Research in Academia

Have a look at Prospects and targetjobs to find out what roles in this sector involve and how to get into them. These are some of the job profiles available:

• Academic researcher
• Graduate teaching assistant
• Higher education lecturer
• Research assistant
• Research scientist (life sciences)
• Research scientist (maths)
• Research scientist (medical)
• Research scientist (physical sciences)
• Social researcher

Skills employers look for include:

• research ability and subject knowledge
• leadership and management skills
• networking and collaboration capability
• presentation and communication ability
• resilience, self-motivation and the capacity to work independently
• time management and ability to meet deadlines

According to Prospects typical salaries for academic positions include:

• research assistant - £29,000
• postdoctoral researcher - £27,000 to £39,000
• higher education lecturer - £34,000 to £50,000
• senior higher education lecturer - £39,000 to £59,000.

To get more information on typical starting salaries use the following resources: 

• our Discover your Earning Potential Pathway offers access to The Pay Index. This shows you how salaries vary across different roles, industries and locations 
• job profiles, such as those listed on Prospects or targetjobs 
• vacancy sites such as Glassdoor and LinkedIn 

For information about how to negotiate a salary, visit Handling job offers. 

• browse our Work Experience and Graduate Employment directories. See where our students and graduates have had work experience, or been employed
• use LinkedIn’s Alumni tool to find out what Newcastle graduates are doing now. You could ask to connect with them, to gain advice and insights into their career. See Newcastle Alumni on LinkedIn to help you get started or watch our quick tutorial on Getting inspiration from others [3:13]
• attend alumni events, such as Newcastle Develop, to hear directly from our graduates
• sign up for mentoring support with Graduate Mentor and The 1 Hour Project. These aim to match students with industry professionals who can provide invaluable insights. Register to be connected for a one-hour meeting
• attend recruitment events and employer and sector insights. Hear about graduate jobs, placement schemes, build your network and ask questions

Searching for reviews online can be a useful way to get an idea of what to expect from certain roles or employers. Reviews are written by employees with different opinions about what makes a good employer.

Use the following review sites for inspiration and insight into the recruitment process:

• RateMyPlacement - placement year reviews written by students.
• The Job Crowd – graduate job reviews
• Glassdoor – company reviews from employees

Read career guides for this sector, such as:

• Prospects: Getting an academic job
• Jobs.ac.uk: Research Careers
• Vitae: Careers for Researchers in Higher Education

Use online magazines and journals to follow news from your industry. Reading about trends and developments is important for applications and interviews.

Examples include:

• UK Research Office
• Research

Attend events to hear directly from professionals in the industry. See our recruitment events and employer & sector insights for details of upcoming events.

Join research - specific student societies. The Postgraduate Research Community often organise and promote events or invites guest speakers to talk about their careers.

Use social media to find industry insights

Join sector-specific groups on LinkedIn to keep up to date. Posts often include news, events and opportunities. You can also find useful insights on careers on X and TikTok. Treat these with caution, as not all content may be accurate.

Find out more about how to use social media for your career.

Consider joining a relevant professional body/industry network

Professional bodies often:

• run networking events
• have specialist groups you could join
• post vacancies on behalf of their members
• have member directories, useful for speculative applications

Key organisations include:

• Academy of Social Sciences
• Association of Commonwealth Universities - opportunities and information for universities in Commonwealth countries
• British Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences
• PraxisAuril - professional association for Knowledge Exchange & Commercialisation practitioners, facilitating interactions between the public sector research base, business and government
• VITAE - for researchers, including doctoral students, postdoctoral fellows, and research staff
• The Royal Society: UK National Academy of Science

Research Councils

Research Councils UK (RCUK) are responsible for investing public money in research to advance knowledge and generate new ideas.

• Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
• Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
• Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
• Medical Research Council (MRC)
• Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
• Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)

Finding professional bodies worldwide

GoinGlobal’s country guides include details of professional bodies. Find them under ‘Professional and Personal Networking’ on each individual country guide.

Use our resources to get started:

• MyCareer - search for internships in the North East, UK and overseas. Register/log in to access vacancies and sign up for personalised email alerts
• Internships, placements & shadowing - links to vacancy sites
• Global work experience - for internships abroad

You may find sector or field-specific research internships on our other occupational pages. For example, see Scholarships & Awards on the Life Science section.

Research organisations may advertise internships on their websites. The GOV.UK lists approved research organisations.

The Careers Service runs flexible term-time and summer internships with local employers and on campus. NCL internships are aimed at all students, from any stage and often include research projects.

Search for these under Vacancies on MyCareer. Type in ‘NCL internship’ into the text search box.

You can find these advertised throughout the academic year. Full-time summer opportunities are advertised from around March.

Access GoinGlobal for internships in over 120 global locations, updated daily. Search for opportunities in the local language, as well as in English. You can also use their country guides to find:

• additional vacancy websites
• CV, application and interview advice
• advice on living and working in different countries and cities around the world

If you’re looking for inspiration, try searching our NU Work Experience Directory. You can see where our students have had internships and placements in the last five years. To see all results in a search category, keep the search field blank.

There are a number of North East universities that advertise academic research positions:

• Newcastle University
• Durham University
• Northumbria University
• Sunderland University
• Teesside University

• Jobs.ac.uk - includes jobs in academic research
• FindAPostDoc - jobs for new and recently qualified PhDs
• Find a PhD - includes PhDs, research studentships, professional doctorates
• Times Higher Education
• Times Education Supplement
• Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) - three-way partnerships involving a business, a graduate and an academic institution. Graduates work on research projects while gaining industrial experience with an employer. Projects are competitively paid, with funding for personal development, and typically last 1-3 years. View current opportunities.

• Academic Jobs EU
• EURAXESS - Researchers in Motion programme
• European University Institute - the Max Weber programme has fellowships for junior social science post-docs

• Academic Transfer
• Chronicle of Higher Education USA
• Nature Jobs – includes science research roles
• ResearchGATEjobs - international job board with research positions
• Science Careers
• PostDocJobs
• Computeroxy - academic positions including computer science, engineering, electrical and mathematical sciences

See International jobs for details of overseas vacancy sites.

Access GoinGlobal for job adverts in over 120 global locations, updated daily. Search for opportunities in the local language, as well as in English. You can also use their country guides to find:

• additional vacancy websites
• CV, application and interview advice
• advice on living and working in different countries and cities around the world

Start by identifying organisations you are interested in. Our guide to finding organisations below can help. Then use the following steps to approach them speculatively about possible opportunities:

1. Identify a contact name to address your cover letter to. Call or email to find out who handles recruitment within the organisation. Or, find a key contact in the department you want to work in.
2. Send them a tailored CV and cover letter. Express your enthusiasm for the sector. Show that you have researched the company.
3. Follow up your speculative application with a phone call, or email, around a week later. This shows you are serious and motivated.
4. If your application was unsuccessful, ask for feedback or advice, and keep trying!

You can use this approach at any point in the year. We recommend that you:

• start your research as early as possible to gather relevant contacts
• contact organisations around three months before you want the opportunity to begin

• find organisations on MyCareer. Select ‘search' then 'organisations’
• use the business directories and databases on our Researching employers page
• search for companies on LinkedIn. The Find Alumni tool shows you where Newcastle graduates are currently workingbrowse our Work Experience and Graduate Employment directories. See where our students and graduates have had work experience, or been employed

• Guardian – list of all UK Universities
• World Higher Education database
• targetjobs - search employers by sector
• Professional body websites sometimes include member directories, which are helpful for finding employers.

Search GoinGlobal's employer directory for company information in 196 countries. Their country guides list professional bodies around the world.