University of Leicester Researcher Reviews

Pros

Generous salary for a student.

Cons

Nothing really, I'm grateful for it.

Pros

Very helpful and welcoming bunch of people

Cons

The office is a bit small and crowded

Pros

Friendly collegial atmosphere, good interaction across departments

Cons

Money saying policy at the moment

Pros

very professional, bright, proactive, good international exposure, good place to live, efficient electrical systems, state of the art computing environments, great condition, surrounding community a good urban place to live, promotes climate friendly transport, and energy use

Cons

lots of bureaucracy, very tight security, very rigid, inadequate pay for the cost of living, poor opportunities for advancement, not adequate gender representation in key fields.

Advice to Management

Seek out and hire more women in science and engineering. -- there are three times more men than women. Hire men and women of color. The students are from everywhere (Asia, Africa, South America) and speak a multitude of languages, but the faculty is 95% white, Caucasian! The intent is teach students the kind of world they could create in their home countries, but we fail them by practicing the world of the status... quo.

Pros

Supportive academic environment, if you have a good supervisor is a good research position for a post-doc.

Cons

Leciester city location is relatively remote and working class. Cheap living costs but not a great location for active young people or families. Local medical care is particularly sub-class.

Pros

Ambitious department. Opportunities to work on high profile projects and gain good publications.

Cons

Department was ran like a dictatorship, with micro management and a lack of responsibility / autonomy given to experienced members of staff. Reliance on approval from the head of department slowed down rate of progress.

Pros

Excellent inter department atmosphere Access to a wide range of career support. Willingness of senior staff to push me to apply previous experience & skill-sets that I'd brought to the job

Cons

The office space was often rather cramped Thieves target the bike storage areas

Pros

- Going back up the rankings for research - Senior researchers need more support in trying to advertise and obtain more funding.

Cons

- Focus on teaching, but have to treat students as customers i.e. they are never wrong. Can be a little more selective and ask more of the students - they are capable.

Advice to Management

HR, IT management, purchasing can be vastly simplified and streamlined. At a time when research funding is squeezed, researchers must be able to get the most out of their grants, not having to buy a computer at twice the price through the IT dept for example.