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.

By Eliza.Compton , 17 March, 2026

What it means to be a university social media director

Social media likes, hearts, sends
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
Reading time
4minutes
By Laura.Duckett , 13 March, 2026

Professional services staff, you’re educators, too

A team of professional services staff haveing a discussion
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
Reading time
4minutes
By Eliza.Compton , 10 March, 2026

‘I’ll just clear my inbox first…’

Empty inbox
Reframing productivity and defending your diary can transform academic output. Here are tips for protecting your writing time
Reading time
4minutes
By Eliza.Compton , 9 March, 2026

What established academics can learn from ECRs

reverse mentoring
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
By Eliza.Compton , 6 March, 2026

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

Illustration of man climbing a mountain of books
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
Reading time
4minutes
Academic career advice