who would like a teaching focus, rather than a research focus. There's a supply of "specialists", but an insistence on "generalists". As the fixed term aspect tends to apply to research fellows as well, the risk from the lack of security combined with the extremely low pay makes it very difficult to enter, and remain, in academia. I can afford to live on $65k a year, but the possibility that every year I may be faced with periods of unemployment and the requirement to relocate thousands of km away makes it a challenging prospect.

[aragilar]

It comes down to teaching not bringing in money—enrolments (either domestic via the government, or paying international students) and grants bring in money (those requirements are basically "can bring in grants/other funding"). Even with ongoing positions, things like COVID (or even a change of focus) can cause the positions to end (and the ability to bring in grants would play a key roll in who stays and who goes). Any substantial change in the model is a matter for government, not the unis.