Pracademically perfect in every way? Practitioner to HE transitions
Lucinda Bromfield
Professional or academic HE?
Professional HE usually means supporting students in passing professional centralised assessments, like the Solicitors’ Qualifying Examination or the Bar Exams or in converting to a different subject, like a diploma in law. Academic HE usually means academic qualifications like LLBs, LLMs and PhDs. Both types of HE would benefit from your transferable skills and knowledge from practice so which you aim for will depend on your preferences and job openings – some professional HE providers require their teaching staff to be professionally qualified while academic HE doesn’t usually ask for a professional qualification (but it is seen as a bonus if you have one! ).
Academic HE tends to provide more freedom in course design and subject matter, and students can be with you for longer – 3 years at undergraduate rather than the usual 1 year for professional education. Professional HE may be a better initial fit, especially if you teach legal skills, as you’re more likely to be dealing with familiar subject matter.
Starting over
You may be an expert in your field, but you probably aren’t an expert in learning and teaching or how your new institution works. Give yourself grace and time to learn, and don’t be afraid to ask questions – ask all the questions! Most people will be only too happy to help you, and you can ask your students how they are finding things too…but remember, you cannot please all of the people all of the time, so don’t let any unhelpful comments knock you off course. Work on what you can constructively, and don’t only pay attention to criticism – ask what you are doing well too and do more of that if possible.
Expectations
Make sure your expectations are realistic! The idyllic view of academia with long summers and hallowed halls with uninterrupted thinking time isn’t realistic (if it ever was!). Make sure you know what you are getting into – speak to someone who is working in the job you would have (if you can), and don’t expect more freedom and autonomy than you have in private practice. I have less, as do most of my colleagues, and I know a lot of pracademics who’ve moved into teaching, hoping for more freedom and less pressure, only to be disappointed.
Different HE roles
I moved to HE to teach, having been a visiting lecturer and discovering I loved teaching. I was contacted by a friend/colleague who recommended me for my first visiting lecturer role. I was looking for part-time work, and ended up doing two years of visiting lecturing for various institutions combining that with some consultancy work into a portfolio career. Then I was asked to apply for a permanent part-time teaching role at BPP (BPP still recruit most of their permanent staff from the pool of visiting lecturers and this is true for many institutions). I soon found out there was a lot more to the role as an employee. Exam drafting and marking, module writing and pastoral care, not to mention marketing events (often called outreach) and a lot of admin. There are also various tracks and roles you can take as you progress (if you want to progress, some people love teaching and stick with that). Your private practice experience has probably equipped you with a pile of useful transferable skills that are a perfect fit for academic management, but remember, just because you can do something well doesn’t mean you have to do it. It took me 4 years in academic management before I realised that while it fit my skill set, it wasn’t the right fit for me.
Regarding tracks, different universities use different terminology and divide up their jobs differently, so it is important to understand what the job actually entails.
Once you’ve accepted a certain type of job, it is very hard to change to another track, as your institution may not have funding for it. Check whether you will be just teaching, teaching and researching (if researching, what?), just researching without teaching or some other combination. Because of your practice background, you might also be asked to take on practising roles too, for example, Law Clinic Supervision.
Getting the right level
I struggled with this when I moved professions. You’ll likely be teaching students who know nothing about concepts you’ve been familiar with for years. It can be hard to pitch your explanations at the right level and understand what they don’t know. If this is tricky for you, I recommend assuming they know nothing at all, then asking them as you go along. You can explain that you don’t know what they know/have understood, so please can they tell you, and make sure to ask questions and/or bring you back to basics if they need to!
Unwritten rules, expectations and the hidden curriculum
Like all organisations, your institution will come with its hidden agendas and mysterious practices. I’ve found academia to be even worse than the legal profession for both hidden agendas and acronyms – and the only way to combat this is to keep asking questions if anything appears odd, or you don’t understand it. Don’t let things drift – if you are worried about asking in a meeting and looking silly, make a note and ask a colleague later. And then keep a note so you don’t forget! Even nearly 10 years on, I’m still asking questions, especially about acronyms…
Unhelpful behaviour and attitudes – bringing your baggage with you
Depending on your previous experiences, you may come into academia carrying some psychological baggage. For example, if you were working in a culture where you felt you had to be perfect all the time, you may bring that attitude (and the resultant stress and pressure) with you. This can be particularly difficult as you are in a new environment and will inevitably make mistakes.
Two issues often arise for pracademics: impostor syndrome and fear of failure.
Imposter syndrome is common; few of us feel like experts or good enough all of the time. Of course, no one is good enough all of the time (everyone has bad days), and if you have a profession where you are constantly learning and growing, then you will, by necessity, always have elements of your role where you are not an expert. For pracademics, feeling like an impostor can be exacerbated if your environment values pure academic research over practical experience and teaching. Unfortunately, this ranking of pracademics and teaching-focused academics as ‘second-class citizens’ is often reported, though attitudes do seem to be changing.
Here’s my three top tips if you feel like an imposter:
- Fake it until you make it. Don’t worry about whether you are an impostor or not, just concentrate on doing your job.
- If words like ‘expert’ make you uncomfortable, think about it as knowing things that you can pass on to help people.
- Talk about it. Everyone feels like this sometimes, whether lawyers, academics or pracademics.
Fear of failure is closely linked to impostor syndrome, as you fear both making mistakes and being shown up as an impostor by making mistakes. It can be extremely stressful to carry that weight of ‘waiting to fail’ around with you and it probably won’t surprise you to know a lot of pracademics struggle with this.
Top three tips for dealing with failure:
- Failures are rarely catastrophic – what can you do to get to where you want to be? You may need to take a different route, and it is always worth considering if you do still want to get there, but don’t let minor setbacks de-rail you.
- Failure feels horrible for everyone – it’s normal to find it upsetting and take time to bounce back.
- If you can discuss your feelings and failures with others it can really help you to process them, get perspective and come up with constructive plans.
And to finish, my top 5 tips:
1. All those things you are feeling and things you are worrying about? Pretty much everyone else, academic or pracademic, is too! Give yourself time to adapt to your new environment and learn new skills.
2. Get yourself a mentor – the ALT runs a fantastic mentoring scheme – become a member and sign up. I can’t tell you how much my mentors, formal and informal, have helped me.
3. Don’t be afraid to suggest things – if you want to try something in the classroom or an idea for improving everyone’s work lives, float it with colleagues and see what they think.
4. Find your communities – there are lots of groups that you can join to find collegiate support, float ideas and discuss best practices. The ALT is a great one, and for pracademics, you may want to consider the SPiHE (Supporting Professionals into Higher Education) network, which you can join. Your organisation may also have employee groups you can join depending on your interests, e.g. carers’ networks.
5. Keep records of everything you do and learn – any complimentary emails from colleagues or students, projects you get involved with, talks you give, where your ideas and work are used…if you decide you are interested in academic promotion or any kind of career progression, this will help you.
Where Next?
As you continue the transition(s) into HE, you might consider carrying out or becoming involved in research projects within your institution or with external collaborators. This could result in you starting your pedagogic research based on the teaching and learning work you are undertaking.
Or
One of the more challenging responsibilities which you might be asked to take on as a new pracademic may be Module Leadership.
Where After?
Look into opportunities such as the SPiHE (Supporting Professionals into Higher Education) network – which is free to join and offers free to attend events. Contact Claire Stocks on LinkedIn.
Sources:
David A Grenardo, ‘The Phantom Menace to Professional Identity Formation and Law Success: Imposter Syndrome’ (2022) 47(3) University of Dayton Law Review 370
— — ‘What About Us? How Law Schools Can Help Historically Underrepresented Law Students Develop Their Professional Identities’ (2024) 75 Mercer Law Review 100
Carol S Dweck and David S Yeager, ‘Mindsets Change the Imagined and Actual Future’ in Gabriele Oettingen, A Timur Sevincer and Peter M Gollwitzer (eds) The Psychology of Thinking about the Future (The Guilford Press 2018)
Marissa S Edwards and Neal M Ashkanasy, ‘Emotions and failure in academic life: Normalising the experience and building resilience’ (2018) 24(2) Journal of Management and Organization 167
Further Reading:
Peter Kugel, ‘How professors develop as teachers’ (1993) 18(3) Studies in Higher Education 315
Amanda E Bates et al, ‘Overcome imposter syndrome: Contribute to working groups and build strong networks’ (2024) 293 Biological Conservation 110566
Julie A Hulme, ‘Supporting and developing teaching-focused individuals to professorial level – career progression across boundaries’ in Emily McIntosh and Diane Nutt (eds) The Impact of the Integrated Practitioner in Higher Education (Routledge 2022)
Mary Kitchener, A Field Guide to Working in Higher Education (Routledge 2025)
