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The challenges of living and working abroad – Part II

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After covering the challenges of living in the UK, it’s time I talked about working for the UK higher education system.

What are the challenges?

1)      Working for a completely different system than the one you’re used to: well, being originally from Greece, one can anticipate that the education system I knew is much different to the one I work for. Terms like “income generation”, “research commercialisation”, “business development” and the like are simply unknown to the Greek education system, where higher education is free for students, solely government-funded, but consequently, of generally lower quality.

2)      In line with the above – explaining my job to friends and folks: one of my most awkward moments when I visit my home country is when people ask me, “So what is your job?”. It’s impossible to give them a short answer which they will understand such as “I’m an accountant/doctor/lawyer/teacher/secretary/you name it”. I have to go into a speech describing my main responsibilities the simplest way I can, and I never mention my mouthful of a job title because the only thing this can serve is prompt more questions.

3)      Working in the UK public sector: like with any public sector in the world, there are some key challenges which can sometimes make work harder. Among the most important ones, I would mention the occasional obsession with bureaucratic procedures, the numerous departmental policies that sometimes contradict each other, the lack of decisiveness in departmental decision-making, and the resistance to any sort of change.

Read more articles about The Global Postdoc, University Careers, Working Overseas

Written by Christina Tsirou

I work for Roehampton University in South West London as the Research and Business Engagement Officer. The Research and Business Development Office, which forms my department, was created recently, and therefore I am the first holder of the above mouthful-of-a-role. This is very exciting, as I get a lot of freedom in forming tasks and developing areas of responsibility for the post. At the same time, it is also very challenging, as how things will be organized and work in practice remains to be seen. Together with the rest of the team, I contribute to various aspects of the so-called “third stream income generation activity” on behalf of the University. Third stream income is a relatively new term, meaning revenue that comes from outside the traditional sources of government funding and tuition fees. Some sources of third stream income can be Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, IP Commercialization, business start-ups and spin-offs, Development and Innovation Grants, executive courses, and partnerships with the private and public sectors. I am also heavily involved in the team’s efforts to encourage entrepreneurial thinking and work across campus by coordinating internal and inter-collegiate events and workshops for both students and academics. Finally, part of my work is devoted to fostering strong links with the local community, mainly through relationship-building events.

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