lecturer

postdoctoral research associate

research associate

research fellow

research assistant

University of Edinburgh

In my time at the University of Edinburgh, I have enjoyed working with brilliant teachers and intelligent students, and have learned a ton in the process; I've also had every ounce of joy I used to take in the work drained out of it by self-serving, obstructive managers determined to route every significant decision through their offices while dragging teaching standards into the dirt -- rather than letting the actual experts, the course organisers, run their own courses.

The university is notorious for its over-use of casual 'Guaranteed Hours' contracts (equivalent to zero hours, once you've used up the usually inadequate number of hours guaranteed) - and although university HR *have* come to an agreement with the Universities & Colleges Union for rules to get casualised staff onto fractional contracts, the schools just come up with nonsensical rules that make Guaranteed Hours staff's lives even more precarious, in order to weasel their way out of giving people the job security they deserve. 

I've done the best work of my life here, and the management are going out of their way to make it a career dead end.

Lower salary for RA.  Working at the University of Edinburgh has been a deeply rewarding experience. As a world-leading academic institution, it offers a dynamic and collaborative work environment where innovation and intellectual curiosity are truly valued. The university provides access to state-of-the-art research facilities and fosters strong interdisciplinary cooperation, making it an ideal place to engage in meaningful research and development.

What stands out most to me is the supportive culture — colleagues are approachable, respectful, and genuinely invested in each other’s growth. There are plenty of opportunities for professional development through workshops, mentoring, and cross-departmental initiatives. Importantly, the university promotes a healthy work-life balance, which greatly enhances overall well-being and productivity.

Being part of such an internationally diverse and forward-thinking institution not only broadens your professional horizon but also allows you to contribute to research that makes a global impact. I’m truly grateful for the opportunity to grow here, both professionally and personally.

I really enjoyed working in Noreen& Kenneth Murray Library as a helper during Freshers’ Week. Compared to last year, the duties were about the same. I helped with students mainly in finding study spaces (particularly computers to study or printing), finding and borrowing books, and printing. It was a great experience and helped me to know more about university’s resources and developed my communication skills, built my confidence, and made me be able to work in a busy environment. The freshers were happy to see us around and normally, when I approached to them, they tended to ask me more questions because I am a student myself. Because I worked in KB library, most students in the library studied science or engineering and I was able to give them suggestions on finding resources or general advice for studying due to my own experience in studying Chemistry. 

In terms of the library service, the description of the locations of different books were added to Folio bays this year, but it is not very obvious and there were some students knew the book codes but still could not find the books.

My time working at Edinburgh has in general been very good: the salary is decent, my direct boss has been excellent, and the work is intellectually stimulating and rewarding.

However, there is one major problem: as a full-time PhD student, there are quite arbitrary and bizarre constraints placed upon how many hours you are allowed to work on top of this.

As someone who is keeping to time on their PhD progress, this is deeply frustrating. I have had many issues with the University management in trying to get enough hours of teaching and research work such that I can earn a decent wage (as PhDs are not well paid). The latest ruling is that we are allowed to work a total of 9 hours extra per week. This is simply not enough to get the kind of work experience needed to be competitive on the academic job market once we submit and graduate, nor indeed is it enough to be competitive elsewhere should we choose to leave academia.

It's disappointing to have any otherwise great experience marred by pointless bureaucracy.

Whether arranging conferences, learning programmes for school leaders or coaching them, this job offered a wide variety of opportunity to develop my interests.  

Developed coaching and training skills which prepared me for my next role designing and developing leadership and other programmes of learning, including Institute of Leadership and Management accreditations.

The hardest part of the job was the isolated nature of the office (we were all out and about so difficult to catch up). The culture was one of support, striving for excellence with curiosity about how we could continue to improve what we did. It was certainly a place of lifelong learning. 

The most enjoyable part of the job was putting together learning that improved the leadership capabilities of school leaders, particularly in a one to one setting as coach.

Enthusiac staff who wholeheartedly through themselves into their specific  roles.
Management seemed vast and produced huge amount of online paper work!
I.T skills would have to be top draw in order to get through the paper work!
First year had a terrific line manager and flourished.Second year had a poor one who was a poor communicator and frankly a but of a bully! Later found out that she had never taught in schools but had great I.T skills and was brilliant producing timetables. Clearly disfunctional as a communicator and exceptionally blunt with zero personality!
Best part of the job was working with the students doing interactive workshops and going and visiting pupils on placement. 
Great helping and supporting students through the course...generally very positive response and enjoyed exploring steam aswell as stem.
A great facility with huge potential but just didn't personally fit with line manager!

Do not work here. 

The supervisors are horrible there's favouritism in every house, 
some houses lack supplies so you get started late and get moaned at for it,

 bullying is treated with pretty much ridicule(nothing gets done),

You get shouted at for nothing by supervisors they talk to you and treat you like something they've stepped in, 

There's one rule for one staff member and different for another,

Permanent staff will take stuff from your trolley/piles of towels etc if they can't be bothered going downstairs.

You have to move building to building constantly.

The work load is appalling for one person at times

SDAs are horrible and don't assist very often (higher up aren't much better)

The heat is unbearable during summer even with a litre of water on trolley.

Sometimes they force you to work 10 days in a row (trust me even 6 in a row is hard-going in summer) 

Work here if you want to have a mental breakdown :)

I was conducting a research project (Feb. 2012-July 2012) mainly about the possible relation between some drugs and brain proteins, mainly DJ-1 and PKC, which are thought to be responsible for neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases at University of Edinburgh.
I was doing a laboratory experiments with proteins. I have learned many scientific techniques such as mass spectroscopy, SDS gel electrophoresis, protein purification, western blot, TNBS assay, protein kinase assay, ELISA, primer design, PCR, DNA gel electrophoresis, DNA cloning and extraction. I had very nice co-workers were 2 undergraduate students and 1 PhD student in the lab. We had so much fun with my friends in the lab, I was always asking questions to the others to learn more. However, since I was alone in that project, I had to learn more and I had to work so many hours to finish that project in a very limited time.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The pay rate is the only good thing about this job

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
the management, supervisors and bosses are all rude and don’t care for the happiness and comfort of the employees 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
awful, the environment is standing in place for 5 hours in an either freezing cold or boiling hot dishwash with no music, sitting or leaning allowed. The management are disrespectful and have no regard for the happiness of the employees

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Help with the setup, unpaid 15 minute break, 5 hours of standing still in dishwash room constantly worrying that the management walk in during the few seconds i’m not busy

Being an RA has very fulfilling moments when seeing the positive impact that you have on student lives. However there was a lot of bureaucrat nonsense and rules that on paper basically said you worked 24/7 for only a discount on rent. Different line managers has different approaches to the rules and they did not communicate to the RAs effectively what they wanted. The hardest part of the job was dealing with some of the upper management as they preferred to start arguments and not communicate, or when trying to organise meetings with line managers who only worked 9 to 5. The most enjoyable part of the job was meeting new students and organising events that were extremely memorable for them.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Lecturer 11 salaries reported	£57,396 per year
Postdoctoral research associate 11 salaries reported	£41,127 per year
Research associate 15 salaries reported	£43,572 per year
Research fellow 8 salaries reported	£43,175 per year
Research assistant 8 salaries reported	£31,500 per year

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