postdoctoral research fellow

tutor

research assistant

research fellow

lecturer

The University of Queensland

Working as a casual academic at UQ has been an incredibly positive experience. The role strikes a great balance between academic challenge, flexibility, and professional growth. The teaching teams are supportive, well-organised, and genuinely invested in helping new tutors succeed. Before running any tutorials or labs, I received clear guidance, access to past materials, and plenty of opportunities to shadow experienced staff.

The workload is manageable and generally predictable. Marking can get busy around mid-semester and finals, but the rubrics are detailed, and coordinators are always available for clarification. One of the highlights has been the freedom to bring my own teaching style—UQ encourages tutors to explain content in ways that connect with students, rather than sticking rigidly to scripts.

The students themselves are engaged and respectful, which makes tutorials enjoyable and discussions lively. It’s rewarding to see students have those “lightbulb moments,” especially in more challenging courses.

Professional development is another plus. UQ regularly offers optional workshops on teaching methods, assessment design, and student engagement, which have been genuinely useful and not just box-ticking exercises.

Overall, being a casual academic at UQ has been a fulfilling and well-supported experience. It’s a great way to build teaching skills, stay connected with the university community, and contribute to student learning while maintaining flexibility.

The University is a beautifully presented workplace with many great amenities for Staff and Students alike.
Conditions are very good, with a fair pay-structure of penalties for overtime and accumulated extra-hours can be taken as flexi-hours. Typically, a working day is 7.25 hours. 
Work-life balance is encouraged.
I found the majority of my colleagues to be honest and friendly, which made going to work a pleasure.

The caveat comes into play when considering what school you happen to be employed with, and importantly, whether previous staff have coveted your role for themselves.
 
In my experience, some management displayed cowardice and deception which could only be described as breathtaking, but alas, managers are not necessarily leaders.
   
Academic Staff tend to be over-worked and generally under-appreciated, Professional Staff may enjoy a relaxed work atmosphere, but this also seems dependent upon what school they are employed within, and the culture within that particular faculty.

If you plan to work at U.Q, you should seriously consider joining the Union on your first day. For if someone doesn't like your shoes, your hair-style, etc, you may not get past the probationary period.

I worked in a number of areas over the years. A typical day was challenging in terms of the work. Management was usually very understanding in that I had a terminal illness of a member of my family and was allowed to leave at an earlier hours provided the work was completed the following day.
Co-workers were friendly and helpful except one and there is always one. When I arrived - the computer equipment was unexpectedly obsolete (years out of date)  and made the computational work a slow process. Especially difficult when one person would turn off the power during a batch run to "save power and money" and there would be up to 24 hours of lost work and have to start again- this was frustrating when management wondered why the work was not completed and that was the hardest part of the job. One must be careful by not offending local politics, in which I have no interest. This is difficult when asked for an opinion/ making an innocent inquiry and not know the local politics.
Overall I found the work interesting and almost all co-worker and management were a pleasure to know.

I was looking forward to commencing my role in the organisation and worked in a temporary capacity. My supervisor was fabulous and we worked well together until she left a few months later. It didn’t take me long to pick up on the bad culture of the team and unfortunately like many other organisations, it came from poor upper management.  No transparency or accountability which led to internal factions and bullying. I had come out of another similar workplace and do I didn’t get involved and was kind and supportive to everyone to get the job done. Sadly of a team of around 25, there were around 17 staff who left within the 12 months I was there. When close to my contracted time coming to an end, they wanted to extend my contract, but I decided not to. There was no encouragement to apply for higher level roles and these were gifted to other staff. I enjoyed the ability to set my own start and finish times and parking was included and some of the team were amazing people to work with, however they were dwindling over time.

UQ has a very big campus, with very nice gardens.
However when it comes to the buildings a lot of them have fixtures and amenities that seem like they’re from the 1970s. In other words a lot of there rooms are old fashioned, but not the good kind of old fashioned.
The university created it’s own company for printing called coop, which exists to sell overpriced course booklets with a plastic binder- something like 17$- that you could most likely print off yourself at a normal printer for 5$.
Then there’s the bookshop where you can find other books and textbooks that are bruited by the lecturers, mainly because they co-wrote them and want you to buy their book.
You must be very careful when it comes to borrowing books, because if the book you borrowed gets recalled and you don’t check your emails the library will reduce the time you can borrow it, and if it is past 7 days after the altered due date then you will incur an obligatory 20$ ‘processing fee’. In other words UQ is trying to bleed you of everything you are worth by any means necessary, while supplying some very talented, and at other times mediocre teaching staff; well from my experience anyway.

Working in ICU:
Arrive at work at 6:45am and update ICU list of patients/ailments for the reception staff;
Update whiteboard with patient/student/doctor/ailment information for day staff;
Assign 2 nurses onto cases and start morning treatments.
Weigh, TPR, medicate, feed, check iv catheters and clean cage/bedding of each patient.
Record fluid's received, patient temperament, pain score and any other observations.
Help students with holding patients and performing blood collections and various treatments and medications.
Clean and restock ICU.
Manage any critical patients; monitor blood pressure, ECG, feeding tubes, chest drains, ventilators, oxygen therapy, blood transfusions, Paralysis Tick and Snake antivenom transfusions;
Patient/client billing;
Updating veterinarians and nurses on ICU cases;
Preparing patients for surgery, ultrasound, endoscope, imaging and chemotherapy workup;
Recovering patients from surgery and procedures such as dentals and CT;
Be constantly prepared for incoming emergencies.

What is the best part of working at the company?
I absolutely loved the work atmosphere at The University of Queensland. It was incredibly positive and inclusive, making it a great workplace.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
I used to work at a call centre and there were times when it got incredibly busy. Dealing with students who were sometimes rude or upset was just part of the job, but it wasn't always easy. However, over time, I learned how to handle people with different temperaments and better understand their needs.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Super inclusive and supportive. I loved working with people from diverse cultures and backgrounds. It was a wonderful experience.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
I used to work a casual position where my shift was only 4 hours. I was fortunate enough to have supervisors who trusted us to work with minimal supervision. However, they were always available to provide help or clarification whenever we needed it.

Working at a University is a different experience from working in private enterprise. There are so many Departments and Schools that concentrate on different areas of expertise. It gives you an insight into the difficulties experienced by the many students, both domestic and international, and the teaching staff who then have to liaise with the administration side of things. The hardest part of my job was placating irate customers who could have been either staff, students or members of the public, that had received a traffic infringement. The most enjoyable part was using my customer service skills to make someone's day, and being thanked for my effort. It is always nice to be appreciated and feel it is a job well done.

During my time as a teaching assistant at the University of Queensland, I had a mixed experience that led me to rate the position as 3 out of 5. Overall, it was a decent job, but it had its shortcomings, making it fall short of being the best job I've had.

One of the positive aspects of the position was the opportunity to work closely with students and support their academic journey. I enjoyed helping them grasp complex concepts and witnessing their growth and development. The university's academic environment was intellectually stimulating, and I had the chance to collaborate with some knowledgeable and inspiring faculty members.

However, the job had its challenges as well. The workload could be overwhelming at times, especially during peak periods like exam season or when multiple courses required assistance simultaneously. Additionally, the pay and benefits were adequate but not exceptionally competitive.

I know the work at the UQ is terribly troublesome. At the first glance, it is quite unstable, since there is no specific budget to support the PhD candidates and researchers for even a short term job. In fact it is not a productive place to supply a stable budget for the employees. Especially for PhD candidates who are the main workforce of research purposes. By contrast, too much high salary and job stability is secured for the managers, and advisors who hold some simple jobs such as only speaking in defective meetings and email communications during a working day. They are quite rude toward the research candidates and humiliate whenever they want. Moreover, they don't have scientific command and competency as their affiliations (professor, etc.) imply. Nepotism is the most important factor in the university's selection criteria for the roles' candidates. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Postdoctoral research fellow 4 salaries reported	$97,250 per year
Tutor 11 salaries reported	$53.36 per hour
Research assistant 4 salaries reported	$46.16 per hour
Research fellow 1 salary reported	$95,652 per year
Lecturer 1 salary reported	$138,171 per year

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