Editing Lecturer (section)

===United States===
{{Further|Academic ranks in the United States}}
As different US academic institutions use the term lecturer in various ways, there is sometimes confusion. On a generic level, the term broadly denotes ''college-level faculty who are not eligible for tenure and have no research obligations''. At non-research colleges, the latter distinction is less meaningful, making the absence of tenure the main difference between lecturers and other academic faculty. Unlike the adjective "adjunct" (which can modify most academic titles, and generally refers to part-time status), the title of lecturer at most schools does ''not'' address the issue of full-time vs. part-time status.

Lecturers are almost always required to have at least a master's degree and quite often have earned doctorates. (For example, at [[Columbia University]] in New York, the title of lecturer actually requires a doctorate or its professional equivalent; they also use the term for "instructors in specialized programs."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.columbia.edu/cu/vpaa/handbook/instruction.html|title=Officers of Instruction|website=www.columbia.edu|access-date=2 May 2018}}</ref>) Sometimes the title is used as an equivalent alternative to [[Teacher|instructor]], but schools that use both titles tend to provide relatively more advancement potential (e.g. multiple ranks of progression, at least some of which entail faculty voting privileges or faculty committee service) to their lecturers.<ref name="lsa.umich.edu">{{cite web |url=http://www.lsa.umich.edu/UMICH/pite/static%20files/lec34.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2014-03-13 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140313194335/http://www.lsa.umich.edu/UMICH/pite/static%20files/lec34.pdf |archive-date=13 March 2014}}</ref> The term "instructor" can be broad enough to cover certain non-faculty teaching roles, such as when graduate students teach undergraduates.<ref>[https://gsi.berkeley.edu/ GSI Teaching & Resource Center<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

Major research universities are more frequently hiring full-time lecturers, whose responsibilities tend to focus primarily in undergraduate education, especially for introductory/survey courses. In addition to the reason of higher-ranking faculty tending to prefer higher-level courses, part of the reason is also cost savings, as non-tenure-track faculty tend to have lower salaries.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20130122162139/http://hr.umich.edu/hrris/reports/docs/FSA_2011-2012.pdf Wayback Machine<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> When a lecturer is part-time, there is little practical distinction in the position from an [[adjunct professor]]/instructor/etc., since all non-tenure-track faculty by definition are not on the tenure track. However, for full-time lecturers (or those regularly salaried above some stated level, such as half-time<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.regents.umich.edu/bylaws/bylaws05a.html|title=Chapter V. The Faculties and Academic Staff - Regents of the University of Michigan|website=www.regents.umich.edu|access-date=2 May 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180502114737/http://www.regents.umich.edu/bylaws/bylaws05a.html|archive-date=2 May 2018}}</ref>), many institutions now incorporate the role quite formally—managing it with performance reviews, promotional tracks, administrative service responsibilities, and many faculty privileges (e.g. voting, use of resources, etc.).<ref name="lsa.umich.edu"/>

An emerging alternative to using full-time lecturers at research institutions is to create a parallel professorship track that is focused on teaching. It may offer tenure, and typically has a title series such as teaching professor. (This is analogous to the ''research-only'' faculty tracks at some universities, which typically have title series such as research professor/scientist/scholar.) A related concept—at least in professional fields—is the [[clinical professor]] or professor of practice, which in addition to a teaching focus (vs. research), also tend to have a practical/professional/skills oriented focus (vs. theory and scholarship, etc.).

In some institutions, the position of lecturer, especially "distinguished lecturer", may also refer to a position somewhat similar to ''emeritus professor'' or a temporary post used for visiting academics of considerable prominence—e.g. a famous writer may serve for a term or a year, for instance. When confusion arose about President [[Barack Obama]]'s status on the faculty at the [[University of Chicago Law School]], the institution stated that although his title was "senior lecturer", the university considered him to be a "professor" and further noted that it uses that title for notable people, such as federal judges and politicians, who are deemed of high prestige but lack the time to commit to a traditional tenure-track position.<ref>[http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/was_barack_obama_really_a_constitutional_law.html "Was Barack Obama really a constitutional law lecturer?"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080617230454/http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/was_barack_obama_really_a_constitutional_law.html |date=17 June 2008 }}, Fact Check</ref> Other universities instead use the term "senior" in that context as simply a matter of rank or promotion. In any case, references to lecturers of any rank as "professors" are consistent with the normal U.S. practice of using ''lower-case p'' "professor" as a common noun for anyone who teaches college, as well as a ''pre-nominal'' title of address (e.g. "Professor Smith") without necessarily referring to ''job'' title or position ''rank'' (e.g. "John Smith, Assistant/Associate/Full Professor of X").