Grayling

You really are talking bollocks

adindas

Dear All
Thanks a million to all of you guys, thank you for your time. This forum is very useful. People are sharing their real knowledge and experience
Indeed, he is currently working at a New university and living in small town in Lancashire area. The job offer is at a leading university in Melbourne as a senior lecturer for A$80.000 but I believe there is still a room for negotiation probably up to A$ 95,000 (the upper scale of this job is A$114.000.

So apparently the cost of living in Melbourne is higher than in NW.

Financial benefit is the main consideration, but another reason is also something to do with moderate weather in Australia. Moreover spending cut in educational sector in the UK make the academic live in the UK is quite uncomfortable.

But the latter is less concern as he is working in engineering department where the competition is less intense.
In case the final offer is something like A$85,000 should he take that job. I will also really appreciate if people could provide reasons why should he or why he should not take that offer.
Thank you again for your time.

ADINDAS

Deancm_MKII

After 20 odd years in Australia that is utter bullshit.

There is very much a class system in Australia and money is used as the benchmark as to what class you are in.

Deancm_MKII

Having lived in both Melbourne and the NW I would say the cost of living is double in Melbourne than it is in Lancashire or Manchester.

Kiwijack

In general there are good tax breaks especially if you earn under $100k/year combined income and have kids. Rent assistance, Family tax benefits, education tax breaks, child care rebates.

Universities have a good super scheme - pretty much works out at $ for $ (they put in 17%). You get the choice of going for the 40th of salary scheme or opting for the cash to be paid into a lump sum investment (hope this makes sense). But when you have chosen, you can't change. Lump sum is good in that you can cash it in early if you move countries.

Union membership is pretty strong so salary increases are usually fair and fairly painless for all.

Melbourne is great if you like city suburban living. But if you want to live in the bush or on the beach you will be looking at a very long commute (or high property price for inner city beach suburbs). It is a very big city and even living in the suburbs can mean a bit of a daily grind. Remember that there are 4 million people and most living in detached houses so this makes for a city with housing that covers a massive land area and sprawls in all directions.

Might be a shock if you are living in country town in the UK. We live in Torquay for the surf and the beach and the holiday atmosphere. I've done my commuting which was 2 hours each way door-to-door (thankfully no more). Initially we lived in the suburban sprawl and it wasn't quite what I imagined my Aussie dream to be, so now we live on the Surf Coast which is far more enjoyable and chilled out.

Depending on which uni you work for you may be on a campus out of the city centre which will point you to living on the east side or west side and commuting can be a bit easier.

As with all unis, academics are taking on more admin - Australia being no exception. As a snr lecturer, you'll probably get two days equivalent for research with three days for teaching, Faculty support and commitee work.
But this does depend on the Uni. And as a snr lecturer you sound like you already know what the score is.

Kiwijack

They are my observations and feelings. If I choose to share them I will - in both this post and any future posts. If you can't construct anything useful to say I suggest you stop posting abuse.

You're welcome to try expressing your observations that show how your experience differs. Try using more than one sentence.

Deutschmaster

F**k, that's a shedload

bra_boy

The main problem for all newcomers to Australia is buying a house. With a salary of $89K your brother seems to be on the low side for a senior lecturer (science postdocs get up to $79K), and is presumably employed on a 3 or 4 year contract. As such, he will probably start renting, which will be the main expense in his life here.

In order to get continuing employment, he will need to show that he can publish in A* journals as defined by the Australian Research Council (ARC). If so, he can expect to thrive and obtain steady promotion with a better salary. Does he need lots of money for his research? If so, that might be a problem as ARC tends to give it to people who are connected/established here.

On the balance, I would suggest not giving up a tenured position in the UK to move to Australia unless your brother has continuing employment here, or has a sense of adventure that overrides his need for cast-iron security.

Deancm_MKII

Or follow the party line...

adindas

Kiwijack

Thank you for sharing your experience. The job is in RMIT and it is a permanent position, subject to probation (not limited contract).

ADINDAS

Deutschmaster

Would that be the Bundoora campus? It's a bit of a trek from the city so you might need a car. I think one of the good things about coming here is seeing the different ways that Universities are run. I'd say that the course I lectured last year, which I inherited from an academic who left, was a lot harder than when I learnt it as part of my degree in the UK.

Kiwijack

RMIT is a good uni to work for. Generally a pretty friendly environment and good people. And the Science, Eng and Health College is well managed. Being so large, you'll find the structure unusual. It has 30 odd schools split into three colleges. No real Faculty structure in the usual structural sense. If you're an engineer you'll most likely be at the City campus. right next to the CBD. Good public transport connections - tram and subway.

It's a uni that is dual sector (uni degree plus trade/further ed programs). The Engineering TAFE school is quite separate from the higher ed egineering schools.

RMIT seems to know its good at what it does and usually makes a healthy surplus (except when it's introducing new student management systems) so it doesn't seem to suffer from the need to raise it's profile by relentlessly pushing academics while slashing budgets to make a surplus. Yes, it does push for good academic outputs but the academics I know enjoy their work. Certainly it's one of the better unis to work for in Melbourne.

Deancm_MKII

I was thinking from an extra-curricular point of view.

adindas

Dear bra_boy;
Thank you for reply. The post is a permanent position (not a limited contract).
The position in the UK is permanent, so there is no way people will accept a limited new contract offer in exchange of the permanent position that they already have.

Thank you for the advice. Is there any other possible pitfalls ...?

ADINDAS

bra_boy

I cannot claim to be objective, but here are a few remarks for your brother that may be of interest, if only because they produce rebuttals from other readers.

Compared with the UK, Australia has gone further down the route whereby the asylum is run by the inmates (students). The unwritten rule in some places - don't know about RMIT - is that university courses are designed to identify the lecturer's strengths and weaknesses, rather than the other way around. This can be a source of stress for lecturers who worry excessively about what others think. Some lecturers achieve fantastic student evaluations - one wonders how they do it.

Average Australian academics do not seem to publish or be cited as much as their foreign counterparts. The "H-index" (a statistic available from the Web of Science that measures citation rates) for an established associate professor in science is often around 10, which would be the threshold for a newly admitted staff member in the US. Check it out for your future department, but to prevent possible embarrassment, I do not recommend mentioning this statistic to anybody.

There are some internationally recognized scientists whose research careers in some smaller universities have come to a virtual halt due to lack of funding for students and equipment. Make sure it doesn't happen to you. My top tip for anybody going to Melbourne is to make use of the Australian synchrotron if at all possible - it is free, if your proposal is accepted. This would be a useful prospect for engineers who need to know what is happening in their materials, and counts as a feather in the cap. Not useful for mech eng though. Also, find out who is good in your research field and get to know them.

Papers that are not in A or A* journals are frowned upon (the university gets a cash payment from the govt for every paper published, but the amount depends on the journal ranking - strange, but true). Do not publish in any Australian journal - it is a public admission of failure, and deprives your university of much-needed cash (I believe it is about $2000 per A* paper, but I might be wrong).

The next round of ARC applications after your brother arrives will be submitted in early 2012, for funding projects in 2013. That is a long time to wait for action. RMIT should be prepared to provide some support for research in 2012, otherwise there is a risk of not publishing until 2014 (gasp). If he is into computational research, don't forget that there is a national computing centre on the ANU campus. I haven't used it, but I'm willing to bet that many CPU cycles are available on the cheap or free. Collaborations with current co-workers in the UK would be a good idea.

To be successful in ARC applications, you need an Australian theme. Next year they will no doubt be "inundated" by applications for flood-related projects. I hear that "nano" is still hot, but frankly I'm surprised.

Don't leave food in the common-room fridge - someone will steal it.

To sum up. Publishing in A/A* star journals is what the university wants you to do. At the same time, the Dean will be looking for evidence that can be used against you (student evaluations, failure to publish or get along with colleagues) in case student enrollments dry up.

Good luck. Do check out the cost of housing in Melbourne before committing. It may come as a shock.