While some turnover is normal, the trend is accelerating, especially in subjects such as law, science and social science. Young fellows now leave when mortgage or marriage strain the budget. Established lecturers are being lured away by lucrative professorships. Or Oxford may not be able to persuade the talent to come in the first place. The post was in finance, a subject in global demand.
Chairs are subject to the same pressures.
Of the relatively small number who decline Oxford chairs, for some salary is an issue. The basic professorial salary in 2000-1 was 43,150, although very distinguished candidates can be offered more, within carefully prescribed limits. Most strikingly, for a cohort of established lecturers in their 40s, there is increased movement between UK universities. A professorship, a higher salary and a lower teaching load can be difficult to resist for a lecturer at the top of the scale with no obvious prospect of promotion within Oxford. Low pay and unattractive conditions have made academic research in economics an unattractive option for graduates', it says, warning that the number wanting to take up academic research is 'dangerously low'.