The noble life of the academic

I have been mulling over these thoughts for a while. Take it as a funny post and do not interpret it as a critique. It is not supposed to be.

The academic hierarchy is coded all over the world pretty much in the same way. In some countries those positions are felt, the hierarchy is strict, and referencing to people is abundant in titles. In other places, like Sweden for example, stratification exists but it is less visible in the daily work. People call each other by first names and no titles. Still, even in Sweden, some of the roles and tasks in the academic organization are allowed only to people holding a certain position.

What I find fascinating is the recognition that academic positions have across national borders. A professor in a country is a professor everywhere. If you plan to join an academic institution abroad, your title will be maintained in its equivalent form, and you might be assessed for taking a career step.

Such is not the case when you change work between private companies: your new position will be assessed based on your experience and fit with the company’s business core. The only equivalence with the academic world might be when you work for a multinational company and you internally apply to a job vacancy in another country. But that is not always the case.

I recalled that my uncle always said “History repeats itself in new clothes.” I started to use this concept to find an historical equivalent of the academic hierarchy. Eventually, I convinced myself of its affinity to the noble ranks of the middle age.

Let me first present my list of equivalence before discussing it. The academic positions that I used refer to the actual structure found in Swedish universities.

1. A Rector is a King / Queen
2. A School director is a Prince / Princess
3. A Department manager is a Grand Duke / Grand Duchess
4. A Division manager is a Duke / Duchess
5. A Professor is a Marquess / Marchioness
6. A Docent is a Count / Countess
7. An Associate Professor is a Viscount / Viscountess
8. An Assistant Professor is a Baron / Baroness
9. A Research Engineer is an Imperial Knight
10. A Postdoctoral Research Fellow is a Baronet / Baronetess
11. A Ph.D. student is a Knight / Dame
12. A Master Student is an Esquire / Madame
13. An Individual Project Student is a Gentleman / Maid

Now, a few considerations on the list. First, my reference for the ranks is Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial,_royal_and_noble_ranks) and I guess they have done a pretty good job, because the page is infinitely long. If you have any interest in knowing the difference between a Marquess and a Count, please refer to that page – you will make a direct connection to the academic hierarchy, I promise that.

Second, you may have noticed that positions 1 to 4 are a sort of line management at university, while 5 to 11 refer to classical positions in the organization. I decided to blend them because it reflects some of the opportunities that professors have within the organization (when interested). I also left out roles like vice-rectors and the likes, because I thought they were not necessarily in line with the vertical structure, and they were messing up a bit the whole game. For the specific example of vice-rectors, they may be considered the equivalent of the French “dauphins” – an heir apparent of the throne.

Third, I left our roles in education (like master program director and similar), because I am less acquainted with them and because I think they deserve a separate historical equivalence (which is not part of this post… work in progress).

Fourth, a note on the position 9: Research Engineers. In the current situation, it is not uncommon to find Research Engineers who are graduated Master Students who received a short scholarship to perform a scientific task. In the list, I am not referring to them. There are still a certain number of Research Engineers in universities who are full-time employees who are not entitled to climb the hierarchy. Since they are typically very experienced people combined with practical skills, I thought to pair them with the Imperial Knights, who were free nobles of the Holy Roman Empire responding directly to the King/Emperor. I think it fits well!

How to use this list? Well, it is pretty simple but it has to be thought through wisely. Let us take my own case. I took my Ph.D. working on induction and synchronous machines, dealing with sensorless control and electrical parameter estimation. I worked also with wind energy and multiphase drives after my doctoral studies, ending up being an Associate Professor in electrical machines and drives. Of all these things, the ones that characterize me the most are parameter estimation and multiphase drives. So I would summarize my title like this:

The Right Honourable Luca Peretti, Viscount of Electrical Machines and Drives, Lord of Multiphase Drives, Knight of the Order of Parameter Estimation.

Sounds good eh? What is your title???