Negotiating Faculty Jobs
If you are fortunate enough to be offered a faculty job, you might want to consider what you can negotiate. I can’t offer an exhaustive list, but hopefully I can share a few ideas of things you might want to consider. This is part of my “pass it forward” philosophy to enable more people to thrive in academia and beyond.
For context, please note that I am a STEM (Assoc.) Prof in Canada, and I formerly held a Readership in the UK. Most of this, like any discussion about academic life, will be rooted in the nuance of your personal circumstances, the culture of your institution, the country you are in, and the financial constraints of everyone involved. I’d suggest you seek a few views/ideas on how to navigate this important step of your career.
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If you are at the negotiation stage, this is a very good thing. Fundamentally, this means that the unit/department and University wants to hire you. Note they have spent quite a bit of money and energy so far, and your name has come to the front. This gives you some power in the discussion, although more importantly I hope it makes you feel less like an ‘imposter’ and in a position where you can share your expectations with your future employer, and have them share theirs back.
Before we begin, I wish more managers would be up front about what’s negotiable and not relegate lots of this to whisper networks and make it another aspect of the #HiddenCurriculum of academia. Furthermore, I can also share this list in the knowledge that every academic hire is unique, and that there are also sector wide equity gaps in pay and remuneration. You might also want to highlight what is and is not up for negotiation. A significant fraction of my contract (at UBC) is bound by the collective agreement which leaves me lots of stuff written down (but not negotiable), and yet plenty of other things which can be discussed.
There will be constraints and expectations from the other side — budget limits, cultural norms, and equity arguments — but this doesn’t stop you asking the question and seeing how the conversation progresses. The negotiation phase of an academia hire is part of the journey to settle in new academic staff member, and the nature of this journey will depend on how you want to frame it and what the institution has placed on the table so far. The negotiation isn’t the final word on your terms and conditions, you can revisit these things at a later time (though you may have less power later on in the discussion).
One of the best places to start is to reach out to recent hires at your target institution and finding out what they had asked for, and perhaps more importantly, what they wish they had asked for (given they know how the system works).
Depending on your circumstance, and job offer, you may wish to explore these items in the upcoming discussions — and remember you are trying to feel out & establish what is needed to make it possible for your to thrive in your future role.
Salary — find out what others get paid. At my institution (UBC), the pay of faculty and staff earning >$75k per year is public. I wrote a script to rip apart the pdf of these for the past 5 years and compared this with the ranks of staff in my unit and three other comparator units. You should also ask about progression, one-time-bonus structures (they exist), and the wider compensation package (e.g. life insurance, health insurance, pensions, vacation/sick days). You should also ask about longer term pay growth trends, as well as equity/rebalancing exercises that are done to make the job sustainable for you and your colleagues.
Progression—ask about expectations regarding year-on-year progression, major milestones (reappointment, promotion, end of probation, and/or tenure). Check to find out if your unit head / Dean will still be in the driving seat for when you major hurdles/gates appear, and if there is change how many of the promises are worth anything once new management is in town. Some of this progression will be linked to how ‘set up’ your institution is to have you join. This timeline will be coupled with student progression, teaching set up, and things like making your lab space habitable/useful. Understanding the expectation, and support for your progression, is super important in terms of making academia sustainable for you (and your colleagues).
Relocation expenses — some places will offer these. They can be vital if you are to move you (and perhaps your family) to the new place. Some places will not offer these, or only in extreme circumstances (extreme in their eyes). If you don’t ask, you won’t know. You might want to look on the HR or Faculty pages for info about these schemes. Importantly some of this may include things like tax advice, visa contributions (for you and family), as well as moving trucks, temporary accommodation or more.
Space (your office, lab, team office, shared space/facilities) — what will you get, how is this managed, who pays for changes to this. Many institutions may expect you to use your start up funds to clear out an old tenants junk…
Teaching — what is your teaching load? Who allocates it? How does it grow? What support is offered? Do you get TAs allocated, if so, how? How much independence do you get in developing courses, vs how much support will you need? How is good teaching valued and supported? Is the teaching ethos fitting your expectations? How is the curriculum managed in the long term? Do you need to worry about accreditation or reporting into other formal structures?
Start-up — how much do you get and what can you spend it on? How far does it go? $100k may sound like a lot of money, but it only goes so far. Think about tax, total salary+benefits+bench fees (if you want to pay for staff from your funds) and how long it will take you to win external money. Where does this money come from and what are the expectations that others have for it? I’ve heard some stories that big start up funds expect bigger year 1–3 wins.
Admin duties — what are you being expected to do? How are admin duties assigned? What would you like to do, in what timeframe? Many institutions will hire a Research Professorship with a 40–40–20 model (40% research, 40% teaching, 20% admin/service). You can be protected from this a bit, but getting a little bit of admin can be helpful to make connections, understand the system, and support your progression timeline.
New starter protection — do you have any (written down) protection from duties? This is important to have written down as colleagues may try (purposefully or not) to land you with things you may not be expecting nor want to do.
Sabbatical policies — there is no standard sabbatical policy across academia. Some places do not have them, some actively have them, some sort of have them (e.g. yes, you can take leave but you have to raise the funds and make all the work to cover your time away).
Leverage and support for your area of work — what will the Uni/Department/Faculty do to support your first grants? What’s in their offer letters to make this institution competitive in support of growing your vision. Is there direct cash, specific staff who can be allocated, space or other creative but useful allocations (e.g. actual promises of a studentship). This can include discussion of any first grant caps, caps on overhead contribution, or similar.
Mentorship and day-to-day support — you will not understand your own institution, and there will be curveballs thrown in your journey. Who is going to mentor you, how will that work, and what support will you get during your start-up-phase?
Policies that have a ‘up to’ phrase in the terms and conditions — this can include start up fund/bidding, as well as any support for housing support, mortgages or similar (if you are lucky enough to have a Uni that helps here!). There may be a secret minimum or something that can be bind the minimum expectation to match what you think should be there, in case you are caught short later on.
Rank and job title — some places this will be fixed, with very specific rules and guidelines about progression and names. However, where there are rules in academia, there are often exceptions or nuance. If you want something different, ask about it and explain why it matters. There are likely to be some constraints (budgets, formal processes/committees, and immigration to name but three) but you will be surprised at how creative some Universities can be.
Departmental affiliation — Yes, one Department has asked to hired you and allocated budget, but maybe you are interdisciplinary or would like to work with colleagues in a specific area/facility. You can ask about joint appointment (a mixed blessing) or affiliate status.
Equipment/facility access — do you know that you need certain major facilities? Who owns them, how is access allocated and costed? Who manages them? You can negotiate some terms to support a smooth start-up.
Start date and hiring timelines — this can be quite flexible. Often they may have specific needs (e.g. teaching a specific course) which the new hire may cover, but these can often be more flexible than they first look.
Spousal hire — I do not have direct experience of how this works, and some research implies there are multiple different options for this. This thread on Reddit seems to give a variety of perspectives . I’d echo that each institution and country is different on this front, so looking at the local context and asking friends informally if there are spousal hires at your target Uni is helpful.
Edit: Prof Vicki Komisar makes the great recommendation that you talk to the Faculty Association/Faculty Union about norms.
Edit 2: Prof Sonya Legg suggested the spousal hire addition.
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This list is not exhaustive, and some of these items may not impact you / be on your radar. I am sure there are lots of other ideas that can be brought into the negotiation phase, feel free to leave a message here or tweet me (@bmatb) and I’ll update as I can.
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Dr Ben Britton is an Associate Professor at UBC, hired in 2021, and was previously a Reader at Imperial College London where he started his academic career. Views here are his own etc. etc.
You can often find him tweeting as @bmatb.
Medium is a social blog network, clap if you like the story and want more.
(thank you Vicki Komisar for the extra hints re: housing support, and talking to the faculty association).
