anyone know what is the difference? After all those years in school, i still dont know the definitions, i just know that prof is the top dog…what are the rest.
not sure Mr F but in the USA does the prof/lecturer distinction have something to do with someone who's been awarded tenure or not?
o.k. well, most Unviersities differentiate between three types of faculty appointments:
Limited Term Appointments (equivalent to a contract - these can range anywhere between 1 to 3 years and are typically instituted because of temporary needs in the faculty or the establishment of new courses and programs in the dept.).
Candidacy Appointments (someone who has worked consecutively as faculty for at least three years - although five years tends to be the average before someone progresses to this level).
Tenure Track Appointments (the ultimate level that all academics strive to achieve and this usually is granted after five or more years of service, and very strict guidelines to the type of scholarly and community activities that have been performed by the individual in the past five years... again the average tends to be more than five years... I'd say around seven years).
You can juxtapose the above three types of appointments with different statuses of teachers in a University.
Lecturers are usually appointed on a Limited Term Basis, although you may also find some Assistant Profs with that type of appointment.
Assistant Profs. and sometimes Associate Profs. can be found at the Candidacy Level.
Most Associate Profs. and almost all Full Profs. are Tenure Track.
In my own case, I am a Lecturer on a 3-year Limited Term Appointment which was instituted because of a new supply chain management program at the school of business, and I'm hoping to soon progress to the Candidacy Level in a year or so inshaAllah.
Did that make any sense?