Reader (academic rank)

The title of reader in the United Kingdom and some universities in the Commonwealth of Nations, for example India, Australia and New Zealand, denotes an appointment for a senior academic with a distinguished international reputation in research or scholarship.

In the traditional hierarchy of British and other Commonwealth universities, reader (and principal lecturer in the new universities)^[1] are academic ranks above senior lecturer and below Chaired Professor, recognising a distinguished record of original research. Reader is a professor without a chair, similar to the distinction between professor and chaired professor in Hong Kong and between professor extraordinarius and professor ordinarius at some European universities. Readership is one/two rank(s) more prestigious than senior/permanent Lecturership, which translate to Associate/Assistant Professorship. Readers in the UK would correspond to the start of full professors in China and the United States.^[2]

The promotion criteria applied to a readership in the United Kingdom are similar to those applied to a professorship: advancing from senior lecturer to reader generally requires evidence of a distinguished record of original research.^{[3][4][5][6][7][8]}

Several UK universities have dispensed with the reader grade, such as the University of Oxford,^[9] and the University of Leeds in 2012;^[10] those currently holding readerships retain the title, but no new readers will be appointed. In the few UK universities, including the University of Cambridge,^[11] that have adopted North American academic titles (i.e. lecturer is equivalent to assistant professor; senior lecturer equivalent to associate professor; professor equivalent to professor), readerships have become assimilated to professorships.