Improving conditions of a tenure-track job offer

Question

I have recently been offered a tenure-track position in a very prestigious northern European university. I am currently a lecturer in a smaller UK university but I have six years of experience between my post-docs and appointment as a lecturer.

The level of appointment would be as a an Assistant Professor. Here, I am a "tenured" Senior Lecturer (which should be a bit higher), however being a non-intensive research university, there were an easier set of requirements. I feel more like a glorified post-doc with more teaching responsibilities than a full lecturer (but don't tell them that!). Indeed the level of research support is non-comparable. In the two years I have been here I have not had the possibility of supervising PhD students as there are no resources, beyond a few temporary post-docs I have been able to fund. Which is my main motivation for leaving (and Brexit).

Still, I feel the experience I have accrued should be recognised a bit more. Since the assistant professorship is also something they could be offering to a very good newly minted PhD or an early post-doc.

They say that "almost-always" a five-year tenure-track position results in a promotion to a tenured Associate Position. However my negotiating experience is really low, and coming from a Southern European background, all wages seem astronomical compared to what I was earning as a PhD back home.

My question is: how should I argue my case? Should I be asking for an earlier tenure time? It could be also counter-productive, for example if all my grant applications are rejected. If you have been in a similar situation, what did you ask for?

Answer 1

Your question, "how should I argue my case?" is unanswerable without a statement of what your "case" is. With any job offer, you state what you want, and the other party agrees or disagrees. A vague feeling that you should be "recognised a bit more" doesn't matter. What is it that would make you more likely to take the position, or make it more likely that, given the position, you'd be successful at it? Also: Congratulations!

Answer 2

Given your level of previous expertise, it would indeed be reasonable to ask for appointment at a higher level or a reduced tenure time. Sometimes a university would be able to offer an appointment at something like an associate professor level with a reduced tenure track period (anything from one to three years could be appropriate).

Try to ask someone at this university, maybe the head of the search committee, maybe your (future) head of department or division, or maybe the person you're negotiating with whether a higher-level appointment and/or reduced tenure track time would be possible. Point to your previous achievements and explain in which way they already show what would be required from you in a tenure evaluation (teaching, publications, obtained funding for post-docs, ...).

While it won't hurt asking for it, be prepared that depending on the actual context of this position they might not be able to offer a higher level appointment.

Answer 3

You didn't say what the job market is like Europe in your field. Typically, there is a lot of competition for tenure-track jobs at very prestigious universities. In light of that, my advice is to accept the job graciously (not grudgingly, and not giddily), and work at the university for at least a year before asking for anything better than what you were offered. That's because you might find that colleagues who are better qualified and more accomplished than you received offers with the same terms you've been offered, or perhaps worse terms, in which case you would seem to be unappreciative or worse, unrealistic. Of course, you might find that everybody haggled for better terms, and feel like a sucker, but it's better to err on the side of humility than in the direction of arrogance when starting a new job in academia.