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FAQs: Being an American Academic in the UK

  • Writer: Heather D. Flowe, PhD
    Heather D. Flowe, PhD
  • 6 days ago
  • 10 min read

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(From my perspective as an American experimental psychologist who has lived in the UK for 16 years and worked for 3 different universities, researching memory, justice, and humanitarian protection)


I was recently invited by Tiffany Shao, a PhD student at Claremont Graduate University, to take part in a conference symposium at the APS Global Psychological Science Summit 2025, on a panel called Navigating Academic Careers Across Borders.


I’m often asked by colleagues in the U.S. what it’s like to build an academic life abroad, and the questions raised during the Summit were so thoughtful that they sparked an idea:

Why not write them down and answer them properly?


So, this FAQ is based on the excellent questions I was asked during the Summit, including some of the ones people usually ask me privately, the ones I didn’t have time to answer in full, and the ones that deserve more context than a panel allows.


1. How did you end up in the UK?


In 2008, I accepted my first academic job.


Then the global economy collapsed and I was made redundant — see:

Twenty-three new hires across the entire Cal State system including me were laid off before even receiving office keys.


It was May, the U.S. hiring season was over, and I was exhausted and seriously considering joining the Peace Corps.


Then an email arrived from Brian Cutler, then Editor-in-Chief of Law and Human Behavior:

“Heather, the University of Leicester is hiring in forensic psychology. You should apply.”


I applied without knowing where “Lie Cester” was.


I showed up to the interview in pink Uggs; either they wanted me or they didn’t. (I was feeling a bit mardy after having gone through several interviews only to end up unemployed.)


Leicester hired me, and I've been here ever since. I now have two British-American children who make fun of my accent ("Mummy, now that you live here, do you think you could speak properly?", said my daughter when she was 4 years old!)


2. What is it like working at a UK university compared to the U.S.?


The UK is extremely conducive to globally engaged, societally impactful, interdisciplinary research compared to the US.


Here, as examples, I’ve been able to:


In the U.S., academics who work on applied memory and the legal system focus on the US largely, and tend to engage societally through court testimony as expert witnesses— adversarial and case-specific.


The UK is more geared up for upstream impacts on policy and practice.


But none of this is automatic

  • Early in my career, my teaching and admin loads were huge, (research was a pasttime where I worked), and research happened at 4 a.m. and on weekends

  • PhD students are not assigned; you must win funding.

  • Institutional priorities shift constantly.

  • Strategy is essential--it's advisable to align your research agenda with insitutional priorities, which are based largely on research council priorities, which in turn are based on government priorities.


Why the UK fit me:

The UK (especially pre-Brexit) invested heavily in global challenges research, which aligned perfectly with my background in:

  • NGO work

  • UC Graduate Student Association leadership

  • applied psychological science

  • justice and humanitarian protection


3. How does “tenure” work in the UK?


There are parallels between US and UK academia. Many UK universities, including mine, have adopted similar job titles (e.g., Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Professor).


But at some UK universities, you’ll see traditional academic titles, like Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Reader titles instead, and more hierarchy.


How the UK differs:

  • Job security is not absolute as in U.S. tenure (which these days is also not guaranteed)

  • External grants matter immensely

  • Institutional and government priorities (which are tied to research council funding calls) matter more

  • The culture treats roles differently — less permanence, more mobility (e.g., you can more easily commute across the country for your job, e.g., via train)



4. What is work–life balance like?


On paper: significantly better than the U.S.


In practice: mixed


When my children were small, support was thinner on the ground. I have war stories — negative attitudes toward working mothers, little institutional backing, and an expectation you simply soldier on. My kids are pre-teens now, and things have improved massively across the sector, but the memories linger.


My approach has been to take my children along with me.  Mine have travelled with me for work, met visitors from all over the world at our dinner table, and even served as research assistants (e.g., helping with a museum exhibit on eyewitness identification).


One thing I’ve learned watching colleagues in the UK is that there are multiple workable career trajectories. Some people slow down when their children are young and ramp up their research output later. Others burn the midnight oil throughout.


The UK system seems to accommodate both patterns better than the U.S. because academic promotion can be less rigidly tied to early-career output. It is entirely possible to become a Professor later in your career here, once children are older or life stabilises.


5. How do U.S. universities view UK academic experience?


Positively in my experience.


There are challenges — different systems, different expectations, different academic cultures. But U.S. institutions value:

  • global experience

  • interdisciplinary research

  • impact (a major UK strength)

  • humanitarian and justice work

  • cross-system fluency

  • international networks


But: you must translate your experience for a US audience:

  • Module = U.S. “course”

  • Programme = major

  • BSc = 3-year degree

  • Masters = 1-year

  • UK grading is different

  • REF = Research Excellence Framework (https://www.ref.ac.uk/)

  • External examining has no U.S. equivalent


6. What is the REF — and why is it important?


The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is the national evaluation of all research conducted in UK universities.

It determines how billions in public research funding are allocated across universities.

REF assesses:


  1. Outputs (your publications)

  2. Impact (your influence on society, law, policy, practice)

  3. Environment (support, training, culture, PhD students, grants)



REF profoundly shapes:

  • hiring

  • promotions

  • workload

  • department priorities

  • grant expectations

  • career trajectories


If you work in UK academia, REF is always in the background.


7. What about QS and league tables? Why do they matter?


In the U.S., rankings matter but do not dictate institutional fate.


In the UK, rankings can dramatically affect:

  • student recruitment

  • international partnerships

  • global talent visas

  • research collaborations

  • funding

  • institutional reputation

  • government scrutiny


Major rankings:


UK universities live and die by these metrics far more than U.S. ones do.


8. Networks: how do they differ? How do you develop networks?


In the U.S., networks tend to be more national; the country is big, diverse, and under-vacationed.


In the UK, people are more outward-looking:

·       Europe is close.

·       International collaboration is expected.

·       Global partnerships are part of the research culture.


To illustrate, with colleagues around the world. I currently hold funding from:


My PhD students have visited labs around the world, and I’ve hosted scholars from every continent. I really value these experiences, and would encourage others to go on a visit if they haven’t yet.


You don’t need constant travel to build a strong network. Many collaborations now begin on Zoom. A one-hour meeting can lead to a grant proposal, a symposium, or a PhD co-supervision. UK academics are used to cross-institutional work, and people are surprisingly responsive to a well-framed email asking for half an hour to exchange ideas.


Joining research networks, special interest groups, and mailing lists (BPS, ESRC networks, European consortiums, University of Birmingham research clusters) helps you find collaborators without leaving your desk. So does offering to give a virtual talk; most departments are hybrid now, and virtual visiting talks are normal.


Small seed grants exist at many universities specifically for building collaborations and can be applied for jointly without travel. And finally, remember that UK universities are geographically close: if you do travel, a single train trip can help you meet colleagues at several institutions in one day, making it efficient rather than expensive. There are funds available for other parts of the world too.


9. How safe do you feel in the UK?


Significantly safer than in the U.S.


Recently in Los Angeles, I found myself lecturing my children — for the first time — on how to behave vigilantly in a parking garage:

  • don’t linger

  • look around before exiting the vehicle

  • stay close

  • watch for people following

  • hold your phone tightly


It hit me that I have never had to give that talk in London.


“Aren’t you worried about terrorism in the UK?”

I was asked this constantly when I moved here.I moved not long after the 2005 London bombings, and many of my U.S. friends genuinely feared for my safety. From their vantage point, Europe seemed dangerous.


But the reality I’ve experienced has been very different.


The UK felt unsafe from afar, but felt safe once I arrived.


I have felt consistently safer in the UK than I did growing up and working in the United States. Here’s the contrast; In the US I have, just for a few examples:


  • had a gun pointed at me while making the nightly deposit (before academia, I worked as a retail store manager to get through university)

  • had a neighbour murdered

  • dealt with everyday ambient risk that Americans often treat as normal, which at the time was quite normal. But when I look across the pond, it looks very different to me now.


10. What cultural differences should Americans understand?


a. History is visible and physical

In the U.S., you rarely interact daily with buildings older than 100–120 years.


In the UK:

  • your local pub might be from 1580

  • your office might be Victorian

  • your street might follow a medieval route

  • your neighbour’s house might predate the Constitution


It shapes how people think about continuity, institutions, community, and change.


b. Space is completely different

America = space, highways, big cars, large houses, availability.UK = compact, walkable, dense, small footprint.


It affects how people shop, travel, socialise, and think about daily life.


c. British silence is etiquette, not distance

Americans talk to strangers as a sign of friendliness.Brits generally do not.


After 16 years here, I step into an elevator in the U.S. and feel two opposite things at once:

  • delight that someone is talking to me

  • deep irritation that someone is talking to me


That’s what living between cultures does. You become bilingual in social norms.


d. Humour is darker, stranger, drier

I watched The Young Ones as a child; in hindsight, I was destined for this island.


e. People here are globally informed

They know what’s happening in the world.They learn world history early.They know about U.S. politics in detail.


Before moving here, I read a British history book. I should have reread an American one — because I am often asked things I haven’t thought about in a long time, and I say that as a person with a minor in American Legal History, which is very British.


f. Bureaucracy is real — and has a reason

It’s slow. It’s pervasive. It’s maddening.


But its roots are:

  • fairness

  • accountability

  • preventing corruption


Someone once explained to me that this all comes from governance following WWII.


g. If you want to understand the English

Read Watching the English.(My British partner disputes it. I do not.)


h. Spelling is different and if you switch to British spelling, Americans may think you can’t spell

British English uses different spellings: colour, behaviour, programme, organise, defence, and so on. If you live here long enough, you start using these forms automatically, partly because your colleagues do, and partly because every institutional document requires it.


The side effect is that some Americans assume you’ve suddenly become bad at spelling. A very prominent person once told me, “I really like your blog, but you have spelling mistakes,” apparently not realising that British and American spelling conventions diverge.

I’ve occasionally wondered whether I should run a parallel American-English version of my website, but the truth is I can barely maintain one version, let alone two. So I’ve accepted my fate.


11. What is research funding like in the UK?


Major UK Funders:

·       UKRI: https://www.ukri.org/

·       Wellcome Trust: https://wellcome.org/

·       British Academy: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/

·       Leverhulme Trust: https://www.leverhulme.ac.uk/



At my university and elsewhere, look for:

  • Visiting scholar funding

  • Summer research placements

  • Summer schools

  • Visiting fellowships

  • Internationalisation schemes

  • Special hiring programmes to attract global talent, e.g., 125th Anniversary Chairs & Fellows https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/125


12. How do you move to the UK as an academic?


Job Listings


Immigration & Visa routes:

·       Global Talent Visa: https://www.gov.uk/global-talent

·       Skilled Worker Visa (academic roles): https://www.gov.uk/skilled-worker-visa


Visiting academic pathways:

·       Fulbright Scholar Awards: https://fulbright.org.uk/us-scholar

·       British Academy Visiting Fellowships: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/visiting-fellowships/

·       Leverhulme Visiting Professorships: https://www.leverhulme.ac.uk/visiting-professorships


A research visit is the best low-stakes way to test the UK. If you are interested in someone’s research, I suggest emailing them to explore opportunities to meet, visit and collaborate. UKRI and Horizon Europe grants, allow US colleagues (and those from elsewhere) to be costed on grants.


13. How easy is it to get to Europe for the weekend?


Shockingly easy, especially if you have a US passport.


You can fly out on Friday afternoon and be in Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Oslo, Barcelona, Prague or dozens of other cities in in time for dinner.


People here do it routinely.


It changes your sense of scale — and your sense of the possible.


14. What’s the catch?


  • UK academic salaries tend to the lower than US salaries (debates: here here)

  • Retirement planning can be tricky across border

  • You still must file US taxes and report to the US about your bank accounts

  • The HE sector is shrinking, like it is around the world

  • Permanent roles are fewer

  • Bureaucracy is pervasive

  • You must be strategic and adaptable


But:

Your world will likely become larger, richer, and more interconnected than you may imagine.


15. Bonus question: What is forensic psychology?


In the U.S., forensic psychology tends to be an add-on to clinical training, or a niche elective. It isn’t its own formal pathway.


The only exposure I had in the U.S. was taking a sexual offender profiling course taught by the legendary FBI profiler Roy Hazelwood. It was the closest thing to “forensic psychology training” I could find.


The UK is different. Forensic psychology is an actual profession here.

  • There is a formal training route.

  • People complete forensic psychology doctorates.

  • Forensic and forensic-clinical tracks are recognised professions.


Useful links:


When I discovered this professional pathway existed in the UK — not rare, not obscure, but normal — I was super intrigued. It opened a field that simply didn’t exist in the same way in the U.S. and as an added bonus it’s yet another way UK academia influences policy and practice.

 

 
 
 

© 2024  by  Heather D. Flowe, PhD

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