University Lecturer

Highly relevant tasks for teaching roles include, but are not limited to:

• Preparing and delivering lectures, and conducting tutorials, seminars and laboratory sessions;
• Preparing and marking essays, assignments and examinations;
• Advising students on academic and related matters;
• Attending departmental and faculty meetings, conferences and seminars;
• Supervising work programs of postgraduate and honors students and tutorial staff;
• Participating in setting course and degree requirements, curriculum revision and academic planning;
• Serving on council, senate, faculty and other committees and professorial boards;
• Conducting research and undertaking consultancies in a particular field of knowledge;
• Stimulating and guiding class discussions;
• Compiling bibliographies of specialized materials for reading assignments.

Highly relevant tasks for non-teaching/research only roles include:

• Undertaking research in an area strategically complementary to the existing strengths of the school/faculty with a view to publishing original and innovative results in refereed journals;
• Presenting research at academic seminars and at national and international conferences;
• Collaborating with other researchers at a national and/or international level;
• Actively seeking and securing external funding including the preparation and submission of research proposals to external funding bodies.

Teaching

University Lecturers are academic staff employed by universities who are required to both teach and conduct research in their academic field.

This occupation includes both teaching and non-teaching roles.

Teaching roles, such as Associate Lecturer, Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Associate Professor and Professor require involvement in both teaching and research. Applicants with the position title ‘University Lecturer’, but with no scholarly research duties, would not meet the criteria for this occupation.

For a positive outcome, applicants must be teaching a higher education course/qualification in a relevant field of study. Teaching Diploma level courses is not considered highly relevant.  Applicants must also be teaching higher education courses and programs that are accredited by relevant authorities. 

Non-teaching roles, or research-only roles, such as Research Associate and Research Fellow, would generally not be required to teach at all, but will still meet the assessment requirements if primarily responsible for conducting independent academic research at an appropriate skill level.

Research

In Australia, University Lecturers are expected to produce original and innovative research in refereed journals. Research is a core task of the University Lecturer occupation and applicants should demonstrate their involvement in scholarly research by providing evidence of published research.

For both teaching and non-teaching/research only roles, at least one research paper, published in the last five years, is required for employment to be assessed positively. Having completed a PhD or MPhil thesis does not meet this requirement. The research publications must be in a field relevant to the area of teaching, and the academic qualification. Research papers in progress, submitted, or under peer review, are not considered as meeting the research requirement.

Academic journal articles, books and conference publications are considered appropriate evidence of research. VETASSESS accepts research evidence as original and recognised that reflects the following attributes:

• Scientific/scholarly investigation that arrives at the discovery of facts/conclusion;
• Empirical processes take precedence over judgement;
• Contains an academic bibliography (not generic sources, such as magazines);
• Caters to a specific audience (the author will assume that the reader has a certain level of knowledge about the field and the topic at hand);
• Published by internationally recognised university presses, academic publishers or professional organisations in peer-reviewed journals (academic journals are usually published monthly or quarterly);
• High academic standards due to rigorous peer-review by academics in the field;
• Verifiable and traceable.

The assessment is made on a case-by-case basis considering international recognition, the peer-review process, publication history, and relevant indicators. For example, research papers published in academic journals that are indexed in Web of Science (WoS), Scopus and ARC ERA Journal List are considered ‘recognised’. Potential predatory journals and publishers are not acceptable.

Payment Evidence

The employment must be fully paid for a positive assessment. Consistent with the Department of Home Affairs’ requirements, for skilled employment to be considered ‘remunerated’, applicants must be engaged in the occupation on a paid basis, generally at the award or market rate of the occupation. A person receiving living allowances or scholarships designed to cover study expenses would not be considered appropriately remunerated.

For University Lecturers who are on paid study leave (remain on the payroll) to pursue a course of studies or to undertake research connected to the role in which their employment experience is assessed as highly relevant, the employment period for study leave may be considered. However, only paid study leave at full pay is to be accepted as appropriate remuneration. Applicants must provide additional evidence, e.g. contract variation and payslips, to support these claims.

Sessional Academics

Sessional academics are casual faculty members who perform teaching and other agreed duties for specific academic terms. Sessional academics are normally employed in teaching roles and do not have research responsibilities. However, sessional academic roles can be assessed positively if consistently engaged in both teaching and research for at least 20 hours per week as part of their paid employment. Applicants should provide official evidence from their employer to support these claims.

Applicants who have already gained employment in an accredited Australian university at Level A or above on a limited-term contract or ongoing basis, but have not had any research published yet, can be considered positively on a case-by-case basis. This would be based on the submission of evidence confirming their formal academic rank and title.

Applicants must provide evidence of their academic research by submitting a Publication List. Publications in the last five years (prior to lodging an application) will be required for skills assessment. Those applicants in dual teaching and research roles must include details of their area and level of teaching (e.g. units taught and degree program), in the Statement of Service.