Academic career advice

Tips and resources to help you build a successful career in academia. From skills development during your PhD to preparing for a role in university administration, all academic career steps are covered. Here, you will find advice on promoting your work, growing your professional reputation and developing collegiate networks to support your academic career progression - or to help you move into industry.

A green liquid is dispensed into a petri dish

Take action to make sustainable labs a reality

Eliminate waste, reap the benefits of a circular economy and aim for ambitious targets for greener laboratories, with these tips

Jenna Lowe

University of Liverpool

A disco ball suspended from the ceiling of a dimly lit room

What a disco ball teaches us about learning and leadership

By acknowledging that perspectives are evolving and relational, educators and leaders can encourage contribution and connection without sacrificing what makes people distinct

Lauren Flannery

The University of East Anglia

Look beyond commercialisation to a wider landscape of impact

Instead of seeing commercialisation as an entrepreneurial activity, let’s look at it as part of a broader picture of the value research creates

Andy Phippen, Louise Rutt

Bournemouth University, University of Plymouth

A woman stands at the crossroads of two diverging paths

Two ways to think about your promotion and tenure file

How to build evidence of your academic career successes when the expectations keep changing? Here are two approaches

Kate Vacek

Independent academic

What bush turkeys can teach us about adaptability at work

When ‘wildlife relocation’ became an unexpected part of her role, Liisa Partanen found the experience came with insight into workplace resilience and problem-solving

Liisa Partanen

The University of Queensland

How LinkedIn helped me create research collaborations

LinkedIn can help researchers build international collaborations, but only when it is treated as a professional community, not just a digital CV. Follow these tips to grow your profile

Julian C. Pena-Bermudez

Universidad del Caribe (UNICARIBE)

Why faculty support should look more like a writing centre

Why do institutions invest in peer writing support for students but not for staff? Anne Brubaker makes the case for a more formalised approach to faculty writing support

Anne Brubaker

Wellesley College

How to get your research found on Google Scholar

If people can’t find or access your work, they won’t cite it. Here, Darshan Vigneswaran explains how to ensure your academic articles surface in search and contribute to building your profile

Darshan Vigneswaran

University of Amsterdam

A guide to academic presentations for first-timers and nervous novices

Even when a presentation doesn’t go to plan, the experience can offer lessons about content, preparation and reflections on effective ways to communicate your research to an audience

Praysgod Mhlongo

Cape Peninsula University of Technology

What new lecturers need to develop their teaching

Dialogic, developmental feedback can accelerate new lecturers’ confidence, pedagogic judgement and professional growth. Here’s how

Katherine Mansfield, Yaz Osho, Richard Paterson

University of Westminster

Bored students sit slumped in a lecture hall

Dear educators, Gen Z here. Could you please teach us like it’s 2026?

Learning has changed drastically in the past five years, but teaching practices haven’t caught up. From your students’ perspective, here’s how to adapt

Sara Brownell

Arizona State University

The hidden research power of librarians at small research-intensive universities

Early career librarians might not see how proximity to faculty, students and institutional decision-making creates opportunities to contribute meaningfully to research initiatives. Trina Fyfe offers critical reflections

Trina Fyfe

University of Northern British Columbia

Campus webinar: How to get your academic work published

Hear four experts from the UK and US discuss the academic publishing process, from how to find a publisher and approach a journal to writing proposals, open access and much more

Corinne Guimont, Lisa Yaszek, John Atkinson, Emily Sharp

Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech’s Center for 21st Century Universities, University of Westminster, The University of Edinburgh

Research supervision that supports and inspires

Discover the skills that underpin effective PhD supervision and how to develop them for personal and professional advancement

Campus contributors, Eliza Compton

Campus

A smiling university professor in a campus hallway

Look for research opportunities in everyday teaching

Low-effort ways to conduct pedagogical research that can transform teaching work from routine into discovery, inviting us to question longstanding assumptions, experiment with innovative approaches and contribute meaningful insights

Adrian Man-Ho Lam

The University of Hong Kong

Academics discuss around a meeting table

Build a teaching and learning research network from the ground up

Early career educators can find support in teaching and learning scholarship through a community of practice. Here’s how

Paul Chesterton

Teesside University

A researcher being interviewed for a podcast

From research to reach: working with marketing and comms teams

If research is to shape public debate, support students and inform society, academics must learn how to collaborate with marketing and communications teams to extend its reach beyond the journal page, says Bertha Martínez

Bertha Martínez

CETYS Universidad

How a science communication competition changed my career path

To connect with scientists all over the world, hone your public speaking skills and improve public trust in science, a science communication competition could be the answer. Find out more here

Anna Christodoulou

University of Westminster

Ashutosh Chilkoti speaks on the Campus Talks podcast

Campus Talks: Where research meets enterprise – lessons from a successful spin-out founder

Learn about the journey from academic researcher to entrepreneur and what it takes to launch a successful spin-out company, from a serial founder

Ashutosh Chilkoti, Miranda Prynne

Duke University

A man sitting at his desk staring into space

Academics, get your thoughts on the page and unlock your reflective superpower

Embedding writing time into an educator’s schedule and sharing insights with others can turn fleeting ideas into actions that improve teaching practices

Alison Zimmer

The University of Manchester

Why universities should rethink line management before they rethink learning

Strong line management leads to higher staff engagement and retention, supports healthier research environments, reduces conflict and enables smoother adoption of change, writes Annie Owen. Here are ways universities can foster it

Annie Owen

University of Southampton

An academic career is rarely a straight line

A scientist’s path can include studying abroad, experience in industry, research and teaching as well as setbacks and uncertainty. Here, Kinga Vörös offers reflections as an early career neuroscientist and why the journey is most meaningful when research reaches patients

Kinga Vörös

Semmelweis University

Lessons from being academic chair of a complex department

Being a department head takes both emotional and cognitive energy to juggle people, programmes, contracts and institutional demands. But digging into skills such as trust-building and communication will bear fruit, writes Ben K. Daniel

Ben Kei Daniel

University of Northern British Columbia

Beyond mission statements: financially literate academics make better career choices

The most valuable research you do this year will not be for your next paper but into your employer and yourself, writes Tom Chapman. Here, he outlines findings from his analysis of university financial statements, offering insight into what to expect when planning a move

Tom Chapman

University of Southampton

Young researcher making a business pitch

What you need to know about securing investment for your spin out

Venture capitalists are ‘completely different beasts’ to grant bodies so academic founders need to embrace a new style of pitching if they are to secure funding for their companies, as Tim Witney explains

Tim Witney

King’s College London

A woman starts her business plan on a whiteboard

Write a business plan for a university spin-out company

Looking to secure investment for your spin-out? Find out how to write a business plan that ticks every box

Robert Crammond

University of the West of Scotland

From lab to market – part 2: writing a business plan

In the second part of this two-part series on finding investment for research commercialisation, here’s how to build a business plan

Eirini Epitropaki

Birkbeck, University of London

Scientists discuss a project with an investor in the lab

From lab to market – part 1: finding investment

In the first part of this two-part series on investment and business planning for research spin-out companies, discover all you need to know about attracting venture capital

Eirini Epitropaki

Birkbeck, University of London

red paper airplane leaving line of white paper airplanes

Academia can never be ‘just a job’ (and why that is OK)

The uncomfortable truth is that academia doesn’t conform to the regular nine-to-five, and pretending otherwise will not fix working conditions that are broken, argues Sorin Krammer

Sorin M. S. Krammer

University of Southampton

A researcher explaining her work to an investor

Who are you selling to? A marketing guide for researchers, part 2

Advice on creating a value proposition that clearly communicates the benefits of your work to different audiences

Rushana Khusainova

The University of Bristol

A researcher pitching to a room full of investors

Who are you selling to? A marketing guide for researchers, part 1

With research, it is not just about what you produce, but how and to whom you communicate it. Learn how to identify and understand the needs of your audience

Rushana Khusainova

The University of Bristol

Campus Talks: How to maximise relationships between university academic and professional services staff

An expert educator embedded in teaching development explains what universities gain when they celebrate professional services expertise and provide clear, meaningful career pathways

Eleanor Hodgson , Eliza Compton

The University of Exeter

An illustration of a man celebrating an achievement while his shadow despairs behind him

The human side of the practitioner-to-academic pipeline

Higher education wants to hire academics with real-world experience – yet the identity shift required often goes unnoticed. Here’s how to improve support

Asrif Yusoff

University of Greenwich

Man using visual brainstorming for business planning

Plan your route from research to market

To successfully commercialise research, you need first to understand the different routes available for taking your findings to market and how your institution can help, as Nicolas Huber explains

Nicolas Huber

King’s College London

Start written on black page with hand holding a pencil

White out: how to defeat the blank page

Efficient academic writing requires a shift in mindset from simply counting words to incremental planning and using techniques that make progress visible even when the page looks empty

Multiple authors

The University of Southern Queensland

The first step in commercialising your research: start the conversation

Your university’s commercialisation office can help start your journey from academic to CEO. Here’s how

Jim O’Connell

University of Florida

What it means to be a university social media director

Social media director is an often-misunderstood role. From the outside, the job can seem as if it revolves around sports highlights, trending sounds and campus beauty shots but those moments represent only a fraction of the work

Riley Phillips

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

A team of professional services staff haveing a discussion

Professional services staff, you’re educators, too

Professional services educators play an important role in supporting student and staff learning at universities. Here are ways to help them to recognise and evidence their teaching practice through Advance HE Fellowship

Eleanor Hodgson

The University of Exeter

Raffaella Ocone is a professor of chemical engineering at Heriot-Watt University

Campus Talks: The career story of Raffaella Ocone, the first female professor of chemical engineering in Scotland

We hear how a woman from rural southern Italy became the first female professor of chemical engineering in Scotland – and what she’s working on now

Raffaella Ocone, Miranda Prynne

Heriot-Watt University

A golden thread against a brown background

Claim your narrative in academia by building a ‘golden thread’

Steady momentum and a clear narrative that links your work across research, teaching and leadership can help others see the direction and impact of your career, say Karen Lander and Joseph L. Brooks

Karen Lander, Joseph L. Brooks

The University of Manchester, Keele University

‘I’ll just clear my inbox first…’

Reframing productivity and defending your diary can transform academic output. Here are tips for protecting your writing time

Multiple authors

The University of Southern Queensland

What established academics can learn from ECRs

Professors can gain immediate, practical benefits if they listen to early career researchers, through inter-generational exchanges such as reverse mentoring. Here, Ian Williams offers five capabilities that ECRs can offer more seasoned scholars

Ian D. Williams

University of Southampton

Illustration of man climbing a mountain of books

What does it mean to ‘make it’ in academia?

The arrival fallacy can eat into scholars’ sense of achievement, reducing milestones to prerequisites for the next step. Here, Rachel Hagan shares ways to redefine success and acknowledge even quiet wins

Rachel Hagan

Liverpool John Moores University

Beat GenAI ‘stranger danger’ with staff training

Higher education staff are apprehensive about the new stranger in the room: GenAI. But personalisation and staff development can help alleviate anxiety

Katie Steen

WorkSmart-AI

Boosting gender diversity in male-dominated STEM disciplines

How to address gender disparity in STEM, when so many disciplines are overwhelmingly male-dominated? Here’s how to work towards equality

Rick Cooper

Birkbeck, University of London

From library to dance floor: how I created an academic Eurotrance album

Academics can use AI-enabled music platforms to transform complex research into their own singles or albums reaching thousands of listeners. Andrew Hudson-Smith explains how

Andrew Hudson-Smith

UCL

Be the warrior students want to see at the front of their class

What do your students want from their university educators? Nail these ingredients and effective teaching will follow

David Kirby

Florida State University

Group of professionals seated talking at a networking event

How female academics can turn network awareness into advancement

The ability to map, navigate and capitalise on professional connections – and disconnections – is not gender neutral, as Eric Quintane explains

Eric Quintane

ESMT Berlin

Take your academic writing skills to the next level

Take your academic writing skills to the next level

Whether writing a paper or a book, find out how to improve your academic writing at each stage of the process

Campus contributors, Kiera O’Brien

Campus

A guide to help journal editorial boards introduce ECRs to academic publishing

Academic publishing can be a harsh landscape. Here, a partnership model offers language and strategies to support new authors as they navigate early submissions and review

Jesper Hansen, Kristy Campbell

UCL, King’s College London

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