Magic Money Pots

I think Universities have these. Magic money pots.

I know that budgets are tight. I know that most universities are unable to take on more permanent academic staff. Some are not replacing staff who leave. This is, in part, the reason the job market is so bad. This is why I, and other newly conferred PhDs, find ourselves staring unemployment / redeployment squarely in the face. The money pots are empty.

But the empty money pots are only empty sometimes.

If, for example, a Big Named Academic wants to work at an Institution, only being on campus and holding only a few postgraduate seminar workshops for two weeks of the year with the occasional guest lecture, and being attached to them for the RAE / REF, thousands of pounds can be found in the money pots.

The money pots are magic.

I know there are a variety of reasons why they can find the money to employ Big Named Academic and not me. Big Named Academic will, they say, attract students. "Really?" I ask. Do potential Undergrads even know who this is? "No", they tell me, "but postgraduates will. And that will bring in money for the empty money pots".

Well, maybe. Maybe not. Maybe one day in the future I will attract postgraduate students. And until that time, I would be willing to teach your students - graduate and undergraduate - for every teaching week of term. I would mark essays / exams, do admin and generally be a part of the department, and I won't retire in the next five years. I might even produce and publish research which would be useful for your RAE / REF submission and ratings.

But this will never happen if I have to work a full time non academic job to pay my bills because universities aren't taking on early career staff, because the money pots are empty.

The magic money pots.