How Do I Become a Visiting Lecturer?

Visiting lecturers are individuals who lead courses at colleges that offer them temporary teaching assignments. Some of these one-year or two-year positions become permanent depending on the decisions of the educational institutions’ leaders. A person who desires to become a visiting lecturer must complete four years of undergraduate training followed by two to seven years of graduate school and gain teaching experience to thrive in this industry.

If you want to become a visiting lecturer, you need to first earn your four-year bachelor’s degree in the field in which you would like to teach. For instance, you can choose to study sociology or even a foreign language. Getting into this type of training program requires that you provide your high school diploma or the equivalent certification along with a list of your high school courses. Your potential university’s admission team likely will ask you for your results on recently completed standardized tests, and you must fill out its enrollment document as well.

Earning a two-year master’s degree additionally is necessary to enter this industry. These graduate programs ask you to submit a copy of your undergraduate degree along with your college transcript. You also must complete the training institution’s admission form, which might ask you to list multiple references, as well as include an updated resume and provide your scores on a recently completed graduate school entrance exam. Your program usually will require you to finish an original research thesis project in your area of study prior to earning your degree, and you also should try to teach undergraduate classes to gain lecturing experience.

Although a doctoral degree is not always necessary to give lectures at the college level, employers often prefer job candidates who are in the process of completing this advanced education program. The school of your choice will require you to provide transcripts of all past college courses taken and fill out an application in which you explain why you have chosen to complete your chosen PhD program. In addition, you need to be prepared to collect a few reference letters from previous professors or employers as well as provide a resume and current graduate exam test results. During your program, you have to complete an extensive dissertation research project and defend the results of your work before you can graduate and become a visiting lecturer. Taking advantage of opportunities to help teach master’s-level courses also can be helpful to you.

Following all job application rules is necessary to have a chance at thriving in this field. Colleges who are looking for someone who wants to become a visiting lecturer demands that he or she submit a curriculum vitae listing his or her teaching experience as well as a letter of interest and recommendation letters. You need to submit these materials by the established deadline if you want to become a visiting lecturer.