Most of the senior research staff have open or permanent contracts, as expected, and nearly a quarter of these posts are held by 1A staff. Nearly two thirds of the 1A and 1B staff have contracts of less than three years, so it is clear that many research staff must feel pretty transient. However, when we asked all staff what they would like to do, fully a quarter of them expected to be forced into leaving the University, irrespective of grade. Rather than short term research leading to an academic position a larger number of research staff are in post for longer periods of time, and the prospect of a lectureship anywhere for those for whom the funding dries up is increasingly remote. However, two outstanding issues with which people were dissatisfied were job security and career opportunities.
Few people work well in conditions of insecurity, and creative research work is no exception.
Over one in eight respondents had spent more than a week last year looking for their next job. It is certainly not to the advantage of research staff. Neither does the University benefit from the disruption and the continuous recruiting and training costs made necessary by this enforced staff turnover. A fifth are funded by the University, another fifth by commercial sources, and the rest by Government Departments, the EC and charities. It is important to recognise that not only do the research staff deliver the bulk of the research at the University, but they play a significant part in directing it too.