Academia is not the “real” world

I’ve been in academia now for over 10 years.  Before that I spent around 7 years (some as an intern whilst I was studying at Macquarie University) at a pension/superannuation consulting firm.  My reasons for moving from the corporate world to academia are a topic for another post (although I won’t complain about academic pay like many of us like to do!), but I was lucky enough in 2005 to score a lecturing job at Australian National University (ANU) without any research background whatsoever (I did my PhD part-time alongside my teaching commitments).  This would certainly not be possible today – we recently hired actuarial lecturers and the standard of applicants would have put my 2004 application to shame.

Despite my relative lack of corporate experience, I know enough to know that academia is not the “real” world.  Although I can hear the howls of “traitor” from my academic brothers and sisters, I’m going to plough on and explain why.

The main reason academia is not the “real” world is the level of control I have over my work.  Sure I get told what courses to teach (although the course I am teaching this semester is one I designed myself from scratch), and I have a “Performance and Development Review” once a year, but by and large I decide what I want to do in a typical day.  If I want to make a minor adjustment to the course I teach – then I go ahead and do it.  If I want to change the area in which I research, then I am free to do so.  If I want to apply for funding to teach a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), then I am free to do so.  For any of these things I am required to obtain no or minimal material from my Head of School.

This freedom creates some interesting dynamics.  How busy I am is completely dependent on how often I say yes or no to the many opportunities that I come across.  Many academics are incredibly busy people; they say yes to most or all of these opportunities and are rewarded with fast promotion (both in title and financially).  I myself try to take a pragmatic view and am comfortable saying no when necessary.  With the work involved in creating the MOOC, I have said no to research collaboration opportunities, thesis supervision and review, and to being on a committee for reviewing teaching and education across our College.  I have a young family and value that even more than my job at ANU.  There are not many corporate jobs where you can regularly say no to your colleagues and superiors without negative consequences.

Does this freedom come with risks attached?  Sure, if I make poor decisions then I might not get promoted and there is even a small chance I might lose my job.

All of this sounds like it is too good to be true.  And perhaps it is.  But I would also argue that it is necessary to produce innovative and world-changing research.  Innovative research can take years or even decades to bear fruit, and it is often uncertain at the start of a project if the research goal will even be possible.  An environment of safety with regards to the implications of failed research is necessary for this innovation to be attempted.  Otherwise we would all be simply making incremental and unnecessary adjustments to what has already been done.

I’ll write more about how this relates to my research at some point in the hazy future….

Finally, I realise that my experience is very different from other disciplines.  In the sciences in particular, the fight for research funding can be brutal, although I would argue that those primarily affected by this fight are the research/lab assistants and post-docs whose contracts are dependent on the research funding (and who incidentally also have much less control over their day-to-day work than a teaching/research academic).

Is there a moral to this story?  I’m not sure.  In any case I feel very blessed to be in a job that I love – I’m sure you’ll see evidence of that throughout this blog.

Adam Butt

Note – enrolment for Introduction to Actuarial Science went live today!  It is a “soft” launch, as we have not yet completed a marketing video for the course.  The reason for launching now is to coincide with a number of events at ANU relating to online education and edX.  We expect to finish the marketing video by the end of this month, after which we will be doing a number of marketing exercises to promote the course.  I’ll keep you updated via this blog.