How to become a lecturer

As the role is within academia, it is important to have a strong knowledge base within your specialist area. To support this, you will need to have an undergraduate degree ideally at 2:1 or above. You will also need a postgraduate degree and some institutions may require you to have a PhD or be working towards one.

If you haven’t already, you will be expected to complete a teaching qualification - usually a Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education (PGCHE) - when you start, and this is normally offered by the university.

We offer a wide range of postgraduate degrees within education including our CertEd Education (Further Education & Skills) course and our PGCE in Education & Training course.

Once you have gained experience as an academic, you may also be prompted to apply for a fellowship award under Advance HE which is useful to evidence that your practices align with the national Framework.

Although it’s significant to have a strong knowledge base, institutions are also looking for lecturers with work experience within the field particularly for vocational subjects like art and engineering. In this case, it would be useful to build years of experience working in your sector to support learning.

Whilst studying for your postgraduate degree or completing a PhD, you can guest lecture where you have the opportunity to share your experience working within a sector or your research to current students. You could also work as an associate lecturer where you can balance your studies and lecturing responsibilities. In addition, some institutions offer graduate teaching assistant roles or studentships where you can complete your PhD and teach at the same time.

1. As research is part of being a lecturer, building up a portfolio and publishing research can be useful evidence of having the research skills required to be a lecturer. You could also study a research degree to develop your research skills and build your qualifications.

Institutions have varying requirements. For example, Russell Group universities value research and emphasise this more than a post-1992 institution who value teaching over research. It’s important to do some research so you know where you fit best based on your knowledge, skills and experience so you can apply to work at the right institution.