Being an academic

An academic is usually a member of the teaching staff at a college or university. As well as teaching students, they also regularly spend time doing research as part of their job.

Some of an academic’s day will be spent researching, preparing, or teaching classes to students. They also talk to students about their essays, research projects and careers. An academic in archaeology will also spend time doing their own work which might include sorting artefacts, going to the library, writing for professional journals and sometimes visiting archaeological sites.

To be a successful academic you need to be:

• a good communicator
• enthusiastic
• organised
• knowledgeable about many different areas of archaeology, not just your favourite periods!

Dr Martin Gibbs has worked in lots of different fields of archaeology and is now a lecturer.

The first thing I really love is that I get to teach students, who have often never done practical archaeology before, the skills that they need to become professional archaeologists. The second thing is that I get to try all sorts of types of archaeology – and they pay me for it!

The worst thing as a teacher is that sometimes I have to fail students. Unfortunately a love of archaeology is not always enough to get a university degree. I also don’t get to do as much fieldwork as I would like.