Hi Guys,

I'm hopefully finishing off my PhD soon and interested in pursuing postdoctoral research. I've seen a few UK-based jobs advertised however, they all have different titles. I am clueless on the difference between these posts, and which ones would be suitable for a PhD who is about to complete (no postdoc experience). Could someone please explain to me the difference between research fellow, research assistant, research scholar?

Thanks.

hi friendlyface,
i take it you are not from england/didn't do your PhD in england? where are you from, if i may ask?

as far as i have gathered by now:
- a research assistant is usually someone without a PhD, often a Masters student or early PhD student, or someone with a Masters who wants to do some more research but not a PhD.
- a research fellow and a research scholar are very similar (anyone know better?). depending on the discipline and particular jobmarket, a research fellowship might be for people who have significant post-doc experience already, or might be accessible to recent PhDs.
- a research officer is often a recent PhD.

with a PhD you can also apply to (junior) lecturer positions and post-doc scholarships.

it is a good question you ask. a year ago i was as clueless as you. one tends to take the job descriptions of one's own university system for granted and doesn't realise how obscure it is for outsiders. unless, of course, the people who put up those job adverts just don't want anyone to apply from outside the UK, then they needn't make it clear, i suppose.

further to your question, it might be interesting to hear from people across the world what job titles they have and what they mean?

in switzerland we've got:
-assistent (the job title for PhD students. involves doing your PhD, some teaching, supervising master students, participating in other research projects, perhaps administrative work and assisting your supervisor)
-oberassistent (job title for post-docs working towards habilitation, the next qualifying step en route to professorship, involves own research projects but also teaching and administrative work)

-wissenschaftlicher mitarbeiter (can be pre- or post PhD, involves working on larger research projects, teaching and admin, depending on the individual contract; usually no further qualification step involved)
-privatdozent (involves teaching, research on your own time)
-assistenzprofessor (mainly research, you get to employ your own research team, usually consisting of yourself and 2 PhD researchers or post-docs; you are a faculty member and on track for tenure if you manage to get good results/publications)

Thanks Shani. That's helped a lot. I am from England ironically, but just a little confused about positions as I know someone who already had a PhD but is employed as a Research Assistant.

it might also depend on discipline? The way I have heard it talked about, research fellows have developed their own project proposal and got funding for it, whereas research assistants/research officers are working on a project that someone else has developed - even though fellows and assistants may both have PhDs and both be doing the same work.

Though I have also heard in bioscience research assistant used to refer to the person who does technical support for a research group, and a generic 'postdoc' is those who are working on a specific project.

it might also depend on discipline? The way I have heard it talked about, research fellows have developed their own project proposal and got funding for it, whereas research assistants/research officers are working on a project that someone else has developed - even though fellows and assistants may both have PhDs and both be doing the same work.

Though I have also heard in bioscience research assistant used to refer to the person who does technical support for a research group, and a generic 'postdoc' is those who are working on a specific project.